Jalabala Vaidya and Gopal Sharman have adapted Kalidasa’s Ritusamhara as an English play. Vaidya spoke to Divya Kaushik about directing it in a way that it appeals to the youth
Kalidasa’s Ritusamhara, a long poem or a mini-epic that describes the change of six Indian seasons and how lovers react to the landscape, has been interpreted in various ways on stage. Out of the many dance performances that have happened on Ritusamhara, the one we vividly remember was by Pandit Birju Maharaj, wherein the poetic description of the six seasons was presented through different classical dance forms by over 18 dancers. Playwright and theatre director Ratan Thiyam also staged his production based on the poem. But most of the adaptations have been in Hindi, retaining few Sanskrit words to express the shringar rasa which dominates the lyrics. But renowned theatre personality Jalabala Vaidya has created a new benchmark with an English adaptation of Ritusamhara. The poem has been adapted into a beautiful and sensuous play that was performed recently at the Akshara Theatre. Kalidasa’s lyrical poetic imagery is complemented by Gopal Sharman’s original music in Vaidya’s production.
Vaidya says that it was her daughter Anasuya’s idea to come up with some production for “hot and spicy July.” She suggested that if they have to do something hot and spicy then why not do it in a classic way. “Since Ritusamhara is the most beautiful depiction of love that you can come across, I thought it would be perfect to do a play based on Kalidasa’s poem. The beauty of the poem lies in the way he has described the six Indian seasons, grisma (summer), varsha (monsoon/rains), sarat (autumn), hemanta (cool), sisira (winter) and vasanta (spring). The love that is reflected through the poem is rather patriarchal, in the sense that it vividly describes the woman’s body to define the beauty but there is hardly anything mentioned about the man’s body. The most important thing we had in our mind while planning the production was to give an insight into the era that was, when Kalidasa wrote this masterpiece. It is an insight into a different society,” explains Vaidya.
The challenges in adapting the poem into an English language play were many. “The idea was to keep it relevant to the modern times and to invite youngsters who might have only heard about literature like Ritusamhara. Mostly youngsters don’t know Kalidasa’s work beyond Shakuntala. A format like this can be an interesting way to make the youngsters know about our ancient text and classic forms. We should come up with more such interesting concepts to present the classic treasure that we have. It was not an easy task to adapt the poem as a play because there was no story to follow,” shares Vaidya.
A lot of hard work went into designing the stage as per the concept of the poem. Selecting the music was the most essential part of production. “The stage is dominated by a huge sun made in copper, set in wood. It was made by my husband Gopal Sharman. We start with summer and then move on to other seasons. The two lovers are shown seated on wooden boxes, which are painted with Kangra paintings, that go along well with the theme of the play. There are sheer curtains under which the audience can see the actors, lovingly talking to each other. Music is the strong point of the play. I have used original music by Sharman. Also I have selected music by the known names like Bhimsen Joshi, Bismillah Khan, Ali Akbar Khan and Imrat Khan,” adds Vaidya. After the first performance of the play at Akshara, Vaidya plans to stage the play this month again.
photos Pankaj Kumar