‘Jagar’, an experimental theatre group from Pune was invited to perform two of its plays- AD’S LIVE SHOW and AAINA at Prithvi theatre recently. For those of you who are not aware, the last Tuesday and Wednesday of each month at Prithvi are dedicated to the hosting of Marathi plays. For more on this initiative please refer to the news under the title, “Prithvi lends its support to the cause of Marathi Theatre” in the news’ section of our site.
While the two plays offered by ‘Jagar’ could not have been more different from each other in tone and style, very little can be said about AD’S LIVE SHOW whose weighty premise emerged as next to pointless. In line with themes such as the debilitating effect of media, consumerism and popular consumption as explored in films such as ‘The Truman Show’, the play’s underlying moralistic tenor proved to be quite irritating after a fashion.
Written by Bhalchandra Pandit who also plays the protagonist AD, the play can be best described as an enthusiastic but amateurish exercise labouring to make a point. The fundamental problem lies in the script, which is altogether too facile. Thus attempts to provoke any real critique or reflection are simply lost in the technically efficient aural and visual backdrop created to depict couch potato AD’s fatal end.
Much against the wishes of his wife Vrinda (Ruta Pandit), AD succumbs to his friend Sam’s (Santosh Kilharkar) scheme of being part of a live media event in which he has to watch television non-stop for 240 hours. The result is that he loses his identity and mental stability to the remote control of the TV even as he earns millions for the record feat he undertakes. Strangely enough it is Sam, a TV mechanic/engineer (his profession in the play appearing as a case of overt symbolism) who earlier in the play criticizes AD for being glued to the idiot box. It is he who passes snide moral comments such as TV artistes who make a lot of money at the expense of people like AD.
Character flaws apart, the script also caricatures (or was is the sum result of amateurish acting?) sponsors and TV hosts without any solid purpose. It would also have been better for the actors playing the hosts of Channel Rock to stick to Marathi because it was evident that they were not comfortable speaking English. The idea of TV hosts beguiling their viewers could well have been communicated without the language being a point of contention. Nevertheless the conscious/unconscious choice of using two languages evoked a true-to-life image of hosts on the regional tele-channels who insist on speaking English that is replete with grammatical errors and mispronunciation of words.
The only thing that perhaps salvages this play is the concerted effort put in by the team of actors, including the ones in the crowd. They manage to create an impression of a “happening” studio within no time and retain an upbeat mood as AD goes live on television. Ruta Pandit who plays AD’s wife essays her part well but has very little to do in this otherwise trivialized piece.
The second offering, AAINA however turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Not only it had a competent cast of actors, including Ruta Pandit of the first play but also the simplicity of its subject touched a chord. Adapted from a Japanese story, Yogesh and Madhuri Bhandari have translated the play from Hindi into Marathi and in the process have further enlivened it with the Ahirani dialect.
The play’s plot effectively takes off from a time in the past where things like a comb were unheard of. The story revolves around a tribal (adivasi) family who counter a mirror (aaina). As each member of the family takes turns to examine the mirror secretly, their reflections lead them to create their unconscious fears and aspirations. The father (Santosh Kolhatkar) imagines seeing his father and is thus caught up with nostalgia.
His pretty, young daughter, Khayali (Harpada Shrogiya) first sees a young damsel who has bewitched her father but later takes her to be her friend with whom she can share her adolescent yearnings. Her brother (Devendra Gaikwad) who is only a little younger to her sees a strapping youth who can take him away to relish the wonders of the city that is beyond his small world. The mother (Ruta Pandit) on the other hand is overcome with grief and hatred as she sees a worn-down woman with blood shot eyes and she too like her daughter imagines this woman to be her husband’s keep.
The play opens to the lilting tunes of Hindi film songs of the late fifties and the story unfolds as a flashback, which is not quite evident till the end of the play. Khayali is finally shown as an old woman relishing the memory of the mirror that her mother had cast away in a fit of fury. Now it is Khayali’s granddaughter’s (Megha Shidore) turn to live her youth in the alluring glass.
The play’s inherent simplicity however does not leave room for teasing out metaphorical and psychological implications. It remains at the level of a fairy-tale like story of a primitive tribal family whose discovery of the mirror has only caused anguish and conflict amongst the family members. To that extent it is the performances by the actors, the dialect used and the music and set design, which engross the viewer more than anything else.
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