Bapu beyond Boundaries

A believer of Gandhi’s ideologies,Mukherjee has done a hundred shows on 100 years of Hind Swaraj called Unbound,part of “Unfree: Idea Voyages on Mahatma Gandhi”. The year 2009 was celebrated as centenary celebration of Hind Swaraj,written by Gandhi in the year 1909. “I have taken some elements and inspiration from the book and turned it into physical theatre. We have added a few monologues to contemporise it,but the crux of the play remains central to Hind Swaraj,” he explains. Highlighting today’s issues,Unbound is a series of images,ranging from Manipur to East Timor,from struggles in Aceh to images of Iraq,and from the starkness of Bhopal to lost hope in Golan Heights. “Hundred years after Hind Swaraj’s publication,it is dangerously relevant even now. More real than reality television,especially at a time when misplaced ambitions and even more misplaced notions of development are so rampant that we have lost our rights-based core. Gandhi argues if we ever had one,” says Mukherjee. The production weaves in a host of “fault-lines” to create a collage of words,sounds and silences and also includes debates with Hind Swaraj rather than just performing lines. It also incorporates installations by C Krishnapriya. “Swaraj is when we learn to rule ourselves. It is therefore,in the palm of our hands. Do not consider this Swaraj to be just a dream,” Mukherjee reads out loud.

As part of the performance project,Mukherjee has curated a trilogy of book fests in Rajkot for the TGES group of schools that,among other things,look at Gandhi’s relationship with the city where he spent many years in school. For Gandhi in Noakhali,Bangladesh,he curated an art exhibition and performed a solo too. Gandhi in Kolkata was a part of the heritage walk on Hyderi Manzil,the house where he stayed on August 15,1947. “On the Uganda Road,we did an open air beach installation on Gandhi in Porbander and scripted a video installation dedicated to Gandhi in Jaffna called Read Him,’’ Mukherjee adds that Gandhi in London was a part of a performance piece called Trekking which was on a journey of ideas on the path of Shakespeare,Kabir and Tagore. After Gandhi in Darjeeling,Assam,Mukherjee is now doing Gandhi in Mauritius and Gandhi in Kerala: Re-looking at the lessons of Vaikom and the centenary of Thakazhi.