The State as it is
ROMESH CHANDER
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"Mangosil", which was on the boards this past week, is a meaningful story of life around us.
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THOUGHT-PROVOKING A scene from the play "Mangosil".
Uday Prakash today is one of the most respected names in contemporary Hindi literature, may it be as a fiction writer, essayist or a poet. In the last 20 years or so, his works have been translated into all major Indian languages as also into English and some other foreign languages. "Mangosil", one of his outstanding works of fiction as dramatised by V.K. Sharma and Kiran, and directed by Sanjay Upadhyay for the NSD Repertory, was on the boards last week."Mangosil" is a meaningful story of life around us - of violence, exploitation of money power, technology and of course the state itself.
The writer brings home his point through the character Suri whose head in comparison to his body is growing bigger every day and like a time bomb is itself creating the destruction of its life.
The writer also tells us that "Mangosil" is a disease which has no mention in any book of medical science because its virus is not biological, it is social.
The search for the truth hidden inside the legend of Suri, born out of the play of barbaric capital and violent power, is the aim of this story.
Beautiful story
"Mangosil" is a beautiful story and its dramatisation is true to the story but unfortunately, director Sanjay Upadhyay, who in the past has given us many good productions, in his search for some new innovative ideas, seems to have missed the bus. As for instance, in the very opening of the play the director's use of different voices as from under a tarpaulin sheet telling the audience of the human psyche etc., along with the badly shot video projection upstage, communicated nothing and bored the audience for about 20 minutes. The sequence could well have been completely edited out. Then again, the director's frequent use of AV throughout the presentation misfired because of its poor technical quality.
No excuse
Sanjay is an experienced director and has in the past given us some very good theatre. Maybe this time he did not have enough time. As he says in his note, he was "commandeered" to do the production within a very short period with a cast of four apprenticeship artistes of the Repertory who graduated this year from NSD and have been with the Repertory for about two months. Sanjay in his note goes on to say: "The dramatic adaptation took ten days and in the remaining 20 days or so whatever we did is in front of you....it could have been much better." It is an honest-to-God confession. But gentleman, please remember it is your reputation that is at stake and the audience is unforgiving, it accepts no excuse.
Since Uday Prakash's story is outstanding and its dramatisation indeed theatrical and the cast, particularly Biplob Borkakoti, Keshav Kumar, Rajinder Singh and Rasika Anil Agashe, all apprentice artistes with immense potential talent, along with some former Repertory hands like Sanjeev Ahuja, Motilal Khare and Satish Gautam, gave a well coordinated performance, "Mangosil" must be kept alive, but after more rehearsals and an in-depth re-look by the director on his overall production design.
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Chennai and Tamil Nadu
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