Man goes in search of many things. And he often strives to achieve it perhaps till the end of his time. But this time, the search is quaint in its own way. This man being referred to tries to find his missing hand which gets chopped off 17 years ago under the railway tracks by a bunch of hillbillys. Yes, playwright Martin Macdonagh has done it again in "A Behanding in Spokane" with his abstract sense of plot development and his delineated yet idiosyncratic characters.
Carmichael (Ali Fazal) is the protagonist whose hand is being sought after. Hacked off hand, so to speak; Under the train; On the railway tracks. As has been iterated umpteen times in the play. Anyway, he figures through sources that a black/colored man Toby (Abhishek Saha) and his low IQ girlfriend Marilyn (Shweta Tripathi) have found his hand and agrees to reward them with a couple of 100 bucks at his hotel room. Something presumable on Toby’s mind would’ve been “Let’s give him a hand, in this situation”, or “A hand in need is a hand indeed”. Or maybe not! However, due to stifling times in their relationship Toby and Marilyn bring a black man’s hand accidentally. This evidently irks Carmichael off and he extorts information from them about his real hand at gun point. Enter, the nosy hotel receptionist Mervyn (Prabal Panjabi). His unfamiliar love for the Gibbon since he was a child and loose wiring in the head just give room for more unpredictable twists. Apparently he just wanted to be brave.
Either ways, performances by Ali Fazal, most convincing old, frustrated man, and Abhishek Saha( barring the impersonation of the black man accent – a poor imitation of Chris Tucker from ‘Rush Hour’) were stellar. Their timing and nuances triggered the precise amount of humor. Prabal Panjabi and Shweta Tripathi had their moments of glory but went a tad over the top. The subtle situation of fear creeping in was thus lost as a result. Although, director Kashin Shetty has now another reason to boast about Martin Macdonagh being his idol, and his story telling, crisply packed into 100 minutes, stands evidence to that. But just like the hand, Shetty could’ve hacked off most of the expletives as it didn’t benefit anything in anyway. Neither did it bring humor to the table, nor did it elicit fear. It was simply misleading.
All in all, a taut production with a vague and futile plot, but bolstered with exceptional performances as saving grace. It’s that time of the year when you can say the actors propelled the play in a random direction which ostensibly looked like a forward one. Will Carmichael find his missing hand even though it won’t serve him any purpose, once he’s found it? Not like it can be stitched on. Or used to draw (as said by Mervyn)! So watch it to find out the grim answers it holds.
Rating: 3/5
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