Skip to main content

In the classroom called life

Sir, Sir, Sarla, Makarand Deshpande's longest running play is going to be staged on Friday evening in the city. The play opened in 2001 with Anurag Kashyap, Sonali Kulkarni and Makarand. Over the years, Makarand wrote two more parts. In the show at Pune, Sir, Sir...will have part one and a portion from part two in it.
The play, which reopened in 2012, now has Sanjay Dadhich, Faisal Rashid, Aahna Kumra and Makarand playing the main roles.
Talking about the play, Dadhich says, “I am playing Phanidhar, who is in love with Sarla. Both of them and Keshav are Hindi literature students of Palekar Sir. Sarla is in love with Palekar Sir, but he says that it's ethically wrong and on his insistence, she gets married to another student. Phanidhar is a little angry with Sir saying that he could have help him win Sarla's love.”
The play starts with a dream, Phanidhar and Palekar Sir are talking about past memories. At interval point, Sarla comes to meet Palekar Sir and then what happens is the crux of the play. Interestingly, when the original play opened to the public, Dadhich was a backstage artist. “At that time I was very new and doing backstage. So it never struck me that I would portray this character sometime in the future. I was happy that I was associated with a great play,” he says.
But he must have observed something, we insist on knowing. Dadhich replies, “The intervening period between the original and the play with the new cast was quite long. If I had absorbed any nuances, I had forgotten by the time I performed Phanidhar on stage.”
Aahna Kumra, who is currently performing Sarla hasn't watched Sonali Kulkarni as the protagonist. Says she, “I haven't seen Sonali Kulkarni play Sarla at that point of time. I wasn't in Mumbai then. But I know that she and Anurag were fantastic in the play. Everyone who has watched the play with the original cast have always praised the duo. So I am extremely glad that I got to work in the play, in a role, which was played by Sonali. Sonali is a fire-brand performer. Her understanding of her character and as a woman in cinema is quite something. These are the women we have learnt from.”
When asked about their connection with individual characters, Kumra and Dadhich share their thoughts. Kumra says, “I connected with Sarla immediately because all of us have been through something like this. We have been in love with our teachers or an older person, who we look up to. That relationship is not sexual relationship; there is so much admiration for that person that you want to spend your life with him. I share a relationship like that with Makarand sir, with Naseer sir. There is a certain love I get from their end as well. They are all about pushing their students, encouraging them, giving them the right direction and so on. I think that's the relationship Sarla shares with her professor. I think this is a very real-life character. The marriage bit and all is a part of the drama. As an audience, you will identify with all the characters. You will say, 'F*** I have been like this at that point of my life'.”
Dadhich, who has acted in movies like M S Dhoni: The Untold Story and Taare Zameen Par and Netflix's Sacred Games says, “Everyone who has fallen in love, will identify with Phanidhar. Especially, if it's a one-sided love.”
The play also talks about mentorship and both the lead actors profess their admiration for their mentors, the people they look up too. Dadhich had met Makarand after his class XII and wanted a role in play. Makarand asked him to complete his graduation and then meet him. Meanwhile, Dadhich assisted on films, worked on other jobs and when he told Makrand that he was bored of assisting, the theatre veteran asked Dadhich to concentrate on plays. “I am not a trained actor. So whatever I am today is because of Makarand sir. I have been working with him for 15 years and he has given me good roles in good plays. He is very secure actor and so is Aahna. Makarand sir is one of the best actors that we have. He has written about 50 plays, and I think 25 plays can be studied as classics,” adds Dadhich.
Kumra, of Lipstick under my burkha fame, says that Naseer (Shah) Sir, Ratna (Pathak Shah) ma'am and Makarand Deshpande are my three pillars in my adulthood, who have taught me everything that I know. “ They taught me about being disciplined on stage, being alert, how you change things, tune things according to each one's performance, how give and take happens. I have had fever, and I have done performance and I felt absolutely okay. Or it might be freezing outside, but on stage you feel the temperature is normal. These are things that you learn from your mentors. You see them doing this day in and day out, and you realise this is how it's done. I think theatre is very healing.”


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Portrait of a poet

This has already been published in the Sunday supplement. Krishnaji Keshav Damle also known as Keshavsut --- Poetry never really appealed to me. And, so it was with great reluctance that I agreed to my husband's plan to visit Keshavsut Smarak – a memorial raised in memory of 'Father of Modern Marathi Poetry', Krishnaji Keshav Damle – in Malgund. We were in Ganapatipule at that time and decided to go to Malgund, a 10-minute drive (a kilometre) from the popular tourist destination. A sign-post told us to take a left turn and what greeted us, at the end of the lane, was tranquil silence. No security guards, no tourists, just a plaque announcing that Damle, popularly known as Keshavsut, was born in the red-roofed house, surrounded by green shrubbery. Keshavsut's house in Malgund  A poem by Keshavsut  The house, renovated in the old style, was near-empty, except for Keshavsut's portrait that was hanging from the wall in the front room. In the
Post a Comment
Read more

Valu and more

Visited Poman Pimpale village where Marathi picture Valu was shot. --- Documentary la chala… came the shout and Poman Pimpale villagers slowly started gathering at the village square. The children were already there, jostling each other, eager to see the ‘documentary’ – Marathi film Valu, which was shot in this village, some 14 kms away from Saswad. On the occasion of the film completing 50 successful days, the cast and crew of Valu, decided to host a special screening for the villagers on Saturday as a tribute. As Umesh Kulkarni, the director of Valu says, “ The movie is a collaborative venture of the villagers and myself. Valu is theirs as much as it is mine.” You just need to mingle with the crowd to find out what Umesh says is true - it’s their movie that the villagers have gathered to see. Pradeep Poman, a village elder, says that they enjoyed the whole film making process. “It had become a past time for us. Whenever we had some time to spare, we just went to see the shooting.
Post a Comment
Read more

Many ideas of ‘self’ (Review of Pratibimb, Marathi play)

With Mahesh Elkunchwar’s name as a writer associated with Pratibimb (Reflection), you know nothing in the play will be at face value. Nothing is what it seems. It is difficult for commoners to get into Elkunchwar’s mindspace, which is precisely the subject of the Marathi play, which was staged earlier in August and will now be performed again on Friday, September 15 at Sudarshan Rangmanch, Shaniwar Peth. While watching the play, it’s evident that the viewer has to peel various layers to get to the core of the story — Who are you? What does ‘self-identity’ mean? Is it so bad if your reflection goes missing or if you have no identity? Thokale (a white-collared office goer) wakes up one morning and finds his reflection missing. Enters Bai, his landlady, who tries to assure him that nothing is lost. In fact, it could be a ‘breaking news’ for the newspaper. This perhaps could have led to a lot of chaos physically. Instead, we are led to the darkness looming large in our dystopian minds
Post a Comment
Read more