A Hindi play, which told the story of an artist, ‘Kaumudi’ was staged here on Thursday at Bharat Bhavan. Directed by Abhishek Majumdar, the play was splendidly performed by the artists of Indian Ensemble Organisation, Bangalore at Antarang Hall. The play marked the third of ‘Aadranjali’ being organised in the memory of BV Karanth.
The play tells the story of an aged artist, Satyasheel, who has earned much fame and popularity in his depiction of the character Eklavya from the Mahabharata. But the slow and steady decline of his eyesight is forcing him to give up his art.
Now with this age he is tragically becoming blind. But, the difficulty ensues on him when in his last three-day show prior to his inescapable retirement; he is forced to collaborate with the young and upcoming actor Paritosh, who is famous for playing the role of Abhimanyu in other theatres.
Paritosh has arrived at the old theatre in Allahabad at which Satyasheel has been the star actor and to replace him as Eklavya after his last show. Till then Paritosh will continue to play Abhimanyu.
As they prepare for their respective roles, there is much hostility between the two actors, but it slowly becomes evident that they aren’t strangers to each other. Satyasheel and Paritosh are in fact father and son, estranged in their past due to an unfortunate incident.
The story then unveiled the past, where an evening at the sea took a turn for the worse and the father had been compelled to choose between his drowning son and wife. This marked event entrenched in Satyasheel’s consciousness and tortured by Paritosh’s presence becomes a source of dramatic conflict with the unraveling of Eklavya’s character and its philosophical underpinnings.
On the other hand, the play took the audience to the real Mahabharata where Krishna ponders over how to get out of the chakravyuh.
All these events taking place on-off stage were tremendously dramatic and added flavours in the performance.
It was sheer pleasure for the theatre buffs of the city to watch such an innovative and interesting play.
The play smoothly transitions between the ‘reality’ off stage and the ‘reality’ on stage. As the play moves along, the parallels between the actors’ lives and the lives of the characters they portray become more and more pronounced. The on stage drama raises philosophical questions.