Theatre’s best come together, light up festival
The 12th Mahindra Theatre Festival, featuring the ‘Best in Indian Theatre’, was held in Delhi between March 4 and 9. It opened with Lassanwala, a play that stressed on the divide between the Brahmins and the non-Brahmins. Kallu Bahman, a 60-year-old Brahmin garlic seller, whose family has been growing garlic for three generations in its small patch of land, finds himself in a dire situation.
Ironically, being a Brahmin he doesn’t eat garlic but grows and sells it. He is taken for a ride by some gundas and his entire crop of garlic is found in a hospital smuggled there by two goons, one of whom is the director of the play, Hemant Pandey. The play is produced by Apna Manch Drama Company and the language is Khari Boli and Hindi.
The group is greatly influenced by the music of Sant Kabirdas and Anandi Nagar, who won the Best Innovative Sound Design. The play borrowed heavily from Kabirdas’ ‘essence and soul’. The Brahmin is played well by Himanshu Talreja.
Bhima, a dance drama performed by Vivek Vijaykumaran and Sachin Gurjale, who played the drums in the production, was directed by Anitha Santhanam, a seasoned actor-dancer based in Bangalore. She writes in her director’s note that “the play explores the concept of the eternal masculine and strong superhero embodied by Pandava prince, Bhima and its interaction with modernity.” She uses the pedagogy of the Frenchman Jacques Lecoq, and is currently a member of PERCH, a theatre ensemble by director Rajiv Krishnan.
Bhima is a very well choreographed show in English. One is able to see Vijayakumaran mastering movement of the body, which reveals his talent as a dancer. The script is originally written by Swetanshu Bora and Ajithal Sivalal. It is full of descriptions of the jungle and how Bhima meets Hidimba, the Rakshasni woman whom he married by going against Hindu customs.
The Elephant In The Room won prizes for Best Actor Female, Best Light Design and Best Costume Design. It was an interesting script, inspired by mythology where the elephant in the room pays homage to lord Ganapati in this quirky and poignant reinterpretation of his story. The protagonist is a young boy, interestingly named Master Tusk, who has been given a new head, an elephant’s. Confused and bewildered, he finds himself lost in the forest where he meets Makdi and Moorakh, a clumsy duo in search of a big-ticket ransom. They kidnap Master Tusk.
Yuki Ellias, the actor of the play, was able to weave through seven whimsical characters in an epic journey by collaborating with the director, Sneh Sapru. Ellias was very good in the play. The direction, however, was slightly repetitive and the stage design was not innovative enough. The make-up and costume were excellent.
Outcast is a play in Hindi based on an autobiography of writer Sharankumar Limbale. It’s a first person account of the struggle against deprivation, discrimination and violence. The play captures dehumanisation and the impact of caste oppression in Hindu society. Outcast is a quest for identity using original language, metaphor and imagery from the Dalit point of view. The director, Randhir Kumar, has done a marvellous job with the play. Sunil Bihari and a host of other actors play Limbale very authentically. The play is moving and bleak in its narrative, punctured by bitter wit. There were a whole lot of effective moving video installations in the play.
Dhumrapaan is a play directed by Akarsh Khurana. It was produced by D for Drama and Kumud Mishra, who also acted in the play. Among others who starred were Shubrajyoti Barat as Eknath, Siddhartha Kumar as Owen and Priyanka Verma as the girl.
The play is about office politics, set in a smoking area of a corporate building over the period of a week where a bunch of office employees discuss appraisals, politics and relationships all the while dealing with their stress, fears and insecurities.
The play is a dark comedy about the inevitability of the corporate rat race. It was named the Best Original Script, written in English and Hindi by Adhir Bhat.
Mahabharata was a tremendous experience. It won for itself the awards for Best Director and Best Production as well as the Best Choreography. Taking dramatic instances from the Mahabharata, the director, Anurupa Roy had puppets, masks, shadow puppets and a narrative that has evolved over a few thousand years. Her direction was neat and very imaginative.
The song verses from Togalu Gombeyaata’s Sillakeyata Mahabharata in Kannada were sung by the storyteller and singer, Gunduraju, who plays Yudhishthira and Krishna with Vidhashakta.
Anurupa Roy also acted in the production. She was excellent as she played a wide variety of roles like Draupadi, Drona, Kunti, Karna, Amba the warrior who kills Abhimanyu, Gandhari and Dushassana. Her Draupadi Cheer Haran, where the Kauravas try to disrobe her, was especially effective, as she tried to let the fabric slip through her fingers from the mask above her head.
Katha Sukavi Suryamall Ki, in Rajasthani, was marked by the sheer excellence of acting by Rajendra Panchal, who was also the director of the play and was awarded the Best Lead Role Male. Panchal shared the award with Anirban Bhattacharya from the Bengali play, Awddyo Shesh Rajani. The nuances Panchal put into his performance as the Rajasthani poet from Boondi, Suryamall Mishran, were tremendously attractive. His singing on stage was superb as he often broke into song to comment on the situation of the Revolt of 1857 in colonial India. Baldev Vilas portrayed real incidences and facts as well the inner conflict against the backdrop of the Revolt of 1857.
I Don’t Like It As You Like It, directed by Rajat Kapoor, won the Best Ensemble and Faezeh Jalali won the award for Best Supporting Role Female. Meenal Aggarwal was also awarded for Best Stage Design. I found I Don’t Like It As You Like It to be the same as the last time I saw it, in the ADYAM festival.