Mohan No Masalo — Review by Divyasha Doshi

Divyasha Doshi opens her Gujarati review with a George Bernard Shaw quote: 'My tailor is the only man who behaves wisely. Every time he takes my measurements afresh. The rest go on with old measurements and expect them to fit.' Watching Mohan No Masalo, she writes, this quote came to mind. Every person's measure is different. Every person's nature is different.

This play does not repeat Gandhi's values — it touches your soul from a different level entirely. It gives you logical reasons to think. There is no talk of the Mahatma here — instead, the man lovingly called Mohaniya talks about his own failures. Like every young person, he too was eager to experience life's pleasures. Time and circumstances forced him to find his own path, and the trail toward the Mahatma was carved inadvertently.

Today, if you tell any young person to live like Gandhiji, they will certainly turn up their nose. But if you tell them to experiment like Mohan, they might agree. The Mahatma's masalo — whether it is Mohan's or yours or mine — is unique to each person. This play gives you a kaleidoscope through which to see life differently. It contains the same mistakes, failings, and fragments of dreams that exist in everyone's life. But viewed from different angles, they form different creative shapes.

On stage, there is only one performer and one chair, yet you feel as though someone is constantly talking directly to you. This Mohan — whom we never knew — is capable of opening many closed doors of the mind.

Anyone who feels they want to succeed in life should adopt the recipe of Mohan's masalo. Every young person who wants to understand Mahatma Gandhi needs to first see and know Mohan.