THEATRE: MANY MAHABHARATAS
An imaginative retelling reflects the polarities of our times
The annual Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (held in Delhi last month) claim to showcase the best of Indian theatre. But despite an evident plurality, the plays most accurately reflect the composition of that year’s selection committee. Objectivity is impossible, as the task hinges on aesthetic taste, loyalties and various forms of artistic advocacy (of both the progressive and patronising kind), which are intrinsically subjective. Declaring a winner, therefore, is less important than taking the opportunity to investigate the preoccupations of the plays’ makers. The week-long presentation of plays in close succession allows for a search for contrast and coincidence, patterns and peculiarities.
This year, Delhi’s Katkatha Puppet Arts Trust’s (KPAT’s) retelling of the Mahabharata, directed by Anurupa Roy, received the award for Best Production. Roy sees a reflection of the “growing splits and polarities” of our times in the epic, and there is a poignant mutuality between the action of her play and its staging as puppetry. Behind each body there is another body—an alter ego, a conscience. As they begin to fall in battle, the life-sized puppets become discarnate beings, the shells of men stripped of their souls. It is a haunting visualisation.
The epic has been the source material for several productions that have featured at the festival in its 12-year history. It has been presented across language, form and idiom: from Chandradasan’s production of Bhasa’s Karnabharam (2008), to a more contemporary iteration in Sanjukta Wagh’s Rage and Beyond (2015), based on Irawati Karve’s Yuganta. Abhishek Majumdar’s Kaumudi (2015) and Sharanya Ramprakash’s Akshayambara (2016), both set within the fragile politics of the theatre itself, feature stagings of sections of the Mahabharata. And this year, Our Theatre’s production of Bhima—also based on the epic— also competed for top honours.
Our Theatre’s Anitha Santhanam says that mythic stories remain relevant because of their archetypes and “deep psychic principles”. Vivek Vijayakumaran plays the Pandava prince, using the physical vocabulary of Kutiyattam to articulate Bhima’s conflicted masculinity. “I relate to his loyalty— which comes from gratitude, where one goes beyond one’s self, and emotions can take precedence over reason. I feel that can be beautiful and graceful too.”