Purva Naresh’s Ladies Sangeet is not just another wedding drama

Set in an urban household, playwright Purva Naresh’s Ladies Sangeet opens against the backdrop of Radha (played by Nisha Dhar) and Sid’s (played Siddhant Karnick) lavish wedding, with preparations in full swing and music filling the air. Performed by a 12-member team of Mumbai-based theatre collective Aarambh, the musical-dramedy, first staged in 2016, returns this weekend at Apparel House, Gurugram, presented by the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art.

Ladies Sangeet makes a comeback this weekend

“I was commissioned to make a play that would fill seats,” she says with candour, about the setting of the play. “From my earlier stint at a film studio, I knew weddings and rom-coms always work like a charm at the box office.”

While this 120-minute long drama looks like a cheerful family drama on the surface, at its core are people wrestling with their choices, and the weight of traditions. It slowly pulls back the glittery curtain of weddings to expose patriarchy, rigid gender roles, and family dysfunction.

Her characters are far from one-dimensional. Naresh views them from multiple angles, resisting easy clichés. “I’ve often wondered—am I wearing lipstick because I like it, or because I’ve fallen prey to advertising? Am I waxing because it feels better, or because I’m conditioned to think women should be silky? These debates enter my characters too,” she says.

Ladies Sangeet is full of conflicted women: Radha, the bride, suddenly develops cold feet, ranting about the heaviness of her bridal outfit while secretly fearing the heavier responsibility of being a ‘perfect wife’. Her mother, Megha (Shabnam Vadhera), grapples with her own strained marriage to a husband (played by Joy Sengupta) weighed down by secrets hidden in his ‘closet’, with whom she now shares a roof but little else beyond silence. Radha’s aunts who struggle with body image but find support from their sister-in-law, a bar dancer once cast out by the family. Then there’s Radha’s grandmother (dadi, played by Nivedita Bhargava), a classical music purist who refuses to allow Bollywood songs at the wedding sangeet, clashing with Radha’s sister Rukmini.

Comedy with a bite

Mixing humour with serious issues is tricky, but Naresh uses satire to cut through the wedding glitter. Scenes between Radha, Sid, and their over-the-top wedding planner bring both laughter and critique. “Humour can dilute emotional intensity, but not gravity,” she says. “It allows the audience to confront uncomfortable truths without turning away.”

The play pokes fun at the ‘ideal’ roles weddings demand — the shy, coy bride and the heroic, rich groom on a horse. But it also offers resistance through Radha and Sid, who challenge these stereotypes and push back against the absurd rules. “The fact that same-sex weddings are still banned shows how marriage is reduced to legalised procreation. That’s why society glorifies hyper-masculinity and hyper-femininity. Radha and Sid resist this—they collide with tradition and carve out space for something new,” she says.

A graduate of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), as well as a trained percussionist and Kathak dancer, Purva Naresh weaves music and movement seamlessly into her productions. Ladies Sangeet comes alive with live music, featuring original compositions by Vidushi Shubha Mudgal, Harpreet, Anadi Nagar, and Nishant Aggarwal.

Here, women characters sing everything—from soulful melodies to playful numbers—reclaiming the sangeet as storytelling, much like traditional wedding songs that once reflected community life and customs. “Once Bollywood took over, wedding sangeets became only about dancing and gyrating to the beats,” Naresh says. “Here, we use music to explore social customs and offer a window into the desires and inner worlds of women.”

Though widely appreciated since 2016, Ladies Sangeet hasn’t escaped backlash. She recalls audiences laughing uncomfortably during sensitive moments, while others have walked out or even sent her vitriolic messages. At one performance, she recalls college teachers who made their students leave halfway. But Naresh sees the discomfort as proof that theatre is doing its job. “Theatre audiences already give us trust at hello. They’re willing to imagine and feel with us. That’s generosity, and it allows us to push boundaries.”

Art as resistance

Naresh has always used theatre to question systems. Her earlier works as a playwright include Ok Tata Bye Bye (on sex workers and truck drivers in a village where prostitution is legal) and Bandish 20-20000 Hz (tracing women singers across generations in India). She co-founded Aarambh Mumbai in 2009 to spotlight Hindi plays and bring to stage subjects often avoided in mainstream entertainment.

Naresh sees theatre as a refuge from formula-driven narratives. “All art is resistance. Cinema often mistakes speed for impact and plot for depth. Theatre, with its slower pace and intimacy, allows for risk, nuance, and deeper questioning. It doesn’t just ask ‘what happens next?’ but also ‘why’ and ‘how.’” That’s why, even while writing films like Dum Maro Dum (2011) and Hasee Toh Phasee (2014), theatre remains her first love. “Films come with heavy commercial baggage. Money must be recovered, otherwise the artist suffers. Theatre, on the other hand, doesn’t demand big investments, nor does it promise big returns. With lower stakes, there’s more space to take risks.”

Ladies Sangeet will be performed at Apparel House, Sector 44, Gurugram, on August 30 at 7 pm

(Written by Adithi Reena Ajith)