Kaushik Bose’s play Flesh questions gender equation in our society through the lesser-known story of Mahabharata’s king Yuvanashva. By S Mallik
Arizona’s Thomas Beatie might have been crowned as modern world’s first pregnant male or male mother, but the gender specific roles have been debated upon since time immemorial. Kaushik Bose’s latest theatrical project Flesh takes us back to Mahabharata when king Yuvanashva of Vallabhi gave birth to a son and faced societal dilemma.
Adapted from Devdutt Pattanaik’s story The Pregnant King, the narrative revolves around this lesser-known story of Yuvanashva who accidentally became pregnant after drinking a potion meant to impregnate one of his three queens. “The story is also about gender roles, blurring lines between parental duties and the malleability of dharma to fit into a given situation,” said the director.
Bose read Pattanaik’s book while he was still looking for a story for his next play. He was intrigued how a king got embroiled in the chakravyuh of his own karma. He said, “The story touched me. It questions our ability to accept the world as it is. Its protagonist Yuvanashva’s struggle within, is a moving experience and very humane. Through his transient journey we experience the conflicts and struggles that exist in our society even today.”
Flesh begins in the kingdom of Vallabhi with two orphaned brahmin boys Somvad and Sumedha, who dress up as a married couple, to enter into a royal celebration. They repent their action and Somvad expressed a passing thought that if he were really a woman, both he and his friend would have been saved from being punished in the court. Overnight, with the magic of a yaksha, Somvad was transformed into a woman, Somvati, and he exchanged vows with Sumedha. King Yuvanashva, who came to know about the incident, disagreed and asked Somvad (now Somvati) to marry the brahmin girl he was betrothed to, before he was turned into Somvati. When Somvad refused, Yuvanashva condemned them both to death citing the course of dharma, that two boys cannot be bound in matrimony.
However, the play catches life of Yuvanashva who is now yearning for a child to keep the legacy going. He orders a yagya to yield a potion which would give him a son. The brahmins conducted the yagya, collected the potion in a pot and left without any information. In a fit of raga of not being told about their departure, Yuvanashva goes to the site and accidentally drinks the potion.
Interestingly, Yuvanashva was tricked by the ghosts of Sumedha, Somvati and Somvad while peeping into the pot. The play progresses with Yuvanashva giving birth to a boy and being forced to give up his motherhood to take over as the king of Vallabhi. The first half of the play ends with Yuvanashva, a powerful ruler by day, cradling and nursing an imaginary child by night at the women’s chamber. The play takes a jump of 16 years when Yuvanashva’s son Mandhata comes back to Vallabhi and comes to know of the true story of his birth. He not only refuses to call Yuvanashva mother but rejects him from his life. The play ultimately ends with the king renouncing his kingdom.
What happens to the king, no one knows and the director chooses to deliberately have the curtain call at a juncture which leaves the play open ended. He explained, “I have never made a statement through my work. I have ended Flesh at a subtext level so that finally what remains with the audience is the story and a human experience.”
It was quite a task to adapt a 350-page book into a play. It was more difficult for him because Pattanaik’s story had a lot of layers and plenty of messages. Bose recollected, “I kept the subplot involving Sumedha and Somvad to create the base of the story, otherwise it would have been difficult to portray the dichotomy of Yuvanashva.” Both Pattanaik and Bose spent many hours on discussing on how to script the story for a full length play. What resulted was a performance with no lose ends and where none of the messages were lost.
Bose has been actively associated with theatre for many years and have directed plays on social issues and an open-ended flair has been the constant characteristics of all his ventures. “I believe that you cannot preach the audience. You can share your point of view but you can never force them to believe it. Success in theatre is not determined by how well you influence people to see things your way. It is only when the audience can connect with the protagonist and experience the emotions that he goes through, that a play is successful in its true sense,” the director rounded up.