ladies Sangeet by Purva Naresh is going to be an engaging play for the theatre connoisseurs with typical traditional music and a vivacious story. I Sankrityayan spoke to the director about the idea behind the narrative
The number of ladies sangeet that we would have attended so far would be uncountable. It is one of those occasions where a bunch of women gets together for a pre-wedding ceremony to sing, dance and gossip about one another. It's all fun around where everyone is happy and chirpy. Indeed nothing new to us. But at the same time there can be a crossfire of inter-generational heated conversations, bringing out a number of clashes between traditional and modern, progressive and regressive and so on. And these tussles form the base for Purva Naresh’s ladies Sangeet, as part of the Aadyam initiative. “There is no agenda as such behind this play. This is a engaging story for the audience using dialogues and music," said Naresh, adding, "You will find each character wrestling with the other to prove their point right and show their supremacy.”
Though the play begins on a happy note, it slowly starts highlighting the flaws and errors of each of the characters. The wedding stage transforms into a war ground and things seem moving in a wrong direction. “I think it’s really interesting to see a festive environment with a series of bleak conversations between people to highlight gender stereotypes and gender representation. These things add spice to the story, making it a perfect one for the people,” shared the director.
And the director seems right as most of the marriages are full of complexities and generation differences. Usually the older generation has a conventional and traditional outlook towards marriage, the younger ones want to break away from set parameters. And this creates a wide gap resulting in confrontations.
The play opens with a sangeet ceremony with songs like kesariya balam and other folk and classical tones. “Music takes the narrative forward and it is the most important part of our play,” explained Naresh. The story revolves around a family where the oldest daughter of the house, Radha played by Shikha Talsania is about to wed Siddharth (Siddhartha Kumar), who belongs to a well heeled family. And of course there is a mother of the bride played by lovleen Mishra who is a blend of traditional and contemporary thoughts. “Each of the actors has developed a close bond with their roles. For instance lovleen Mishra, a woman in late 40s, seems perfect playing the role of a mother and also brings out the conflict between rational and irrational approach towards life,” added Naresh. Similarly other actors like Joy Sengupta, who plays the role of father and Nivedita Bhargava portraying grandmother appear to be strong characters delving deep into their roles, bringing out elements of drama, comedy and grave issues related to society.
But why something so common like ladies sangeet and she laughed, “Certain times even the most common issue or superficial things when observed closely resonate with a deep meaning. The story that you will see is something that I have seen happening around me, especially in typical middle-class families.” She continued revealing about the concept and shared, “Being a kathak dancer and pakhawaj player, I have found that naayika plays a important role in classical dance. She is the protagonist and everything moves around her. Similarly, women play an important role.”