Touching portrayal
DIWAN SINGH BAJELI
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"Ramleela" staged by Shri Ram Centre's second-year students recently, is tender, satirical and disconcerting.
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DRAMA-WITHIN-DRAMA A scene from Ramleela staged at the Shri Ram Centre.
Rakesh's "Ramleela" is not an enactment of the epic saga of Lord Rama, symbolising the victory of Good over Evil. Instead, it unfolds a bloody communal conflict unleashed by vested interests, exploiting the religious sentiments of the people.
Despite its communal stereotypes and contrived situations, the production of the play presented by Shri Ram Centre's second-year students at SRC auditorium in New Delhi recently is by turns tender, satirical and disconcerting.
The play opens on a promising note following the structure of a drama-within-drama, through the interplay of actors who have assembled in a place to rehearse the Ramleela. We become aware of the actors' social status and their milieu. They are all slum dwellers. After doing odd jobs during the day they are here to play different roles. Among them are Hindus and Muslims.
The atmosphere is charged with communal warmth and brotherhood. Collectively, they present a portrait that exudes fraternal feelings of an economically depressed class, struggling to eke out a miserable existence.
Enters Seth Kalika Prasad and his henchmen, who praise the efforts of slum dwellers to organise Ramleela and offer them financial help and a venue for rehearsals. Seth's seemingly generous gestures turn out to be rabidly communal.
The Muslim members of the Ramleela committee are isolated, creating a communal divide in the basti.
Ulterior motive
Self-styled Muslim leader Ali Bahadur is crook enough to see through the ulterior motive of Seth who has no love for Ramleela or the uplift of Hindu culture. Seth simply wants to grab the slum land by uprooting the people living there in appalling conditions.
Ali Bahadur is a powerful man who has a hold over Muslims. Shrewd and rapacious as he is, he uses his fanatical speeches to infect the community with the communal virus and can go to any lengths to have his share in the land likely to be vacated, resorting to brute force.
Now the conflict shifts from the real world of Ramleela performers and their anxiety to arrange necessary funds required for the staging of the leela. The earlier intricacy is given short shrift and the play takes a predictable and naive turn, resulting in an ending that is obvious and simplistic.
The play is directed and designed by Rajesh Singh who initially underwent an acting course from SRC and later graduated from the National School of Drama. He has an impressive record of working with several leading lights of contemporary Indian theatre, apart from directing plays independently.
His production under review reveals a few sluggish patches and some sequences are marred by loudness and yet the director offers some sensitive and thought-provoking moments.
The director's team of enthusiastic performers are students of the training course of SRC.
After completing a two-year part-time course, a few of its past students have joined the National School of Drama to pursue advanced study in theatrical art; some are absorbed in the SRC repertory as professional actors, while the ambitious ones prefer to struggle to get an opening in films and television.
Rajesh is able to bring out the creative talent of his cast and some are really talented. Amit Baisoya as Bade Miyan, a veteran Ramleela artist, who is insulted and isolated by Hindu fanatics, creates a touching portrait, striking a chord with the audience. Ekta Tiwari as Rashmi, daughter of Seth Kalika Prasad, who dares to rebel against the aggressive orthodoxy of her family, Mukesh Kumar Bharti as Ali Bahadur and Dhruv Dhuriya as Seth Kalika Prasad act admirably.
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