Akash Khurana’s ambitious project, Under The Gypsy Moon has brilliance written all over it. He talks to Kritika Dua about the challenges he went through
Under The Gypsy Moon is a play brimming with old world charm. It has romantic elements in it and also talks about spirituality along with maintaining a curious, wonderful “everyman, everyday” quality to it. It’s rare to see something like this on the stage.
The play is a rendition of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s classic Srikanta. The protagonist in the play – Srikanta is a nomad, who believes that every new experience enriches him. He wants to live life to the fullest and does not want to be bound by relationships. Thus, representing the part of every man who is on a journey to find of the true essence of life. In this journey of discovering one self, he encounters diametrically opposite women who believe that he is their saviour. Srikanta’s encounters and experiences with women dissimilar to him give him a renewed perspective. The play graphs his experiences while also commenting on social setups by making him as much a protagonist as he is a spectator. The cast includes Arghya lahiri, Omkar Kulkarni, Shivraj Waichal, Aastha Arora, and Radhika Chopra in crucial roles.
Talking about adaptingthe play, Srikanta on stage, Akash Khurana said, “Incredible as it may seem, I don’t seem to remember how the idea cropped up. It just did. And somehow I felt that it could be done. There’s always been this affinity to Bengali literature and sensibility. And I had never worked in that space before. Sarat Chandra’s work is marvellous in its complexity and simple in its exposition. Very Dickensian. And I’ve tried to maintain that style in the play’s stylised narrative.” He has earlier adapted The Hound of Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle into a play.
Although the book was set in the early 20th century Bengal, the issues it talks about such as women’s emancipation, caste, religion are still relevant in today’s time. This is probably why Sarat Chandra is known as the first modern Indian novelist.
Khurana had a reason behind keeping Under The Gypsy Moon as the title, he said, “Sarat Chandra described the novel as ‘a collection of scattered memories – nothing else’. This collection of memories takes on a mystical, magical quality as Srikanta embarks on his journey. The image of the moon was a strong visual that stayed with me for a while, and therefore the title just organically appeared when I started thinking of a name.”
The play incorporated musical pieces from Bengal-baul , Nazrul sangeet, Rabindra sangeet, Awadhi thumri, beautifully sung and accompanied by dances amalgamating traditional and modern steps. The music supports the atmosphere of the play and enhances the beauty of it. The costumes have captured the Bengali flavour of the play.
It requires courage to adapt a classic like Srikanta and do justice with it. He said, “Most people enamoured by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s masterwork Srikanta, would look upon its theatrical adaptation as foolhardiness, audacity or a flight of fancy. I agree with them. Except that Srikanta is one of the most fascinating protagonists in Indian literature, and distilling the essence of the novel for the stage was a Sisyphean task I was willing to undertake.”
Talking about the choice of actors, he said, “From early on, we were clear that this was going to be an ensemble piece. We wanted to bring together an ensemble of people with various talents to create this world, rather than just actors, musicians, dancers playing their parts.”
Taking us through the process, he added, “The casting started with individual meetings and conversations about the text. This was followed by bringing people together in a room sharing ideas, thoughts, questions about the story. It was a very organic process and the text was central to it.” The play will definitely appeal to those who look for emotions in a story having charcters who are in search of self and beyond.