Manoj Shah like a few of his other contemporaries from Gujarati Theatre is somewhat lucky to be in the right place at the right time. So impoverished is the current Gujarati Theatre scene in Mumbai, that these days the mere sign of talent and sensibility appears like a shining beacon in an otherwise uninspiring and languishing landscape. We got to be thankful for these sparks of light no doubt but it would be a real pity to lose sight of a more balanced perspective as it were.
Mr. Shah has no doubt been doing a creditable job. His theatre group ‘Ideas Unlimited’ functions with an almost missionary kind of zeal to engage the minds of the Gujarati literati or the Rasikjana as Shah puts it. In recent times his JAL JAL MARE PATANG is third in line after MAREEZ and APURVA AVSAR of the unsung and little known biographies of Gujarati luminaries, who have excelled in Literature, Philosophy and the Arts. Needless to say that JAL JAL MARE PATANG like its predecessors will meet with approval and possibly, success. It will also be ironically celebrated as the meaningful, countervoice to all that goes under the name of mainstream and commercial Gujarati Theatre.
The novelty in short is wearing off. And the more dangerous repercussion of it is that this kind of cultural fix runs into all kinds of problems, ranging from glorification to predictability. JAL JAL MARE PATANG, which has been written by Mihir Bhuta, is staged in almost the same way as MAREEZ and APURVA AVSAR were. While it was heartening to see MAREEZ, not to mention the fine performance that Dharmendra Gohil turned in, this latest production directed by Manoj Shah, is increasingly bent on emphasizing the greatness of its protagonist- the 19th century Gujarati scholar, poet, dramatist and philosopher- Manilal Dwivedi.
So while you get to appreciate the finer tonalities of the Gujarati language and the erudite references to the work done by the protagonist in question, it all dissolves into a series of dramatic episodes from the life of the protagonist, who by the end of the day must be cheered and clapped at. It’s almost like watching a popular daily soap, based on the lives of mythological and historical characters. The difference here is that it is more sophisticated, takes calculated risks and borders on the controversial, given the persona of its protagonists.
In such a scenario, that which is a given of the character’s life begins to assume more attention than it deserves. In Dwivedi’s case it is about the Syphilis he contracted at a young age and of the hurt and the rejection that he had to suffer from time to time because of it. His unstaggering desire for sex is almost made out to be an apology and is justified in the context of the ‘company’ he kept when he was young. Again the paradoxes that arise in view of what Dwivedi espoused and worked towards are not dealt with in depth. We are told that he was a Sanskrit scholar in the Vedantic tradition. He also practiced mesmerism/hypnotism and believed in a past life that could be visited. He didn’t want his unhappy wife to leave him because she was the mother of his children wife but at the same time he was apparently a promoter of women’s education and spoke for the more abstract and evolved philosophy of Advaitya, a sub-school of Vedanta.
As it is perhaps the case with condesing biographies on stage and imagining material (taking dramatic liberties), one no doubt runs the risk of giving preference to one aspect of the protagonist’s life over the other, or interpreting it in a way that falls short of creating a more layered and an engaging narrative. The danger is also of not being able to create an objective distance from the protagonist, which though difficult is essential in all kinds of biographical readings and interpretation. In essence everything became too obvious and perhaps the only redeeming factor was Dwivedi’s poetry that had been set to music. Here there is a chance of getting beneath the skin of the protagonist so to speak, but again the viewer either needs to have a very developed sense of the language or the desire to want to go and find out more if s/he has been motivated enough.
Unlike MAREEZ and later in APURVA AVSAR in which Dharmendra Gohil effortlessly managed the show, here the performances by and large, including that of Vedish Javeri, who plays the protagonist-narrator appeared loud and over the top. Aishwarya Mehta who plays Mani Gauri, a woman-character that Manoj Shah has taken a dramatic liberty with, was however more restrained and suitably depicted. The play runs back and forth in its portrayal of scenes from Dwivedi’s life; the overall result being a showcase of scenes- some better than the rest. Perhaps the staged version of a biography is calling for a more refreshing approach than that we’re already too familiar with by now.
Like in MAREEZ, which was played out against the grand and colourful triptychs, painted by Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, here the androgynous and erotic paintings of Atul Dodiya while being compelling in their artistic sensibility do very little in terms of an interface or a visual sub-text to the action in the foreground. It’s almost as if the paintings and the action on stage exist in two different worlds; one is thoroughly modern, the other while purporting to present an intellectual- a modern man for his times, strangely appears more traditional.
Gujarati Theatre would be the poorer without the sincere and sensitive attempts of people like Manoj Shah. But it is crying for a more contemporary theatre that need not be so excessively nostalgic about the blasts from the past.
*The writer is Editor of this site, a theatre critic and academic keenly interested in Theatre & Performance Studies.
Manoj Shah like a few of his other contemporaries from Gujarati Theatre is somewhat lucky to be in the right place at the right time. So impoverished is the current Gujarati Theatre scene in Mumbai, that these days the mere sign of talent and sensibility appears like a shining beacon in an otherwise uninspiring and languishing landscape. We got to be thankful for these sparks of light no doubt but it would be a real pity to lose sight of a more balanced perspective as it were.
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