Shivaji Underground in Bhimnagar Mohalla

The Real Thing


Shivaji Underground in Bhimnagar Mohalla is a title that evokes curiosity. Nandu Madhav’s new play, written by Rajkumar Tangde, based on Shahir Sambhaji Bhagat’s rousing songs, examines the legends around Chhatrapati Shivaji and also puts forward his true legacy. It then leaves viewers to decide for themselves what they’d rather accept—the politically motivated picture of a great leader, or the historical truth; and as it stirs the mind the robust musical also entertains.  What makes it all the more praiseworthy, is that it has been performed by farmers from Jalna (a small town in Maharashtra).

Marathi theatregoers would remember the play Aakda, also by Tangde and his troupe of farmer actors from Jalna, also brough to Mumbai by Nandu Madhav.This stunning piece of agit-prop theatre was staged in darkenss to let city dwellers know what it’s like to live without electricity. Nandu Madhav is, of course, still remembered for his role as Dadasaheb Phalke in Paresh Mokashi’s film, Harishchandrachi Factory.

The actors in Shivaji.., fantastic singers with powerful speaking voices, rehearsed in the fields after work, and what they have come up with is a wonderfully provocative work, that brings out facets of Shivaji that should be underlined more.

Shivaji hoodwinks Yamaraj and escapes back to earth, leaving his turban behind as guarantee. The hapless Yama has to roam through the centuries with the headgear and look for a head of the right size. Meanwhile in present times, a political group, headed by a strident woman, Akka, and her cohorts, want to celebrate Shivaji Jayanti. While the political opportunists wish to portray Shivaji as a slayer of the ‘enemy’, a group of Ambedkar followers from Bhimnagar want to project him as he really was – progressive, secular, just,visionary.

The production is an attractive blend of music, humour and political thought, and dhamaal. Marathi audiences do not grant standing ovations easily, but this play earned it, from a mixed crowd of intellectuals and workers at Mumbai's Experimental Theatre.

The play has, predictably, run into trouble in a couple of places, but on thewhole, the response has been tremendous. It is a significant play at a timewhen light weight entertainment seems to satisfy most theatre audiences.

Chitragoshhti

Art As Drama


Sushama Deshpande usually works on fresh and very interesting material. Her last play Bayaa Daar Ughad, on the female poetsaints of Maharashtra, was a well-researched and rousing piece of musical theatre. In the supportive atmosphere of Awishkar, one of Mumbai’s most oldest theatregroups, under the leadership of Arun ‘Kaka’ Kakade, she is free to experiment with form and content.

Her new Marathi play Chitragoshhti, also withAwishkar, has its origins in the art of Sudhir Patwardhan—whose work portrayed the lives of ordinary Mumbaikars with striking effect.  The theatricality of his art was what Deshpande sought to capture and the production was devised after putting 21 actors--most of them young-- through an art appreciation workshop and then letting them improvise their responses to Patwardhan’s paintings-- particuarly his mill worker series and the family series, rich with unspoken stories hidden in the canvas.  In between, Abhinetri and Running Woman gave a chance to three bright young actresses to do their thing-- why don't Patwardhan's paintings portray women, they ask. Patwardhan says, they didn't choose the ones with women in them.

What undoubtedly made the exercise more exciting was the artist’s active participation--in the selection of paintings, sitting in on discussions and interacting with the actors during rehearsals. It’s not very often that this kind of collective process is used in theatre, and Chitragoshhti shows the way for more such creative collaborations.