In Mohan Rakesh’s Ashaad Ka Ek Din princess Vidyottama is a small character who comes to visit Kalidas in his natural habitat and convinces him to come to the capital where he can make a name for hims
In Mohan Rakesh’s Ashaad Ka Ek Din princess Vidyottama is a small character who comes to visit Kalidas in his natural habitat and convinces him to come to the capital where he can make a name for himself. She falls in love with Kalidas and they get married. The play, Vidyottama is written and directed by Mohan Maharishi for the NSD Repertory Company. In the play, we see Vidyottama, the daughter of King Vikramaditya and wife of celebrated poet Kalidas, as someone who rejects a luxurious life to discover herself.
Vidyottama runs a dance school where she and her husband plan to produce Kalidas’ play, Shakuntala. We see her dancing with Kalidas, whom she teaches about rhythm and movements. She asks Kalidas about what he is writing, and provides inputs to it that are beyond even the poet’s reach. She comes up with suggestions and arguments that at times, baffle him. Vidyottama’s restlessness and dissatisfaction with life induce her to worship lord Shiva who, pleased with her vigorous sadhana, grants her wish — to travel freely in time and space. Vidyottama takes advantage of her boon and is often missing from the court and the house for days and nights. Kalidas is unable to bear this and the king is overwrought at her absences too but she refuses to give any information about her whereabouts, as she has probably promised lord Shiva that she will not reveal her powers would lose them if she reveals them. In the end, Vidyottama visits India in the 21st century, where she is accosted by four boys who rape her.
When she goes back to her normal life she is very ill and the king and Kalidas are very agitated when she refuses to disclose where she had been to. In a human touch in the play, a policeman tries to cover Vidyottama’s nakedness with his overcoat when he sees the boys whistling at her but is unable to save her. Though the play is cleverly written and well directed and performed by the members of the NSD Repertory Company, the content of ‘Vidyottama’ is quite weak.
CVIt has no meaning to offer with which one can relate to one’s life. The only thing it celebrates is a strong woman who lives by her intellect. The music by Kajal Ghosh was classically good and the effects were very apt. The costumes by Anjali Maharishi, the choreography by Bharati Shivaji and lighting by Ashok Sagar Bhagat were very effective.
After writing a play like Einstein, one expected something more powerful from Mohan Maharishi’s pen. Vidyottama played by Annapurna Soni was excellent, as was Kajuki played by Raju Roy. Yatendra Bahuguna as Kalidas and Deep Kumar as the king were adequate. Sampa Mandal as Vasanti the maid added a little touch of brightness to the sequences where she figures.
Short Plus Sweet Delhi Theatre Festival 2015, featuring short 10-minute plays, was a success. Raavan, a short play dealing with Raavan’s death at the hands of lord Rama brought out eternal social lessons from this ageless epic. Written and directed by Atul Satya Koushik and presented by The Film and Theatre Company, the gripping 10 minute play was well-received by the audience.
Small I Stereotypnator was a play whose title was a play on words, movements and sounds featuring two girls and two boys. It was directed by two members of the cast, Shruti Sharma and Saif Ali for company T For Theatre. The play was a hilarious production that featured a series of stereotypes and examined what lies beyond mere patterns of recognition.
Straight Outta Kurukshetra was directed and written by Pranay Manchanda and done by the Free Parking Entertainment company. The play is the story of Eklavya, the greatest, pre-pubescent archer the Mahabharat ever saw. His tale is told with a light touch which sees guru Dronacharya having a crush on Arjun and neglecting the other Pandavs and Kauravs because of this. Dronacharya thinks Arjun is the greatest but when he meets Eklavya, who puts seven arrows in the mouth of a dog to prevent him from barking, he is surprised and shocked. The sage asks Eklavya is guru is, which Eklavya replies it is Dronacharya himself. Dronacharya, played by a woman, refuses to believe him before Eklavya shows him the statue he made of the sage and practiced archery on. Dronacharya turns around to Eklavya and asks him for gurudakshina in the form of Eklavya’s right thumb. The archer readily cuts off his finger and presents it to his guru, which ensures that his days as an archer are over and Arjun remains supreme.
The cast was uniformly active and on the spot. There were ten short plus sweet plays at the India Habitat Centre as part of the Delhi Theatre Festival. There were plays in Hindi and English and a combination of the two languages also. The evening opened with Not Even God followed by Ek Haath Wala Gaon and the third was Daastan Digital India Ki. The fourth play was Raavan, followed by Tech’s Mess, which was written by Karan Arora and Shivangi Kapoor and directed by Karan Arora. The play in Hindi and English featured a cast of children from the ages of five to 15 and they played with abandon.
Bringing up Davy was a two-actor play about an emerald necklace, which sets up a series of confrontations within a family. The seventh was Stereotypnator and eight play was Rainbow Behind The Clouds, a sentimental play which was a solo performance about a boy who wants to become an artist but tragically loses his eyesight in an accident. This was followed by ‘Straight Outta Kurukshetra’ and the final play was ‘Dekh’ in Hindi where a group of boys are against acting out anything and ask us to watch the plays.
