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DRAMA

A good beginning

Despite writing plays in English since the 1920s, Indian playwrights have occupied an uneasy space in the literary world and had to deal with persistent ambiguity about their work and achievements. The Sahitya Akademi has stepped in to remedy this pe rception with the launch of its recent series on contemporary Indian plays in English. Whether or not this genre deserves the “serious critical attention” that its editors Alok Bhalla and Anju Makhija think it does, these plays have been written and discussed, performed in festivals, had successful runs and are part of the urban cultural scene today.

Vikram Kapadia’s “Black with Equal” is a riotous high farce about surviving in a world increasingly defined by greed. A set of sparring neighbours meet at a housing cooperative meeting and it soon becomes clear that their amiable behaviour is only a front. Within minutes, every type of greed, malice and violence surfaces and spirals out of control even as a communal riot begins to spread outside. Beneath the frequent jokiness of the lines lies an uncomfortable and disturbing truth; we all have our dark sides and by giving in to the forces of greed and violence are only preparing the ground for our own destruction. The straightforward everyday language and the lack of modish cleverness make this popular play an easy and enjoyable read

Ramu Ramanathan’s “Collaborators” is a clever look at the vapid lives that unfold in the drawing rooms of the privileged set. All the characters in that familiar set-up are collaborators supporting and perpetuating life’s inane business, taking care not to rock the boat for each other. The playwright has a sharp eye for detail and presents some marvellous glimpses of modern Indian life with all its absurd moments. However, despite these high points, the play in totality is incredibly prosaic in the rendering of its idea. Very soon into the reading, the impact of the characters begins to pall and the playwright’s evident relish in their vacuity and lack of restraint begins to jar.

Ramanathan’s tribute to Mahatama Gandhi’s able assistant in “Mahdevbhai” is a truly modern Indian fairytale. It is set in a time when a single common purpose united the country and incredible sacrifices were made by leaders and common folk alike. Charming, educational and wonderfully feel-good as Mahdevbhai is, the well researched material sometimes seems to have been too openly manoeuvred by its polemical intent as much as by the playwright’s own convictions and intent of edifying the viewer. The play is also full of rather cute overtures made by the sole actor (no doubt to lighten the material). These can be overlooked in the performance but in print are unavoidable and begin to grate.

Ninaz Khodaiji is yet another Mumbai-based writer who wrote “Insomnia” for the Royal Court Theatre, London. The play comprises four monologues from young theatre actors and a director and is set in Mumbai during the 1993 communal riots. It attempts to capture the intangible loss these events brought to the emotional lives of the four individuals. Sadly, it tries too hard, and is so inalienably steeped in its breezy Generation Next take on life, that its thinly constructed monologues are unable to move the reader.

Long before “Salaam Bombay” supplied the West with stereotypes of a grimy Indian reality, Partap Sharma’s “A Touch of Brightness”, set in Mumbai’s red light area Kamathipura, attempted to cover the same ground. But it did so in such a bland, inoffensive and sanitised manner that one can’t help wondering what the fuss was about back in 1965 when the government refused it permission to travel at the last minute after its selection for the first Commonwealth Arts Festival in the U.K.

The play features the sharp brothel madam, a kind-hearted doctor, a child trying to hold on to innocence and a clutch of sex workers themselves. The few moments of promise are eclipsed all too soon by an overtly cheerful insistence on delivering the message of the play — a mishmash of new age spiritual India coexisting in the sleazy underbelly of Mumbai.

Cyrus Mistry, on the other hand, is able to invest layers and atmosphere, despite working within the traditional Parsi theatre formula of a family plot, in “Doongaji House”. The play about a wealthy Parsi family, which has fallen on bad times, is simple and evocative. Its events are set in the last few days of an intense summer in Mumbai and the city waits for the rains; in this muggy atmosphere the family and its secrets and sorrows seem to fester. All we know of the outside world is that, somewhere in the non-Parsi parts of the city, riots are breaking out between the other communities. The unbearable heat and the killings inject a certain menace and also underscore the deep unsettling unhappiness of the family.

The Sahitya Akademi has to be congratulated especially when few other publishers have shown interest in publishing Indian playwrights who write in English. However, a more discerning selection of scripts and greater care in presentation has to be part of the same mission.

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