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TAY PUDHE GELE emerges as a pathetic story of a middle class man called ‘A’, who due to his intense desire to catch up with those who have gone ahead, (where to?) brings on himself destruction. In an absolutely different context though, the story might be reminiscent of Dr. Faustus, who in his frantic endeavor to satiate his desire, lost his soul.
Not the act itself but the gruesome logic that ‘A’ shrewdly builds to justify his doings in his after-life existence, could be said to be the focal point of Makarand Sathe’s play, TAY PUDHE GELE, which premiered in Pune. After his death, ‘A’ finds himself in a space, where few others have also arrived before him. ‘B’ enters into the space. Khandu, a farmer and his wife Goda are lying there on the ground, dead tired. Rest of the people have gone ahead; and that has made ‘A’ terribly jealous.
He is quite convinced that only the sensitive people always lag behind. He time and again urges ‘B’ not to remain an ignoramus any more and plunge into the action. Does he act? It appears that he does. At the end of the play we see him saying that the farmer, his wife and the likes of them have to be there around. If they aren’t amongst us, who could we rape?" He asks rather unsuspiciously.
Makarand’s acute perception of middle-class sensibility, his utter concentration on the very process of ‘A’s downfall, his courage to take the play to its logical end, whatever so, and all this coupled with sardonic humour, go to make TAY PUDHE GELE a devastating theatre experience!
Samanvay, the leading parallel theatre group from Pune put up a slick performance. Makarand Sathe as both the playwright and the director deserves merit for choosing none other than Gajanan Paranjpe in the leading role. Gajanan trained himself under Pt. Satyadeo Dubey for some time and is known for his excellent speech in the parallel theatre. He delivered his lines-almost a monologue-with great elan. Gajanan, just to suggest A’s so called intellectual uppishness, had his chin lifted up a little; and see, such a little thing gave the character its individuality.
A special mention of Kiran Yadnopavit who is more of a playwright than an actor, is a must. Not many lines to speak, his ‘B’ looked timid, baffled and at times at bay.
Perhaps just to convey the sense of a cramped space, the director preferred to perform at the Su-Darshan Rangamach in Pune where the acting area by default is too small and tight. Harshad Pathak also followed suit and went in for the tight lighting, so to say. And it went well with the play. With just two actors and a very limited spatial requirement, TAY PUDHE GELE is one of the ideal plays that can be invited by any number of institutes and theatre groups.
*The above review is based on a performance at the Sudarshan Hall in Pune. The play will be performed in Mumbai on 22nd December 2007. Madhav Vaze is a senior theatre person based in Pune. He has been writing a regular column on the theatre for the past 15 years in the weekly magazine, ‘Saptahik Sakal’. Amongst his other qualifications and experience, he is founder member of ‘Jagar’, a parallel theatre company and is visiting faculty to theatre departments in Pune and in Goa.
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