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The drama of Nepal upheaval
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Nepali theatre director Sunil Pokharel speaks about his multimedia production that premiered in New Delhi recently. Diwan Singh Bajeli
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Technology wise A scene from Sunil Pokharel’s play
“The conception of a novel into a theatrical form is the most challenging task. It becomes all the more difficult when the narrative structure of the novel deals with two worlds – the world of reality and the world of nightmares – which converge frequently,” says director Sunil Pokharel, who staged an adaptation of a recently published Nepali novel, “Ghanachakkar” at the Bharat Rang Mahotsav. “To capture the backdrop of the novel I decided to use multimedia. Fortunately, Norwegian set designer Carle was conducting a workshop with us and he gave me suggestions on how to use multimedia to create a complex and intricate piece of theatre,” he says.
A multi-faceted theatre artiste of Nepal, whose Aarohan Theatre Group is based in Kathmandu, Pokharel was initially involved in the street theatre movement, as a social activist. Later, he joined the National School of Drama, New Delhi, and graduated in 1987.
Theatre group
He went back and started the Aarohan Theatre Group. Some of the plays by the group have been shown at different international theatre festivals in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Korea, Norway, Demark and Russia. So far it has organised three national and one international theatre festival. Norway also collaborates with Aarohan in certain fields.
Talking about the novel and its author Sanjeev Upreti, a university teacher and a prolific writer for newspapers, Sunil says that Upreti took part as in the mass upsurge against the monarchy in Nepal. Upreti is also a theatre actor.
“In fact, the entire theatre community was actively involved in this mass movement. When I was working on Upreti’s novel ‘Ghanachakkar’, he was with us in the auditorium. The police intruded and there was firing inside the auditorium. Upreti was dragged out, beaten up and arrested. This brutal act of the State angered us and brought about unity in our ranks. It strengthened our resolve to produce Upreti’s novel and to resist State oppression,” says Pokharel.
He also explains why the protagonist of “Ghanachakkar” is a schizophrenic. “The play captures the socio-political situation of Nepal before the Maoists decided to join mainstream political parties against the monarchy. Then, there was the royal massacre and a new King was enthroned In the midst of such turmoil, it becomes impossible for a sensitive and intellectual person like our protagonist to relate to this upheaval. He tries to seek its causes and in the process gets lost in the quagmire, losing his sanity. But even in this highly feverish state of mind, he continues to experience flashes of sanity. As the civil society marches to win its battle for fundamental democratic rights, our protagonist escapes from the mental asylum and resumes his routine duties,” he says.
A theatre director deeply rooted in his tradition and time, Pokharel claims that he has remained faithful to the novel, and only changed the order of the events at places to create dramatic effect.
After the world premier of “Ghanachakkar” in India, Pokharel will stage it back home in Nepal, where civil society is has becoming enlightened and politically conscious of its power.
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
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