The late Shri Krishnaji Prabhakar Khadilkar was a noted Marathi playwright who was equally at ease with prose plays as well as musicals. His politically potent KEECHAKVADH was banned by the British government. He was influenced by Shakespeare. BHAUBANDKI and SAWAI MADHAVRAO YANCHA MRUTYU borrow from MACBETH, OTHELLO and HAMLET. MANAPMAAN was quintessentially a Marathi sangeet natak: a blend of Hindustani classical music and folk tunes used in otherwise prose plays.
But MANAPMAN too was inspired by foreign themes: OTHELLO and Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice. A young and penniless general, Dhairyadhar, is refused by the proud Bhamini, a proud heiress. But she soon repents and presents herself disguised as a poor damsel in the wilderness, only to be rescued by Dhairyadhar. Her pride subsides, but his prejudice for the original character remains. This love story is humorously punctuated by the scheming of Bhamini's brother-in-law Vilasdhar, who promotes the cause of Lakshmidhar, a good-for-nothing dandy. Their scenes are almost copies of the Iago-Roderigo scenes in OTHELLO. They lose and the lovers win. MANAPMAN ends where OTHELLO would begin: but with Brabantio's blessings! The Duke is off stage, but it is same Duke!
The legendary Balgandharva immortalized the role of Bhamini and the play with his acting and singing. Keshavrao Bhonsle once collaborated with him as Dhairyadhar in a joint venture called SAMYUKTA MANAPMAN-to raise funds for the freedom movement! The singing styles of the two were different-not merely because of the roles they played. Balgandharva was the classical male actor doing female roles, and Keshavrao Bhonsle was much too masculine, even in his singing. But he died young and Master Deenanath Mangeshkar took over with his peculiar singing style-which Vasantrao Deshpande imbibed and even taught to others, including Asha Bhosle whose records are very popular.
After the 1950s, when the golden age of the Marathi sangeet natak was over, actor-singers Chhota Gandharva and Jaymala Shiledar made the play popular once again. The two would draw full houses as many times as they chose to perform. But though Jaymala sang like Balgandharva, Chhota Gandharva was miles away from Deenanath. He was extremely melodious, even effeminate for an army general. I was brought up on these two actors-even their SAUBHADRA was a grand success.
Rahul Deshpande in the present version, is the grandson of Vasantrao Deshpande. And he is totally influenced by Vasantrao, whom we heard more in private recitals, where he sometimes sang numbers from MANAPMAN. Even Bhimsen Joshi used to sing a couple of natya padas-'Chandrika hee janu', 'Prema seva sharana'.
But Rahul is brilliant. It is not usual for a singer to act much. So he does not act much. Nor does Saily Panse whose Bhamini is very lovable. Her songs have lilting tunes, to Dhairyadhar's masculine, and almost military, tunes. The two are complementary and may have succeeded in re-living 'Sangeet Surya' Keshavrao Bhosle and 'Balgandharva' Narayanrao Rajhans. Maybe because we hardly have anyone today who had seen the sole samyukta show in 1921!
The most noted Lakshmidhar has been Ganpatrao Bodas, whom I had met as a child, but I do not remember him on stage. His portrayals of Shakar in MRICHCHHAKATIK, Phalgunrao in SAMSHAYKALLOL and Lakshmidhar are legendary. Daji Bhatawdekar did these roles in the 1950s and 1960s. I have even seen Jayram Shiledar and Master Dhumal. But all these actors were stout. Ameya Wagh, who acts in this production, is thin, agile, full of frolic. His interpretation of the character is more consistent with his age-both the character and the actor. Bhaktiprasad Deshmane has the figure of a comic character and he does a good Vilasdhar. Veteran theatre critic Dnyaneshwar Nadkarni always complained that he could not fathom the character called Kusum in the play. Is she a friend? Is she a sister? Is she a cousin? Is she a servant? But Sayalee Phatak was convincing here.
One would have expected the traditional painted scenery, or a box set of the transition period. But director Nipun Dharmadhikari, set designer Keyur Godse and technical director Anuj Deshpande have used multi-media technology and projected scenes on the backdrop. These look real and are welcome. But the team was handicapped by not getting enough time to set up the machinery as the earlier play did not get over on time. This resulted in a shaking curtain and hence shaking scenes.
The many low but big levels look good, but they are neither authentic nor conducive to movement. They accentuated the disparities in height of the various characters. Maybe, even these were wrongly placed because of lack of time. Even the lights on the last baton facing the audience seemed jarring, especially when Rahul Deshpande was rendering an excellent 'Chandrika hee janu' and Saily Panse was looking exquisite as the lady with the lamp. The two moons, one in the sky and one on earth, were over-shadowed by two blue spots looking into one's eyes and giving sense to the line 'meghanni vedhiyale'!
This play has always created problems for the designer. What is the period? What is the location? What were the fashions then? That baffles, and the play has traditionally been a wonder-house of clothes: from the costume of a 'bandwala' to a strict army uniform, to a 'Chandamama' prince! Costume designer and actress, Sayalee Phatak succeeds in maintaining the tradition!
The full house which waited for an hour and a half for the play to begin was very appreciative, and almost every song got an encore (cries of 'once more') and huge applauds). The singers responded. One felt that they had kept these stanzas ready in every song, and both gave us some exquisite taans and bol taans in the process. This play needs to be reviewed by a music critic as well!
The production has used recorded music as 'background music'. That is not desirable, but it passes. What disturbs is its use in the songs as well. Bhamini's songs become obscure with a loud recorded score, which is not even in harmony. Why not stick to the live accompaniment? Plus, the lapel mikes render the volume too loud-this should be controlled on the console.
Daji Bhatawdekar once experimented with SAUBHADRA on a 'sthara nivishta rangamancha' (stage with levels). Then Shreeram Lagoo gave us EKACH PYALA without the songs. Now Nipun Dharmadhikari has tried to make sense of a feeble love story in MANAPMAN. He has succeeded.
*Arun Naik is an author, editor, printer, publisher, theatre critic, translator, theatre director and designer. His translations and productions of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Macbeth and Othello have been widely acclaimed in both academic and theatre circles. He teaches Dramatic Literature, Communication Skills, Creative Writing, Translation and Printing Technology. He has contributed to The Oxford Companion to Indian Theatre. He has travelled widely to study the latest in printing technology and in theatre.
