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Treasures from the magic forest
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Mahesh Dattani's students come upwith a powerful play
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9 Jakhoo Hill portrays the aftermath of the Partition.
THAT'S PRETTY much what Maayaavan (magic forest), the new theatre group in the city, hopes to give its audience with its first production, 9 Jakhoo Hill, scheduled for February 23 and 24. Maayaavan — which sees theatre as a magical art form that draws deeply from the virtual forest of feelings, experiences and life — has decided to launch itself with a socially relevant play exploring contrasting philosophies of human belief.
The new group, in all enthusiasm, works on a unique ideology whereby it brings together freelance actors with different ideas, styles and experiences for a cross-pollination of styles, aiming to make the productions richer. True to its philosophy of staging thought-provoking plays by Indian playwrights for Indian audiences, Maayaavan will stage the English play, written by Gurcharan Das.
The play explores the lives of two families uprooted from Lahore during the Partition. Human characteristics are carefully explored to reveal two types of beliefs — "of those people who hold values dear and of those who believe everything is relative as long as one's goal is met," says Sunil Bannur, director, actor, and a protégé of Mahesh Dattani.
The play is set in the Diwali of 1962 when a series of events in the lives of the two families, interwoven by the complications by the Indian bureaucracy, destroy the calm of 9 Jakhoo Hill, Shimla.
Motivated by Dattani, Sunil has tried to keep it straightforward, trying to improvise the language to suit contemporary style. The sets, however, depict the Sixties, even as music (specially composed by Bruce lee Mani from Thermal and a Quarter), customised costumes and tunes from the Sixties' Hindi films, depict the mood of the times.
The actors are primarily the core members of the group and are former students of Mahesh Dattani's basic and advanced actors' and playwrights' workshops. The motley group, comprising Abhisekh Majumdar, Sheila Govindaraj, Spatica Ramanujam, Suhas Chalke, Trupti and Sunil Bannur, which has been rehearsing for two months now, come with rich experiences in various forms of theatre, be it playback theatre, short films, street theatre, Kannada stage and Shakespearean drama.
Maayaavan already has its next production up its sleeve, with Sunil Gangopadhyay's Pratidwandi scheduled for June 2005 and they plan to keep tapping Bangalore's pool of talent (actors, musicians, set designers, artists) for their forthcoming productions. However, for the moment, if you're looking for intense drama, a powerful story and a blend of the old and new, 9 Jakhoo Hill it is.
The play will be staged on February 23 and 24, 2005, at Ranga Shankara. Tickets, priced at Rs. 49, are available at The Supermarket, Brigade Road; Java City, Church Street; the Café at Alliance Francaise and Ranga Shankara.
TINA GARG
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