Relive 90s India with Papa Painter, a play highlighting the father-son relationship

When I started writing Papa Painter , I was actually trying to revisit one specific childhood memory, when my father stepped in to protect me from being bullied at school. That day, he became a superhero in my eyes. But as we grow older, this relationship becomes far more layered and complex. I found myself wanting to explore all the stages that came after that moment. The story became deeply personal, and I think that’s precisely what makes it universal. Since, I grew up in the 90s, writing from lived experience naturally brought in the 90s world. I did not consciously insert nostalgia, it emerged organically.

One hard truth of life is that we don’t always express our true feelings. In a father-son relationship there’s even less communication. A lot remains unsaid but is assumed understood. In Papa Painter, I have verbalised my unexpressed feelings about my father in a simple, honest and personal language without trying to glorify the relationship. I later realised that the simplicity and honesty became the unseen aspects for the audience.

I was on an emotional roller coaster ride for 5-6 months of the writing process. Every day I was revisiting memories and emotions that I had never fully articulated. It was not easy to express all that was unsaid but in the process I learnt a lot more about myself, my father and our relationship than I had ever known. The mental load of caregiving is huge and the whole writing process became therapeutic for me.

Papa Painter almost oozed out of me when I was supporting my father as a primary caregiver. The mental load of caregiving is immense, especially when it’s your superhero who needs it. Papa Painter was the therapy I needed during that time. We did several table readings of Papa Painter, spread over almost a year, before we actually started rehearsing for our premiere in Mumbai. Those readings really helped in refining it.

Ajeet (director) and I were aligned on keeping the story at the centre stage and wanted every other element to play a supporting role. Yes, the costume and music support the 90s theme, but the story also travels from the 90s to the 2000s and the elements support that journey too.

The story starts with a small family migrating from rural Rajasthan to the city in search of a better future. But as the child adapts to a rapidly changing world, emotional gaps slowly begin to form between him and his father. Papa Painter is an exploration of these gaps. Born from a son’s journey to truly meet the man behind the word ‘Papa’, it’s a deeply personal love letter to every father.

Papa Painter unfolds as an intimate dramatised storytelling experience that blends theatre, narration and character performance. It moves between memories, performance and conversations, allowing the audience to travel through different stages of their lives almost like revisiting an old family album. The form is minimal yet immersive, relying heavily on performance, emotion and imagination rather than an elaborate set. This simplicity allows audiences to project their own memories and relationships onto the story, which is perhaps why watching Papa Painter ends up being a deeply personal journey for them.