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Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

PERSONAL IS POLITICAL Chetan Datar: ‘There is a complete lack of political consciousness in our people’

Chetan Datar belongs to the contemporary breed of Marathi playwright-directors, who are convinced about the theatre they want to uphold. He wears a calm, composed demeanor, but engaged in a discussion with him you’ll learn how deeply involved he’s with the world around as he is with theatre. Therefore, you will find Chetan talk about a range of issues from child abuse to homosexuality and Indian society, to the middle class, to hardcore politics and how it affects him and his theatre.

Chetan, who began his association with theatre as a writer is also an activist; he was among the strongest voices against commercial theatre. This dynamic, politically-charged playwright has directed over 25 plays and has written-adapted nearly 15 plays. For Chetan, theatre is a form of self-expression and there’s know way in which he will sugar-coat his anguish to woo his audience. “I had to write No. 1, Madhav Baug even though I knew it would offend middle class sensibility. Homosexuality is not out there on the street for us to sit in our cosy, drawing rooms and talk about it. Your child could be one, you have to encounter it,” observes Chetan, about his new play.

Incidentally, Chetan went back to direct Mahesh Elkunchwar’s play “Holi” written in the Sixties, for the Ranga Shankara festival in Bangalore, which has homosexuality as one of its issues. Chetan believes Holi is a play that continues to be relevant in our times. “One finds a complete lack of political consciousness in our people. There is no idealism. There is no student politics,” explains the director, which was among the compelling reasons for the choice. “Initially, I thought I would locate it in a time. But then I felt uncomfortable because I was doing the play in Kannada, a language that’s unknown to me. And to make it a period document I need a better understanding of the language in all its nuances.”

Ideologically one could probably strike a common ground, but since he was doing a Marathi play in Kannada and with Kannada actors, Chetan did face challenges that were hitherto unfamiliar to him. “Language was the main barrier. Except for two or three members in the team, most people could not even understand what I was trying to say. By the time I could communicate to them I realised that I had lost a lot of time. What made directing the play even more challenging was the fact that it was in Dharwad dialect. This posed a problem not just to me but also to the actors. So we decided to change it to local dialect. But then, with switching dialects, we had to take care of not sounding explanatory.”

Chetan, like a true blue theatreperson, with an animated body language, explains how he was listening from every single pore of his body. From the intonations to pauses to sounds to meanings, he had pinned his ears back. “I found myself constantly referring to the Marathi script. And that’s when I discovered the danger of getting carried away by the Marathi script,” speaks Chetan interestingly of this cross-cultural experiment.

The challenges were hardly merely personal. He had to handle a group with diverse sensibilities that came with a rather heavy moral baggage. “We were rehearsing during the month of Ramzan. And I kept asking them when Id was and that made them horribly curious. ‘Why? But you are not Muslim?’ they would ask. Finally, when I told them I wanted to eat all the exotic Muslim sweets prepared for the festival, they were aghast! They didn’t seem to know that one could have such a fancy ,” remarks Chetan.

Like it happens every where else, here too, the group was like ‘real theatre people’ cut off from most issues around them. And so, when Chetan discussed homosexuality with them, the group was unprepared for it. They were not just closed to the entire subject; there was a strong element of self-rejection too. “I deliberately cast a Christian guy for the right wing role. It was a challenge, because I didn’t want him to say ‘the director asked me to say these lines and so I am saying it’. I wanted it to be part of his personal experience, but that didn’t happen, for he was clueless about identity politics.”

However, at the end of it all, with several other hurdles, Chetan had managed to sensitise them, doubling as counsellor-director. But then how do we sensitise an audience? An audience who laugh at the most crucial moments of a play, grossly missing all its serious undertones? “Yes, that irritates me too. And I’m increasingly getting revolted by the hypocrisies of the middle class. A parent came up to me after the play and asked me to promise that I will not discuss ‘such’ things in theatre. They allow their children to watch films like ‘Garam Masala’, and can they monitor television, but they think what we are doing is outrageous. Why these double standards?” fumes Chetan.

Chetan of course knows there are no easy solutions. To please his audience he will not tread the rosy path. Someday, he hopes, that we, as a collective, will strike the golden mean.

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