Atul Kaushik’s production of George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm throws light on the current Indian political scenario in a subtle way. He lists the tweaks and turns that he made to the original text. Shrabasti Mallik reports
After George Orwell penned the famous Animal Farm in 1945, he had mentioned in a letter that it was in full consciousness and for the first time that he had tried “to fuse political purpose and artistic perspective into one whole.” The story came from his deep-seated angst against the rule of Stalin and is, therefore, a narration of events that led to the 1917 Russian Revolution and the rise of Stalin in the Soviet Union. It was a purely political story in which Orwell, a democratic socialist, expressed his personal views through animals. little did he know that Animal Farm would reflect the political scenario of countries all across the world even after seven decades of its publication.
The story has been translated into almost all languages of the world and has also found its way into movies and theatre productions. Its latest adaptation, of the same name has been directed by Atul Kaushik. “The beauty of the masterpiece is that whether you are a Russian, American or a citizen of any country, you will find flashes of your political scenario in the novel. The text has also had its share of controversies. But when we read it, we knew that whenever we would have the means to do this play, we will adapt this in the Indian set-up,” he said.
The story is about a farm full of animals and two pigs — Napoleon and Snowball — who lead them. How they run the farm by making false promises and manipulation forms the crux of the narrative. In Kaushik’s production, the core of the script remains the same but he mentioned changing certain narratives, characters and situations. “We wanted to set the play in the Indian context so that it suits sensibilities. We want people to relate to the political history of the county and also the current situation of Indian politics,” explained the director.
To make the play more realistic, he has introduced the concept of democratically conducted elections. He pointed out, “There is no mention of a democratically conducted election in the novel but the polls are conducted in a democratic manner in our version. Although it seems like a democracy, elections are always influenced by power, money and position.”
Another interesting feature of Kaushik’s production is the fact that it is a multi-lingual play where one of the characters portraying a pig talks in Bihari while the other speaks in Hindi. “Horses speak Rajasthani and donkeys talk in Bhojpuri. This is a representation of our political fraternity — to denote the diversity of the people in politics,” he mentioned. Instead of making the actors wear animal costumes, Kaushik gave them tattered, worn-out clothes. “But their faces are painted corresponding to the animal he or she is portraying,” he added.
Music is yet another integral part of the script. Kaushik has drawn influences from folk music of India — Rajasthan and Haryana — and incorporated it in the script of the play. “It adds to the beauty of the production because nothing interests an Indian audience more than music and in the play musicians sit on the stage and play live,” he concluded.