From 30 to 75, Mandira Bedi spends a lifetime on stage

Kolkata: After performing the roles of a 75-year-old woman and a 30-year-old lady all within a span of 100 minutes on stage here, actress Mandira Bedi feels she has spent a lifetime.

As part of the Ballantine`s `Salt n Pepper` unique theatre tour, 40-year-old Mandira acted in a collection of ten short plays, each having a duration of 10 minutes. Taking a funny look at the dark side of relationships between men and women, the actress played different characters with ages vary between 30 and 75. "It is like spending a lifetime on stage as the age span is very wide for me. More than changing the make-up, the most challenging part was getting into the minds of so many different characters who belong to different eras and thinking styles," Mandira told PTI here. At the G D Birla Sabhaghar here, the shows were held this weekend where actors like Darshan Jariwala and Kuki Grewal also acted in the plays directed by Vikram Kochhar. After Kolkata, the stage production will travel to Mumbai, Pune, Gurgaon, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad later in the month. One of the interesting stories was that of a 75-year-old woman played by Mandira who because of her age fails to communicate properly with her equally-old husband. Married half a century ago, it shows how a couple can get bored with each other and yet love remains constant. "Some stories will wash over you like a tickle, some may put that Mona Lisa smile on your face. Some have a tempo that will reverberate in your hearty laughter," said Kochhar. By exploring the subtle nuances of diverse relationships, emotions like love, anger, sadness, hope and expectations come together on the stage. Having donned many hats in her career earlier including that of an actress, cricket commentator and television presenter, Bedi said she is addicted to theatre. "You do theatre once and it`s addictive. It is never about money and we have to work 25 times harder than what we do on screen. The feeling of performing on stage is what excites me," said the actress, who shot to fame playing the protagonist in `Shanti`, the first-ever daily soap on Indian television. When asked about her upcoming films, she said she has signed two. "I have already started shooting for the Atul Agnihotri film in Goa," she said. PTI