Everything good and proper, where Sakharam Binder is concerned, he says. He's no husband to forget common decency. These lines are from the play ‘Sakharam Binder’. The play was staged at Shaheed Bhavan auditorium here on Tuesday.
Vijay Tendulkar’s play, Sakharam Binder was first performed in 1972 and subsequently banned in India in 1974. It is considered as one of the controversial plays by Vijay Tendulkar.
Originally written in Marathi, the play was performed in Hindi for the Bhopalites. The play was directed by Jayant Deshmukh.
Set in a small Indian village, the play centers on the household of a single man known as Sakharam Binder. Binder, the protagonist, thinks he has the system by the tail and he can disregard the culture and societal values as long as he is truthful.
That system is the de facto enslavement of women in postcolonial India, despite the promises of democracy and modernity.
As the play moves forward it unfolds that Binder offers shelter to abandoned and outcast women.
This is seemingly grand act of generosity comes with the burden of imposed household rules that either the women can endure or choose to return to the hunger, brutality and certain death of the streets.
Drawn with cruel, yet honest clarity, the play explores the dynamics of gender, faith, love and power in a wholly, unexpected way.
A true modern masterpiece, Sakharam Binder, merges the past and present while offering a foretelling of a potentially ominous future. The play was beautifully presented. The matured acting skills of the artists managed to impress the theatre buffs of the city.