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Synopsis

“Mortal Remains” is a three-act play that explores the relationship between three siblings, as they wait for their parents’ mortal remains at the Mumbai Airport. The siblings are Avantika, Pari and Puran Bhavnani. They are the heirs to a Bombay-based builder business, Bhavnani Builders. Their parents, Paresh and Alka Bhavnani, are considered to be new-age royalty. They died while vacationing in Portugal. Paresh Bhavnani was a so-called ‘self-made’ man, whose builder business grew into a multi-crore one in the late ‘80s. Set in real time, “Mortal Remains” is a continuous sequence that follows the siblings’ lives and relationships with each other, their parents, and the struggles that they have faced. Using both comedic and dramatic tools, “Mortal Remains” attempts to navigate the emotions of grief and guilt that are heightened inside concentrated waiting room spaces. The Bhavnani siblings are given a special Premium Waiting Lounge at the Airport to sit in, while waiting for their parents’ bodies to land via private jet. They are literally in a bubble of their own, a bubble of privilege that makes them both hard to reach, yet entirely visible to the common woman. While the common woman and the Bombay elite do see each other—as class is demarcated explicitly in the city—the difficulty in understanding one another arises from the fact that they both live in their own bubbles, and are far too comfortable in making assumptions about each other instead of communicating directly, as equals. Avantika, Pari and Puran haven’t been physically together for three years—reasons for which are unravelled through the course of the play. Acts of betrayal and pleas for forgiveness become complicated within families, where we expect the best from our own parents and siblings. The main purpose of this play is to bring together three siblings who have hurt each other, betrayed each other, and force them to spend an hour or so together.

Duration

75   Minutes

No of characters

8