Mahatma’s Last Days

Bapu is a one-actor play about the last days of Mahatma Gandhi that Bhanu Bharti* (in picture) first presented four years ago. In November,he will recast the play in English,with Delhi-based actor Sunit Tandon in the lead. An English version,says Bharti,will not only enable him to reach out to a wider audience but also do justice to several nuances of speech and dialogue that the play abounds in. “Some things sound better in English,” says Bharti. He has been listening to “speeches of Gandhi and studying his posture and mannerisms from close quarters”. Among the notes,is the diary of Gandhi’s secretary Pyarelal. “The new play,also called Bapu,will be a re-creation of the first play. But,when one translates a work into a different idiom,it undergoes a change because every language has its unique character,” says Bharti. Rehearsals will begin in October.

The play unfolds against the backdrop of the Two-Nation theory,emergence of Pakistan and Partition. “The play is about the character of Gandhi and how even a leader of his stature felt helpless about events. There were many forces that he could not control,” says Bharti. It is the destiny of most great individuals to die disillusioned “because they want to achieve so much and do the right thing.”

*Bhanu Bharti is a Delhi-based theatre director

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