Comrade Kumbhakarna merges lore, reality
4 Jun 2012 6:55 AM GMT
With the advent of too many entertainment sources proliferating each day, it is surprising that theatre is not already dead. So when one saw a crowd turn up for the National School of Drama (NSD) Repertory Company’s annual Summer Theatre Festival, it felt good and surprising simultaneously.
Comrade Kumbhakarna, enacted at Kamani auditorium in the capital yesterday, presented the unique amalgamation of past and the present quite in sync with the title. This was Mohit Takalkar’s second attempt at directing a play written by Ramu Ramanathan. Their first collaboration was for Kashmir, Kashmir.
‘My feeling is that the audience in Delhi is more political than the ones in Mumbai or Pune. In Mumbai or Pune, we are happy to be in our world. It is a compliment to Delhi, perhaps a very generous one. People in Delhi seem to lead the same astonished lives and like people elsewhere, try to fill their empty lives with the same meaning, which now means movies and malls for many and alienation for others. When a play like Comrade comes along, it provides an opportunity for people to sit up and work hard to decipher and make meaning of the signs and metaphors and symbols unfolding in front of them, and somewhere in this process the play become the subject of their own reflection. That Comrade inspires this exploration is perhaps its greatest achievement,' pointed out Mohit Takalkar who originally hail from Pune.
The play is about a community of folk theatre artists living on the margins. They are extremely poor and struggle incessantly to survive in an apathetic world. The protagonist, named Kumbhakarna by his family so he can sleep instead of asking for food every day, narrates his journey, showing us his encounters with the state and power. His mother, who leads the theatre group, is a bold, traditional and worldly-wise woman. His father, inspired by the rationalist leader E V Ramasamy Periyar, is a staunch believer in the Self Respect Movement, he believes that theatre is ‘too illuminated, has too much light for their lives’. Kumbhakarna also has a twin sister who, we are told, commits suicide.
Elaborating on his experience, Mohit added, ‘The actors are skilled when it comes to even music, singing and dancing. We have used a variety of forms such as terakoothu, nautanki, kathakali. This play therefore needed such actors. Besides the actors are far more able to directly identify with the sociopolitical context of the play as they themselves come from different places in India which are not necessarily privileged. They understand the struggle of the characters. Actors from Mumbai and Pune tend to be more laid back. I have noticed that people in Delhi are more conscious of their political views. There is always some kind of protest happening here.’
Originally written in English, Comrade was translated into Hindi by Swantna Nigam. In an hour and 40 minutes Comrade Kumbhakarna does not give us a history lesson instead intrigues the audience with the curiosity to learn more about the issues raised.
Comrade Kumbhakarna, enacted at Kamani auditorium in the capital yesterday, presented the unique amalgamation of past and the present quite in sync with the title. This was Mohit Takalkar’s second attempt at directing a play written by Ramu Ramanathan. Their first collaboration was for Kashmir, Kashmir.
‘My feeling is that the audience in Delhi is more political than the ones in Mumbai or Pune. In Mumbai or Pune, we are happy to be in our world. It is a compliment to Delhi, perhaps a very generous one. People in Delhi seem to lead the same astonished lives and like people elsewhere, try to fill their empty lives with the same meaning, which now means movies and malls for many and alienation for others. When a play like Comrade comes along, it provides an opportunity for people to sit up and work hard to decipher and make meaning of the signs and metaphors and symbols unfolding in front of them, and somewhere in this process the play become the subject of their own reflection. That Comrade inspires this exploration is perhaps its greatest achievement,' pointed out Mohit Takalkar who originally hail from Pune.
The play is about a community of folk theatre artists living on the margins. They are extremely poor and struggle incessantly to survive in an apathetic world. The protagonist, named Kumbhakarna by his family so he can sleep instead of asking for food every day, narrates his journey, showing us his encounters with the state and power. His mother, who leads the theatre group, is a bold, traditional and worldly-wise woman. His father, inspired by the rationalist leader E V Ramasamy Periyar, is a staunch believer in the Self Respect Movement, he believes that theatre is ‘too illuminated, has too much light for their lives’. Kumbhakarna also has a twin sister who, we are told, commits suicide.
Elaborating on his experience, Mohit added, ‘The actors are skilled when it comes to even music, singing and dancing. We have used a variety of forms such as terakoothu, nautanki, kathakali. This play therefore needed such actors. Besides the actors are far more able to directly identify with the sociopolitical context of the play as they themselves come from different places in India which are not necessarily privileged. They understand the struggle of the characters. Actors from Mumbai and Pune tend to be more laid back. I have noticed that people in Delhi are more conscious of their political views. There is always some kind of protest happening here.’
Originally written in English, Comrade was translated into Hindi by Swantna Nigam. In an hour and 40 minutes Comrade Kumbhakarna does not give us a history lesson instead intrigues the audience with the curiosity to learn more about the issues raised.
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