The power of three

For theatre and art lovers, it was a blissful Sunday. Veteran theatre professional Waman Kendre is back on stage after an eight year gap

For theatre and art lovers, it was a blissful Sunday. Veteran theatre professional Waman Kendre is back on stage after an eight year gap with a tri-lingual production-Priya Bawari (Marathi), Mohe Piya (Hindi) and O My Love (English), all on the same day. Kendre, who is famous for his plays like Tee Phulrani, Zulwa, Ranangan, Teen Paisacha Tamasha, Char Divas Premache, Tempt Me Not, talks to CS:


Who: Waman Kendre
What: Talking about his latest play
Where: At the Mumbai University

Good old times
Like in Greece, India too had its own theatre culture where the plays were written in Sanskrit. The nature of those plays was classical with an emphasis on words. But there was another variation, written by Bhasa, which gave more prominence to body language and expressions based on which Natya Shashtra, the main philosophy in the art world, was written 2000 years later. However, these traditions disappeared with the establishment of training schools and people forming different ways to express art. Today, the dance institutions follow the rules written in Natya Shashtra, like using your eyebrows 33 times, more than theatre artists do.

Womanpower
I recently promised my fans that I'll present a play before August 15 and here I am. Priya Bawari ufffdu00a0 is an adaptation of Bhasa's play Madhyam Vyayog. It is the love story of a womanu00a0-- Hidimba, the wife of Bhima, and also about the complexities and politics in relationships. When I researched Hidimba, I found out that though she was a demon, she was a beautiful princess with many facets to her personality. She was a revolutionary lady of her times, which led me to realise that pain and power games in a male dominated society were the same then as they are today. She asked him to marry her and stay with her only till the time she conceived a child. Once she was pregnant, Bhima returned to his homeland never to see her again. But Hidimba never held a grudge against him.

War fair?
It took eighteen years for Bhima and his son Ghatotkach to come face to face. When Bhima realised how powerful Ghatotkach was, he pleaded to Hidimba to forgive him and to send their son to fight the war against Kauravas. A Brahmastra released by Karana kills the brave Ghatotkach. And eventually Karana also died. Isn't this what happens in real life too?u00a0The two warriors, Ghatotkach and Karana, had no stake in the war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, but they lost their lives fighting it. So does the common man when there are riots and religious wars taking place in the country. Have you ever heard a minister's son having lost his life in a riot? Or has any bureaucrat ever fallen in the power games? Never. I wanted to bring to notice these underlying political currents that prevail in our society even today.

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