Bapi Bose recently presented Rather Rassi, a play written by Tagore in the wake of his visit to the young Soviet Union in 1932. It uses ratha yatra as a metaphor for a classless society, says Utpal K Banerjee
The year is 1932. Rabindranath Tagore is back from an extensive tour of Europe and USA, where he received accolades all around and was felicitated for his extraordinarily vivid paintings that revealed the inner workings of his mind: not reflected earlier in his writing.
He has also visited the newly emerged Soviet Union and been deeply impressed by its manifestations as a society experimenting with education for all. And in economic terms, providing, “to each according to his need”, attempting the creation of a classless society.
However, the India he returns to is torn by political tension and beleagured by widespread communal riots. All of which disturbs the poet.
Rather Rassi (Ropes of the Chariot) was written by a visibly-pained Tagore at that critical juncture. An allegory, it captures one eventful day of Ratha Yatra (the chariot festival) that has to begin by pulling the chariot of Mahakal, (lord of Eternal Time) by Brahmins, the crème de la crème of the high society. There are rumblings of disquiet from womenfolk — always nearest to Mother Earth — who perceive something is drastically wrong because the chariot refuses to budge and proffer ritual appeasements to the gods.
A handily-available sage, accosting the women, predicts that nothing but disaster, as the citizenry try damage-control when they are faced by Kshatriyas, the battle-prone soldiers in the elevated rung of society, who shudder at the rope lying idle like a snake. Vaishyas, the moneyed business caste, are called in to assist in pulling the rope but fail and tension among castes mounts. The sagacious minister opens the venue to the lowest-caste Shudras. These “tillers of soil and hewers of coal” lend a hand and — lo and behold — the chariot has started moving: to the consternation of all the assembled higher castes.
Rath Ki Rassi, a production by Circle Theatre, attempts to interpret the above allegory through “contemporary dance and body expression”. Conceived by Bapi Bose (ex-NSD) and choreographed and directed by Pankaj Vij, the play captures a variety of dance forms, like kathak, contemporary dance, jazz, shines, salsa and other body-movements. There is also a mélange of music (not excluding Western ones), and copious use of tabla and flute. It is an enthusiastic presentation by sincere young dancers and their joy in dancing primarily kathak is infectious. But the limitation is they generally cannot act and do not relate to archetypes visualised in the play. Moreover, in absence of spoken dialogues and with music on track, they are less involved with characters they depict and the dramatic action simply does not gel.
Comments Vij, “Tagore’s plot envisions how human mind perceives power and conflict. It revolves round fundamental issues of ‘division of society’ into different sections. Yet highlights the bond among humans. Unless it encompasses the downtrodden in the ambit of social engineering and classless society, the ‘wheel of chariot’ cannot metaphorically move forward”.
On the novel approach adopted, the director adds, “Our presentation is enriched by performance of artists from theatre and kathak. Ours is an attempt to facilitate opportunities to reflect on structures and practices prevalent in society and how we are immersed in them.”