Gujarati stage director Manoj Shah’s recent oeuvre has included a relatively large number of solo-actor projects. These are sometimes based on colossuses that need no introduction like Mahatma Gandhi ( Mohan No Masalo ) or Karl Marx ( Karl Marx in Kalbadevi ); or maverick littérateurs like Chandrakant Bakshi ( Hu Chandrakant Bakshi ) and Harishankar Parsai ( Popcorn with Parsai ) whose provocative pens have left behind vast tracts of material quite easily repurposed into ‘spoken word’ theatre. Even an unwitting trailblazer like Anandibai Gopal Joshi ( Dr Anandibai ), one of India’s earliest women doctors, has lent herself to a speculative monologue. These works are performed in the style of a testimonial delivered directly to audiences, and rely on texts with clarity and performances with character rather than inventive stagecraft. They are accessible, minimalist productions that represent a brand of cost-effective and portable theatre, propelled by the name recall of both actor and the portrayed personality.
Far from didactic
Shah’s latest play, Kaagdo , also began life as a monologue before writer Geeta Manek, who had earlier scripted Dr Anandibai, developed it into a tête-à-tête between a father (Jay Upadhyay) and a daughter (Unnati Gala) negotiating a philosophical rather than generational impasse. “The daughter exactingly keeps up with trends, constantly updating herself with technology, while the father is perennially content with his lot,” explains Shah. It comes to a head at a day in court for the father, sued by the powers that be for his inveterate, and therefore suspect, sunniness in the face of today’s dire realities.
The director is quick to point out that the play is not a futile exercise in cheerleading nor does it advocate happiness as an ideal, despite the telling constellation of ‘smiley’ stress-balls that is an important component of its visual design. Kaagdo draws from the essences of Japanese ikigai, the mysticism of Sufism, and the tenets of Zen Buddhism to mount an existential parable that is not didactic in its approach. “We had initially wanted to make a play about a Zen master, but felt that might be alienating to Gujarati audiences,” explains Shah. “Even sadness is a tradition of happiness, which ultimately can be found within us,” he says of the play’s philosophy, which is similar to the namesake Gujarati children’s tale titled, quite self-explanatorily, Anandi Kaagdo (‘The Happy Crow’). Likewise, Kaagdo ’s protagonist, a humble cog in the wheel in a governmental agency, doesn’t hanker for material possessions or conventional pay-offs, and his self-sufficiency provides the play its r aison d’être.
Gujarat’s Ghalib
Besides Kaagdo, this week’s run of shows at Prithvi Theatre by Shah’s outfit, Ideas Unlimited, includes performances of the long-running productions, Karl Marx in Kalbadevi and Mareez . The latter has completed more than 200 shows since 2012, and is one of the plays in Shah’s repertoire to feature large ensembles, with 15 actors. The title refers to the pen name of Abdul Ali Vasi, the mid-twentieth century poet dubbed the Ghalib of Gujarat, who nonetheless led a beleaguered and unsung existence. Mareez takes us through the signposts of his life and circumstances. For instance, the poet often sold his shimmering ghazals to other writers for a living without claiming credit. One episode zooms in on the literary rendezvous that regularly took place at the Railway Bar near Naaz Cinema in Lamington Road in the 1940s, a haunt for the literati where Vasi encountered his great contemporary Saadat Hasan Manto.
Although the play has been adapted by journalist Vinit Shukla mainly from Raeesh Maniar’s biography, Mareez: Astitva Ane Vyaktitva , it also draws inspiration from the lives of two other talented but tortured souls. Vincent Van Gogh’s autobiography, Dear Theo , and the Charles Bukowski biopic, Barfly , have both influenced the representation of an Indian poet who shared their unwavering commitment to the arts. It was Vasi’s distinctive intensity and passion that led to Shah mounting a play based on the life of one of Gujarat’s great pluralist icons.
Mareez will stage today and June 28 at 9 p.m; Karl Marx in Kalbadevi will stage today at 6 p.m; Kaagdo on June 28 at 6 p.m.; all at Prithvi Theatre; for more details see bookmyshow.com
