Counting on Dramatics

Mumbai-based director Manoj Joshi’s play Chanakya,with its pointers on how to become a good administrator,won the first Bhilwara Natya Puraskar award on Monday. Instituted by the LNJ Bhilwara Group,the first prize carries a cash award of Rs 2 lakh. The runner-up,who took home a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh,was Main Rahi Masoom,a play on Urdu poet Rahi Masoom Raza by Hyderabad-based Rangdhara. “The plays were celebral and compelled us to think,” says Rajendra Bagrodia,a jury member. “While Chanakya insisted that a king forget his own happiness for the sake of the people he governs,Main Rahi… spoke about being Indian rather than defining ourselves by region or religion,” he added.

The three-day-long festival that started on Saturday,however,was also marked by drama off-stage. The third play in contention for the award,Arvind Gaur’s Ambedkar aur Gandhi,ended in a heated argument between the director and jury member Professor Bharat Gupt on Sunday. The play revolves around debates and differences between BR Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi and has frequently divided audiences ever since it premiered in 2009. On Sunday,it was the turn of Gupt to take umbrage to the portrayal of Gandhi. After the staging of the play,when the director began discussions with the audience,Gupt made his objections known “as a member of the audience”. “The plays says that Gandhi believed in a rigid caste system where a son must follow the profession of his father. Where is the evidence to such a statement?” questioned Gupt. While Gaur claimed that he could substantiate the tenor of his play through books and letters by Gandhi,things took an ugly turn when when Gupt took to the stage and reprimanded Gaur for misusing the platform. “We have provided you with a stage to perform a play,not to conduct a political propaganda,” he said.

Amid slogans by several members of the cast and audience,Gaur announced that he was opting out of the competition. The jury,however,maintains that Gaur’s announcement had not been communicated to them officially. “The play had already been judged while it was being staged,” iterates Bagrodia.

That wasn’t the only issue that marred the inaugural edition of the competition. Theatreperson Mohan Maharishi,who was part of the jury,was missing in action as he is travelling. “But he had already watched the video recordings of the plays and attended meetings. So,even if he was absent during the staging of the plays,he remains a jury member,” defended Bagrodia.