Writer-Director Sarang Bhakre's play DUSHYANTPRIYA has been receiving attention in the light of the recent Supreme Court's verdict that has upset and rattled the Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in India. What may have therefore passed off as an 'experimental' play by young people is making news. Given the efforts that theatre people, especially the young and the new put in to stage plays against various odds, particularly the lack of finance, any news is good news. The media attention becomes all the more relevant in a scenario where the LGBT community, small yet significant, is fighting for its rights though one cannot simply generalise each sub-group's cause. But certainly, this is not the first time that homosexuality is being depicted on the Indian stage.
DUSHYANTPRIYA enfolds as a play within a play; a common enough ploy that has been employed by many playwrights. Kalidas' dramatic story of King Dushyant and Shakuntala, the daughter of sage Vishwamitra, becomes the medium through which its two main actors Sushil (Raj Hanchanale) and Rohit (Swapnil Kale) discover their love for each other. As the play progresses through rehearsals, Sushil and Rohit's love story runs parallel to it. Sushil plays Dushyant while Rohit steps in to play Shakuntala when the actress to have essayed the part backs out. The 'onstage' proceedings are juxtaposed with the real drama happening offstage. When Dushyant refuses to acknowledge Shakuntala, Sushil too rejects Rohit in fear of his family and societal pressures. Given the play's simplistic mode of establishing its theme of homosexuality, there isn't much by way of any nuanced development or takeaway. The two young protagonists thus remain superficial even as their physicality is handled with a degree of maturity. There is no complexity of any kind that allows us to venture deeper into their personas.
The choice to use a classic play as a sub-text also falters as the staging is by and large amateurish. The lights during the performance at Veer Savarkar's auditorium at Shivaji Park (January 11 2014) were particularly off. The music selections that range from a melodramatic score played as a loop (badly) to Shubha Mudgal's title song from the film Hazaaron Khwaishen Aisi do not gel. A heightened dance sequence that depicts Sushil's fear of what may have become of Rohit is tacky. Some ideas may have worked though, but are not exploited fully, such as the attempt at contemporising Dushyant and Shakuntala's drama at the start, and to make it humourous as Sanskrit verses are sung to the tune of old Hindi film songs. Costumes and the set design, simple as they are, suitably convey the characters and the setting of the ashram, and later Dushyant's court. Sushil as Dushyant uses a long umbrella as his bow in the hunting scene at the beginning of the play. These are the small, ingenious things that work brilliantly. Sushil's brother (Sagar Chavhan), who eventually accepts his younger brother's sexuality, battles with his entrenched beliefs. There is a philosophical moment there given that our prejudices barely allow us to consider an alternate point of view. Anything to do with our sexuality and our bodies is still taboo.
The nice thing about the production is that in spite of its flaws, it is a heartfelt and unassuming piece of theatre. In the denouement therefore, the romantic 'meeting of the two bodies and souls' as epitomised by marriage (in this case a traditional Maharastrain wedding in which the audience participates in blessing the couple and showers akshata) elevates the play and redeems its faults. Above all, the play is an attempt to push the discourse on gender identity into the mainstream consciousness. The timing could not be more perfect. Perhaps for that alone, such efforts must be encouraged.
List Your Play