The German journalist-writer, H.L. Mencken is once believed to have defined immorality as “the morality of those who are having a better time.”
It was interesting to see this definition play itself out on stage recently during Aagamana , by Aneka Bangalore, directed by Suresh Aanagalli. The play was the sixth in the series hosted by National School of Drama, Bangalore Centre and was a Kannada adaptation of Friedrich Durrenmatt’s original, The Visit.
Durenmatt’s play questions ideal notions of justice, morality and forgiveness and gives it a 21 century spin. Rooting his text in a village called Palur in Karnataka, Aanagalli simply asks us if justice can be bought, can it still be called just? Janaki Jhingania, a millionaire, returns to Palur, her poverty-stricken hometown. Years ago, cheated by the man she loved, she was forced to leave and now she is back to exact her revenge. She is willing to invest and help in the development of the village but in return she wants her townspeople to help her secure her revenge. Who is wrong, asks Aanagalli- Ramachandra Rao who cheated Janaki, got her pregnant and assassinated her character, or Janaki herself, who is willing to gift money to Palur if the townspeople murder Ramachandra Rao.
Couching its severe critique of a greedy, heartless society in a musical, Aagamana employs a rather clever strategy to engage its audience. The music grabs your attention and makes you sway along as songs of love and hope are sung in the first half of the play. As the play progresses, basking in the melody of the songs you suddenly find yourself standing in front of a society torn apart by greed- a harsh reality unveiled rather sweetly but crushing all the same. In an iconic scene, after it is decided that Rao must be murdered, the policeman standing in the centre of the stage, points the gun at us, in the audience, implicating us in our role as participants in such a society.
While the actors stole the show, especially Archana Rao as the devastated, yet resolute and cold Janaki Jingania and Sandeep Pai as Ramachandra Rao, the production was not without its glitches, especially with a lag with the musical team backstage. Overall, it was a sincere effort to adapt Durenmatt to Kannada. The audience’s conundrum was a tangible one - would it be immoral to have said that one had a good time watching the play?
