“This is the first time I have ever brought a play to Atlanta, but I am a total Nana Patekar fan, and this gave me the opportunity to host him as well as bring an amazing play to Atlanta” – Mark Premji, promoter
Hundreds of Atlanta theater lovers owe Premji a big round of thanks for bringing an amazing play to town, on 9th June, at the equally amazing theatre Earth link Live.
The play “ Purush” was first staged in 1980 in Marathi and was a runaway success. Since then this play has been staged 1900 times, in Marathi and now recently in Hindi, enthralling audiences both in India and abroad, running to packed houses every where.
The story revolves around Ambika, a young fiery school- teacher, and social worker whose father Anna Sahib Apte is a well respected, retired school-teacher, a staunch Gandhian, who has been honored by the President himself. Anna Saheb is very broad minded as far as his daughter is concerned, but when it comes to his wife, Tara, a simple caustic tongued house wife, he has double standards. He does not let her or any one else around forget the fact that he had married her after she was dumped by her first husband.
The Aptes, high caste Brahmins, are none to happy with their daughter’s choice of a life partner, a well educated, social worker Siddharth, who comes from the Harijan community. While Anna sahib is subtle, Tara makes her disapproval pretty obvious. Ambika and Siddharth, fight for the rights of the downtrodden, especially vulnerable women or those whose lands have been usurped by dishonest politicians. One such man who has been at the receiving end of their efforts, is Gulab Rao, a crafty, uncouth Politician who thinks women are inferior to men in every way. During a politically motivated visit to Anna Sahib’s house, he faces off with Ambika, who reminds him of how he had been unable to usurp the property of a hapless women because of her intervention and that women were equal to men in every way.
He weasels his way out of the situation politely and after inviting her to his bungalow under the pretext of getting her donations, rapes her. Arrogantly he tells her the rape was proof enough that men are superior to women, that all men needed was a woman’s body, who cared about feelings.
Not to be cowed down, Ambika , against her distraught mother’s wishes, goes to court, only to be humiliated by a brutally demeaning cross examination by the defense attorney. Gulab Rao’s right hand man takes the blame for the rape, but is set free due to lack of circumstantial evidence. Ambika’s mother cannot stand the humiliation and the stigma and commits suicide, her father begins to crack under the strain and her world is completely shattered when her fiancé balks at marrying her.
Ambika then takes justice in to her own hands and with the help of Banda, an out law with a conscience, meets Gulab Rao under the pretext of mending bridges, and has him castrated.
Perhaps what makes this play leave such a deep impact is the fact that it is amazingly well written and the themes that run through the play are so universal in character, crossing geographical boundaries. They deal with man–woman relationships, bigotry, manipulation, both on a political and personal level, and the status of women and underprivileged in all walks of life. These themes are as relevant in India where the weak are trampled over, where Dalit women have been raped for ages by people wielding authority, or in United States where the atrocities on blacks and other minority groups are still prevalent.
The cast of the play was truly amazing. Perhaps the most out standing performance was by Usha Nadkarni, who plays Tara, Ambika’s mother. As an arthritic, bigoted, emotionally suppressed woman, she not only played her role to perfection, her black humor was the relief factor as well, in an other wise terribly dark play. Anna Saheb played by 81 year old, Chandrakant Gokhale was an inspiration for those who think as soon as you hit 60 you should retire. His energy, the mobility of expression on his weather beaten face, his flawless dialogue delivery were all amazing to see.
Ayesha Jhulka, who until now was known only as the movie star who didn’t quite make it, was perhaps the surprise package of the play. “ I have absolutely no theater back ground,” she said in an interview with Khabar, “ in fact Nana and I have started this drama company Natya Malhar together, and this was our first production under this banner. We had hired actor Sachin’s wife Supriya, a film and stage actress to act in the play, though both nana and Vijaya Mehta, the director were after me from day one to do it. I had been refusing vehemently, because I had no theater background, and in any case had my hands full with the production responsibilities. A couple of months later, we let Supriya go because we were not happy with the way things were going and kept looking for other actresses, until finally after a lot of cajoling I gave in and decided to give it a shot, thinking, let them try, I know I won’t be able to do it, but at least, they will leave me alone. A month in to the play, I began to enjoy the rehearsals. I learnt so much from Nana and Vijaya, and after doing this play, I feel I have really grown as a performer. People have started looking at me with renewed respect. I think this character also works very well for me, because Ambika is me. I am just as she is in the play, a fighter, and a simple next door kind of girl, and so it was not that hard being myself.”
What can one say about Nana Patekar? He makes every role come alive, and he did this one too…his cunning, slimy portrayal of the faker than fake politician, his attempts at broken English to show sophistication, a suppressed arrogance as he tries to win Anna sahib with his put on humility, were all a treat to watch.
For those who were fortunate enough to see the play, it was a rare pleasure. For those who missed it, this was an opportunity of a life time, because June 10th was the last performance of this play. After this it will not be staged again.