Well known playright-director-writer Mahesh Dattani helms the play. It stars Mohan Kapoor and Tarun Singh.

During a rehearsal at NCPA's Tata theatre in Mumbai, the cast did a splendid job with their performances and precision. Excellent lighting, music and costumes enhanced the play even more.

Nithya Ramani spoke to the key players of the play -- actor Mohan Kapoor, director Mahesh Dattani and producer Ashwin Gidwani -- and got them to tell us more about the brillaint show.

Mohan Kapoor

The Alchemist has been adapted by Deepa Gahlot. It's a very powerful book, written so beautifully. It's a fable, about a boy's journey to seek treasure. He leaves his land in Spain, and travels distances and deserts to reach the Pyramids of Egypt.

He is helped by the Alchemist, played by me. He meets many other characters on the way and that forms the tapestry of this journey. We learn through his journey.

This line forms the essence of the book, as well as the play: When a person truly desires something, the whole universe conspires to help the person realise his dream. So here we are, realising all our dreams.

It is not difficult to portray something from a book. A good author paints the character in your mind. When I read this book, I had a certain fabric in my head. I was surprised to know that they were going to make a play out of it. I wondered how they would bring that huge canvas on stage. To my surprise, Mahesh, [art director] Umang Kumar and Deepa managed to do it pretty well.

Initially, I saw the Alchemist as an older character. But as Mahesh rightly said, there is no age bar because the Alchemist is eternal. He represents the nature, wind and has the elixir of youth. He can never really grow old.

I wanted to bring a lot to the character in terms of the dialect like how would an Arab speak English. But Mahesh wanted to keep it simple.

I quit acting seven years ago. This play is my comeback. I haven't reached the end of my rainbow yet -- or even the end of my desert journey to the pyramid in search of my treasure. This play is just a very big step towards it.

In the picture: Tarun Singh and Mohan Kapoor in The Alchemist

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