Writer : Dr. Satyajit Kharkar Direction : Neeraj Shirvaikar Cast : Spruha Joshi, Swanandi Tikekar, Nishad Bhoir, Ameya Barve, Sagar Athlekar & Shraddha Pokhrankar
SANGA KASA JAGAYCHA Review
SANGA, KASA JAGAYCHA? is a play about grief and loss, sisterhood, the Indian justice system and several other things. But most of all, it is a play about not giving up. An angry play that wants to tell the viewer that there are injustices all around us, but it is important to keep apathy at bay and keep fighting. As one of the lead characters says in the play, sometimes you don't fight to win, you fight so that the people watching know that there was someone in the battlefield right until the end.
The story is this: After a hit-and-run accident leaves Anjali's husband in a coma with little hope of recovery, she is left holding on to his last expressed wish: to have a child and carry forward his legacy. The couple had been scheduled for an IVF procedure, but the accident intervenes. Determined to honour his wish, Anjali (Spruha Joshi) seeks legal permission to extract his sperm. She turns to high-profile influencer lawyer Sneha (Swanandi Tikekar), known for her unbeaten record, to take on this unprecedented case.
The first half of the play takes place in the hospital where Anjali waits in the ICU ward where her husband is admitted with a sort of restless hope that Sneha will take up her case. This is where the play is at its best - in a sort of uneasy limbo ÃÆ'¢â‚¬" where good writing, direction and realistic set design create a tense, unsavory atmosphere all too familiar to anyone who has ever been inside a hospital.
Anjali's obsession with mothering her comatose husband's child, her almost fantastical plan to achieve this, is paired very well with Sneha's practical responses, her shock at Anjali's proposal. Joshi and Tikekar play off each other's energy well, with Ameya Barve and Shraddha Pokhrankar playing charming side roles as the ward doctor and nurse. Their mini invasions into Anjali and Sneha's world create some levity in a rather grim story.
The second half of the play shifts base to Sneha's flat where the two women now live. They share a strange "Odd Couple" energy but much of the light, seemingly easy conversation carries an undercurrent of unresolved tension. This makes sense because of what's to come afterward.
A couple of scenes in the second half do feel overlong and the monologue in the end is slightly on the nose, but the play tries to make a point that may be difficult to digest for many and perhaps such a monologue becomes necessary for the commercial theatre audience.
SANGA, KASA JAGAYCHA? takes a firm view on questions that are ethically fraught, and not all its arguments will sit comfortably with every viewer. But the play's strength lies in its insistence on engagement - that in the face of injustice, withdrawal is not an option. Even when victory seems unlikely, there is value in staying in the fight.
*Neha Shende is an avid theatre-goer and enjoys watching old Bollywood movies in her free time.
