10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
Staging a Small Town
Sandeep Shikhar is a familiar name to most involved or interested in theatre. With a career spanning across three decades as actor, playwright, and director – acting across various films and web series like Panchayat, Jaadugar, Home Shanti and Azaad – Shikhar is also the co-founder of city-based theatre group Indian Ensemble. His latest contribution is directorial, with his play Deluxe Haircutting Salon.
Shikhar's inspiration for the play stems from his own experiences, drawing parallels between Bachchan, the protagonist and owner of the titular salon, and the life he has lived. As Bachchan dreams of becoming a lawyer, Shikhar brings along characters from his neighbourhood to court, unveiling their stories for justice. 'The characters and their backstories have been inspired by people I know, having grown up on a street named Gyan Mukherjee Road in Dhanbad, surrounded by the lawyers' colony – my entire childhood there left a huge impression on me,' Shikhar reveals.
The themes the play deals with are identity, aspiration, and the clash between modernity and tradition. Through the play, Shikhar dives into the complexities of human relationships in a small-town setting, as the protagonist navigates through the daily phenomena of a mundane life and often finds himself in a world different from reality. 'The play examines a very basic premise of a fundamentally aspirational society, which at the moment is in a race to become better, stronger and wealthier. I am also trying to explore the possibilities of empowering the common man and the price that others would pay if the pardon is not granted,' he notes.
