Swetanshu Bora’s play, Guilt , which has been shortlisted for The Hindu Playwright Award 2018 has three characters — Pooja, Kishore, and Anand. The Bengaluru-based playwright says the guilt in the title “essentially refers to Pooja’s guilt of feeling love again without closure from a family she loved for a decade. It is her guilt that drives the action in the play. Guilt also appears in smaller themes with Kishore, who is trying to come to terms with ending a relationship with his childhood home. He needs to either sell it or raze it and he struggles to come to terms with it”.
The play begins with an email from Pooja, who was in a relationship with Kishore’s brother, Nitin, saying she would be in Bengaluru for a couple of days. She asks Kishore if they could meet but says she would understand if he doesn’t want to meet her.
Talking of the genesis of the play, the 35-year-old says, “The idea first struck me when an old friend wrote to me. She was engaged to a close friend of mine who died in an accident. But she said that she was getting married to someone else. We lost touch after that, and seven years later she reached out to me, for no clear reason. That got me thinking of why she did it. From there I pretty much built a completely fictional account around what it means to need closure.”
Set in Bengaluru, the metro has a starring role in Guilt . Bora, whose Once, On That Street was shortlisted for the Playwright Award in 2011, says, “It just seemed like an interesting place to create visuals. Nothing more.” Describing the play as a love story, he adds, “I think Pooja and Kishore are deeply in love and will remain so.”
Guilt delves into what is accepted as ‘normal,’ in a small way, says Bora. “Kishore’s decision to accept Anand and continue to live with him is indicative of that. Pooja is the opposite. She sees Anand as a problem and wants to get to a place where she can get rid of him. Kishore convinces her to let him be around to help them cope.”
Mental health is “certainly being talked about much more,” Bora says. “You can see it more visibly now, on hoardings, on the roads, and social media. Hospitals also are pushing to talking about it more. It does seem to be much less of a stigma now.”
The theatre practitioner and voice-over artiste believes all plays are meant for stage. “That is the point of writing one. But obviously not all plays are produced.” Bora says he probably would not like to direct the play. “It is a bit intense. If a director is interested, I would certainly love to talk more to him/her first before considering myself for the position.”
The play takes place over 10 years. On how the passing of years would be represented on stage, Bora says with a smile, “Well, that is the job of the director. I, as a writer needn’t worry about that.”
(This is the second of three interviews with the playwrights shortlisted for the award. The winner will be announced on August 10 in the main edition of The Hindu )
