Concert Review - Guru of Chai - Hastings - 11th October 2025
Presented by Hawke's Bay Arts Festival
Review By - Rob Harbers
Artist - Guru of Chai
Venue/City: Toitoi: Hawke's Bay Arts & Events Centre, Hastings, New Zealand
Date of Event - 11th October 2025
On the third day of the Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival, the feature attraction at Festival Central, aka Hastings’ ToiToi, was the wonderfully charming The Guru of Chai, a production from the Indian Ink Theatre Company. Over 90 spellbinding minutes the audience was transported by the tale of chai-wallah Kutisar and his encounters with various characters in the course of a lifetime.
The production commenced with Kutisar offering advice for the lonely, taking on the role of guru to those who will listen. In a parody of the Westernised habit of ascribing profound insight to almost anything exotic, and those who exploit this habit, he offers the remedy for the greatest pandemic of all, that of loneliness. This remedy is in the form of the tale he proceeds to tell, one that held the listeners in the palm of his hand, captivated.
Our story begins in Bangalore Train Station, at 6am rush hour. With all the atmosphere skillfully evoked by the masterful storytelling, we travel with Kutisar as he meets seven orphaned sisters, who offer him a means of increasing sales, by way of them singing for the crowd, and thus attracting a captive audience for the consumption of his secret blend of masala chai. This proves to be very successful and forms the basis of a partnership between Kutisar and the girls, one that sees him taking on the role of a father figure to the septet. But, as memorably described by Kutisar, ‘Just when your cup begins to fill, someone comes along and pisses in it!’ Their success soon attracting the eye of bandits under the control of the underworld figure known as The Fakir, who attempt stand over tactics to steal the proceeds. This attempt is foiled by the intervention of police officer Punchkin, who offers them his protection from that day forward.
Under this benign protectorate, the girls and Kutisar flourish, and gradually, as they grow in to womanhood, they marry off and leave the performing life. Kutisar, flourishing as he is, is able to assist them in to this next phase of their life. All the sisters but one, Batna, have decamped, and it is at this point that Punchkin clumsily shows his hand, asking Batna to marry him. But she turns him down, eventually to marry Imran - which brings in a level of scandal, him being Muslim and al - and thus leave Kutisar on his own at the station, but still in touch with the sisters, for a while, at least. Life happens, though, and eventually they see less and less of each other.
When Batna returns to ask Kutisar to help find the disappeared Imran, the story takes a darker turn. The ensuing events build to an intensely satisfying and surprising denouement, by way of a plot twist or two. I’m not going to tell you any more of the story - you’ll have to see it for yourselves - but rest assured that you’ll be transfixed.
Playing 17 different characters, Jacob Rajan spins a yarn adapted from an Indian fairy tale, the sparse stage setting helping to evoke the images called up. Musical interludes and accompaniment provided by Adam Ogle, aka ‘Silent Dave’, provide the final element to this rich pot, one that provides a very satisfying brew indeed and that you’ll be recommending to others!