Game of Shadows

In Peechha Karti Parchhaiyan, Ila Arun steps into the cloistered world of Rajasthani patriarchy

HENRIK IBSEN’S Ghosts narrates the story of a feudal household in which sexual excess, incest, syphilis and assisted death visit every generation in an unbroken arc of suffering. Actorsinger Ila Arun places the action in a palace of Cooch Behar in Peechha Karti Parchhaiyan, her adaptation of the Norwegian playwright’s 1881 work, which will be presented in Delhi tomorrow. She also dons chiffon and pearls to play Yashodhara Baisaheb, regal widow of Maharaja Kunwar Viraj Bhanu Pratap Singh.

The house of Cooch Behar in Bengal, however, has a Rajasthani character in Arun’s adaptation. “To set the story in Rajasthan was natural to me. I was born and brought up in the land where tradition is as solid as the walls of the fort in which the royalty lives. I have been a close witness to the painful lies of many Rajput women,” says Arun. Yashodhara (Helene Alving in Ibsen’s original) stands between two generations of men — her late husband, whose death is shrouded in mystery, and the young prince, Kunwar Yuvraj, an artist who lives in Paris and is suffering from syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease.

“The disease is a metaphor for the malaise of a male-dominated society. This is one of the reasons I worked on a story of Ibsen. The themes of the plays that Ibsen wrote more than 130 years ago are relevant today in India. Ghosts, for instance, highlights the voice of a woman who has no space in society. When Yashodhara talks about why she suffered her philandering husband, she says, ‘I was doing my duty as a wife’. Such situations exist in every home,” says director KK Raina. It is in Reena, the maid who has caught the eye of Kunwar Yuvraj, who ultimately presents the voice of the independent woman.

Raina uses a mix of realistic and stylised acting styles as the two-anda-half-hour play unfolds like a Greek tragedy. “Furniture plays an important role but I have even kept props to a minimum. Ultimately, I want audiences to take away the truth that times have changed and it is time we changed as well,” adds Raina.

Peechha Karti Parchhaiyan will be performed at Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, on February 19, 4pm and 7:30pm. Contact: 43662016

Ila Arun with a co-actor in a scene from the play