''Mohan No Masalo'' (English: ''Mohan's Recipe'') is a 2015 biographical

one-man play A solo performance, sometimes referred to as a one-man show, one-woman show, or one-person show, features a single person telling a story for an audience, typically for the purpose of entertainment. This type of performance comes in many varieti ...

about

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

, starring

Pratik Gandhi Pratik Gandhi (born 28 April 1980) is an Indian actor who primarily works in Gujarati language, Gujarati and Hindi films, theater, and television. He is best known for portraying Harshad Mehta in the Sony LIV biographical series ''Scam 1992'' ( ...

. Written by Ishan Doshi and directed by

Manoj Shah Manoj Sakarchand Shah (born 5 February 1955) is an Indian theatre director, actor and producer known for his works in the Gujarati theatre. He has directed over 90 Play (theatre), plays, such as Solo performance, one-man plays and biographical p ...

, it depicts the early life of

Mohandas Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British ...

. First performed in

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

, the play later staged in English and

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

. It was included in the

Limca Book of Records The ''Limca Book of Records'' is an annual reference book published in India documenting world records held by Indians. The records are further categorised into education, literature, agriculture, medical science, business, sports, nature, adve ...

for its performances in three languages (English, Hindi and Gujarati) in a single day.

Background

''Mohan No Masalo'' was originally written in English by Ishan Doshi, and later translated into Gujarati by Satya Mehta, and into Hindi by Arpit Jain. It was premiered on 22 March 2015 at

National Centre for the Performing Arts National Centre for the Performing Arts may refer to * National Centre for the Performing Arts (China) The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) (), colloquially described as The Giant Egg (巨蛋), is an arts centre containing an opera ...

(NCPA).

Plot synopsis

The play opens with Mohan searching for his missing diary. He meet people on a local train in Mumbai, then Mr. Somaiya who is known for his Gandhi collection, and John Briley who was a screenwriter of film ''Gandhi'' but no one had his diary. The diary contains the recollections from Gandhi's youth. He cries that everyone knows Mahatma (his later career) but no one knows Mohan (his early life). Then Mohan narrates his life as a person who have come from

Kathiawad Kathiawar (), also known as Saurashtra, is a peninsula in the south-western Gujarat state in India, bordering the Arabian Sea and covering about . It is bounded by the Kutch district in the north, the Gulf of Kutch in the northwest, and by the ...

. He talks about his parents, ancestors and associates as well as his life at

Rajkot Rajkot () is the fourth-largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the ...

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

in South Africa at last. He describes his travel on the

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

. He wears western clothes during his

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

studies in London. He talks about well known events from his birth, childhood, teenage and youth; each connecting to one of the concepts of

Gandhian philosophy Gandhism is a body of ideas that describes the inspiration, vision, and the life work of Mohandas K. Gandhi. It is particularly associated with his contributions to the idea of nonviolent resistance, sometimes also called civil resistance. The ...

Reception

''Mohan No Masalo'' was included in the

for "performance of one play in multiple languages in one day" in 2016. Utpal Bhayani praised the concept of "recipe to Mahatma" introducing early life of Gandhi to the audience as well as solo performance of Pratik Gandhi. He found the settings, costumes and properties appropriate to the time. Keyur Seta of the ''Mumbai Theatre Guide'' calls the play "nothing new" but "entertaining". He praised writing, direction and the performance while criticising the lighting.

Deepa Gahlot Deepa Gahlot is a theater and film critic, book author, and scriptwriter. She has written several books on cinema, translated several plays (by Manav Kaul and Paresh Mokashi) into English and adapted Paulo Coelho's novel ''The Alchemist'' for the s ...

writing for ''Mid-day'' praised the direction, writing and the performance. She particularly find it "entertaining" because it is "peppered with humour and delivered with verve".

References

{{Gandhi, state=collapsed 2015 plays Biographical plays about philosophers Biographical plays about politicians Biographical plays about writers Plays depicting Mahatma Gandhi Gujarati-language plays Plays for one performer Plays set in India Works about Mahatma Gandhi

Background

Plot synopsis

Reception

See also

References