Andha Yug is all about the hatred and jealousy that traps a person in the desire for throne. The verse play written by Dharamvir Bharati in the year 1958 that received a huge recognition in Indian theatre industry.
The play was performed at Antarang Hall, Bharat Bhavan on Tuesday marking the opening of National theatre festival. Directed by Kripesh Jani, the play was brilliantly staged.
The play narrated the verse from the Indian classical epic ‘Mahabharata’. It also elaborates on the consequences, when a society fails to step out of the cycle of revenge and instead choose a redemptive path, which is always available even in worst of scenarios, leading to wide-scale bloodshed.
Set in the last day of the Mahabharata war, the seven-act tragedy does not only show the destruction of human lives but, also ethical values. The play begins on the 18th and last day of the Great Mahabharata War, which devastated the kingdom of Kauravas, cousins of Pandavas, their capital Hastinapur lay burning in ruins, the battlefield of Kurukshetra was scattered with carcasses and skies filled with vultures and death laments. Sufferers were on both the side as cousins killed each other.
The survivors were left grieving and enraged as they continued to blame other for the destruction even divine will, yet no one was willing to view it as a consequence of their own moral choices.
Just the Ashwatthama, son of guru Dronacharya, in one last-ditch act of revenge against the Pandavas, releases the ultimate weapon of destruction, the Brahmastra.
Krishna, who mediated between the cousins prior to war, remains the moral centre of the play. Even in his failure he presents options that are both ethical and reminds that higher or sacred way is always accessible to human beings even in the worst of times.
Began with the prologue the play takes an end with the Gandhari’s curse.
Kripesh’s great work was seen through the use of technicalities used, but the flow of human emotions undoubtedly left the audiences spell bounded. The costumes and make-up of the artists added more essence in their presentation.