|
|
 |
|
|
|
Almost every year at the annual, national theatre festival, organized by the Nehru Centre, there is at least one Gujarati play either from Gujarat or from Mumbai, the home city of the festival. This time it was Mumbai based Shivam’s ongoing play MRUTYUNJAY. The play is based on the life of Dewan Amarchand who was financial adviser to the Jaipur state in the 18th century. He was loyal to his work and was patriotic too. Dewan Amarchand’s life was full of dramatic incidents. In his time the East India Company ruthlessly manipulated to engulf state after state. Palaces of princely states were reduced to beehives of conspirators and swarms of greedy and ambitious people. Amidst all the scheming, Amarchand stood by his principles and saved the state. This is the bottom line of the play.
The writer Suren Thakar ‘Mehul’ has treated the story of this brave and virtuous man with a certain amount of dignity by keeping clean of stereotyped humour that is prevalent on the Mumbai stage. But is that enough to structure a strong script? One wonders. The story becomes a narrative of one incident after the other. Divine intervention holds the key rather than any logical answers that Amarchand may have found. Again Amarchand’s virtues are revealed through narrations or by Jain sages and people whom Amarchand had helped. This is done through the theatrical device of using puppets.
The incidents concerning Amarchand’s son’s life-threatening sickness, his sudden recovery, Amarchand’s entry into a cage of hungry tigers, who instead of pouncing on him eat rotis, his confession of murdering a East India company agent to save the state from the company’s clutches, his death occurring just a few minutes before he is hanged- these are events interwoven in the play because of unexplained forces. The device of using male and female puppets is not absolutely new though. A couple of years back they were used effectively for Ekjute’s play JAISI AAPKI MARZI.
In MRUTYUNJAY the puppets help the story move forward but without any objectivity. The puppets’ sole aim is to praise the Dewan. The production is reminiscent of European Miracle plays. Dewan Amarchand has been projected primarily as a Jain. His principles were basic, simple, universal but was it necessary to indulge much in his faith? Absolute good or absolute evil becomes monochromatic and undramatic. On the whole the production maintains a decent pace and the use of puppets is a reflection of the Rajasthani tradition. The costumes of the King, of Dewan Amarchand and of the other characters look authentic enough. However the black costumes with red borders of the two antagonists looked too obvious and unnatural.
The songs and music by Suresh J. Joshi has a good mix of Gujarati and Rajsthani folk. The verses are meaningful and philosophical. Although the music and the songs are soothing, they do not particularly enhance the production or provide a dramatic contrast. They nonetheless entertain the audience!
Recorded music and songs always create problems during theatrical performances as all the other theatrical components are live. The sounds emitting from the stage have various perspectives and an emotionally charged quality. In the play, for most of the time the dialogues-sound- is in the form of questions while the answers are in the form of recorded music, which makes the entire process appear more clinical than natural. The theatrical tradition of ‘Once more’ applause is almost, sadly dead. Recorded music in productions like these nullifies its own existence and imitates films or television.
The set by Chhel- Paresh succeeds in creating the beauty and grandeur of royalty. The lighting by Kamlesh Mota with smoke effects creates pleasant visuals. The use of bright colours works well. The team of actors could have done better as most of them were acting with the knowledge and anticipation that ‘everything will be O.K’ Johny Shah did give an impressive performance as Devan Amarchand but the actor who played his wife failed to project the emotional turmoil of a mother who is on the verge of loosing a grown-up son. Kamlesh Mota and Grishma Shah as puppets have a difficult task at hand. They need to evolve some variations in their movements as puppets and Grishma Shah could try to avoid the constant use of a jarring high-pitched shrill voice.
If one looks at various features of the play separately, they are good by themselves but when one tries to put them together, the play falls short of creating a unified impact. And yet Kamlesh Mota and ‘Mehul’ deserve credit for attempting something different on the Gujarati stage. Here’s a play that breaks away from routine comedies lacking in substance, centred round a popular actor who acts himself/ herself in every play.
*The writer is a senior theatre and television person who has trained under Ebrahim Alkazi at the National School of Drama (NSD). She has written for publications such as ‘The Asian Age’ and is a regular contributor to the Prithvi Theatre Newsletter (PT Notes). She also offers theatre training to students at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and is an important critical voice for the Gujarati Theatre.
|
|
|
|
|
