Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest |

Unravelling the bind

Photo: Shanker Chakravarty

Tribute to a master Makrand Deshpande brings “Sakharam ke Khoj mein Hawaldar” to Delhi

I felt I must arrest Sakharam to understand Tendulkar.” This led accomplished theatre director, playwright and actor Makrand Deshpande to create “Sakharam ke Khoj mein Hawaldar”. Deshpande has admired Vijay Tendulkar’s work and has revered him as a person. For him, this new play is more than merely a spin-off of Tendulkar’s original, “Sakharam Binder”. It’s a tribute of the most sincere kind. The process of writing has helped Deshpande decode Tendulkar and his creations.

The potential of a classic play and familiarity with the playwright has allowed Deshpande to come up with an original continuum. Deshpande discovered that “Sakharam Binder” was indirectly based on a man Tendulkar had personally met who had a similar contract with women. These insights gleaned from Tendulkar have been a source of inspiration and information for Deshpande. And have helped to flesh out “Sakharam ke Khoj mein Hawaldar”. The playwright recalls, “When I first read ‘Sakharam Binder’, it shook me. It’s basically the animal instinct that fascinates me. The way that Sakharam looks at life and women. And how he becomes vulnerable once Champa comes in.”

The idea for a new play seeped through and Deshpande once told Tendulkar, “I want to arrest Sakharam for murdering Champa.” Tendulkar replied, “You are mad.” When he did see a synopsis of “Sakharam ke Khoj mein Hawaldar,” Tendulkar said to Deshpande, “You are a writer.”

“Sakharam ke Khoj mein Hawaldar”, is a play within a play. Deshpande’s aim has been to make Sakharam real. Banned in 1974, after its premiere “Sakharam Binder” was rejected not only by the censors but by the theatre fraternity as well. Deshpande thus attempts to de-mythologise Sakhram Binder, he reveals the person behind the persona. He wants to discover for himself and for the audience whether Sakhram is a nayak or a khalnayak. He wants to make him more human.

Having written more than a dozen plays, Deshpande’s forte has been to combine illusion with reality. The characters of the play are staging “Sakharam Binder”, when they are stopped by a hawaldar. Here’s where the dance between reality and illusion begins. Deshpande elaborates, “I’m automatically a fantasy man.”

Plans to make a film of the script are also afoot. Once again, it’s the “animal, animal instincts” yet the true-to-life quality of the work that appeals to Deshpande. He hopes to use the actors of the play for the movie, as then it will seem a complete process.

Promising to “blow one’s mind” and repeating that “it’s about most complex things put in a most simple manner” Desphande is looking forward to a full house in Delhi. He adds, “Please put ‘most’ in capitals.”

Play: “Sakharam Ke Khoj Mein Hawaldar” presented by Ansh Theatre Group

Dates: July 12 & 13; 7:00pm

Venue: India Habitat Centre

Director: Makrand Deshpande

Cast: Makrand Deshpande, Jitendra Shastri etc.