Even to those who might not have read the 2003 book by Khaled Hosseini or watched the acclaimed 2007 cinematic adaptation, The Kite Runner would likely evoke swirling images of fetching Afghan landscapes and the epic sweep of a generational saga. It’s a bestseller that has sold millions worldwide, and has a name recall extending much beyond those who’ve directly succumbed to its charms. In 2007, playwright Matthew Spangler adapted it for the stage, and it opened at the non-profit San Jose Repertory Theatre in 2009, winning a critics’ award for ‘Outstanding Production at a Large Theatre’. Spangler’s adaptation has seen many American and international productions. A decade since its launch, the play has been delivered to the capable hands of director Akarsh Khurana helming his first-ever Aadyam venture for Akvarious Productions and D For Drama. This is the play’s Indian premiere (although illicit versions have floated around).
Actors as directors
“I was surprised that there even existed a stage adaptation of the book and that was exciting in itself,” says Khurana. That the script worked on its own, rather than in relation to its more high-profile antecedents, was also a clincher for the director. It allowed him to mount the production without attempting to draw substantively from the novel or the film. So, for viewers coming in with those recollections or expectations, there is likely to be surprises in store, even if the play did have “Hosseini’s blessings”, as Khurana puts it. He had picked up the script last year, and actor Nipun Dharmadhikari, who read the copy first, told him, “This is a good but tough adaptation, but you will need to direct the hell out of it.” That was the joke that set the ball rolling. Dharmadhikari came on board as the play’s protagonist, Amir, wracked with the guilt of a childhood lapse of judgement. “Nipun has a genuine vulnerability, but also the maturity to pull off complex emotions,” explains Khurana, who has diligently hand-picked the members of a fairly large ensemble. Veterans of the stage like Kumud Mishra, Shubhrajyoti Barat and Akash Khurana rub shoulders with their younger colleagues like Abhishek Saha, Adhaar Khurana, Muskkaan Jaferi and Dharmadhikari. Another inside joke associated with the production is that Khurana has cast several actors who are directors themselves, because “It is such a difficult play.” Lighting, The Kite Runner is another director, the omniscient Quasar Thakore Padamsee.
Friendship and conflict
The play’s entire first act is centred around the first quarter of Hosseini’s novel, according to the San Francisco Chronicle , and is focused on the childhood friendship between Amir and Hassan (played by the sincere Saha) in Kabul circa 1975. Their fathers are respectively master and servant, but their amiable association appears untouched by such concerns, even if Hassan is merely Amir’s ‘kite-running’ partner, who chases after the kites, the latter cuts down with alacrity, a role fraught with class distinctions. Set against the backdrop of a strife-torn country, one incident in particular sets into motion the play’s conflicts. Amir’s moral complicity in the fate befallen of Hassan will likely give Dharmadhikari the opportunity to effect a heartrending rite of passage not without its contradictions. “The play keeps changing locale, and is rife with episodic flashbacks, so it was a challenge to adapt, but a lot of it rests on the protagonist’s shoulders,” elaborates Khurana. Arguably, one of the director’s best works has been his award-winning production of Hassan Abdulrazzak’s Baghdad Wedding , which opened in 2011.
It was also a play with a multicultural ethos, where human emotions in the throes of countries in turmoil was explored with a mix of nuance and high drama. “It was a complex and emotional play, with a narrator, that criss-crossed across the world, and as it turns out, that venture was the boot camp that now allows me to tackle The Kite Runner so confidently,” asserts Khurana.
The Kite Runner will stage on August 31 and September 1, at the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, NCPA. More details at insider.in
