The blind spot

Bhanu Bharti,middle-aged,cranky,nice,strict,soft,detail-obsessed,with a cigarette between his fingers,barks orders at a group of carpenters as a young

Kotla Feroz Shah is our Kurukshetra of the moment as Pandavas and Kauravas clash in the 2011 version of the the classic play,Andha Yug

Bhanu Bharti,middle-aged,cranky,nice,strict,soft,detail-obsessed,with a cigarette between his fingers,barks orders at a group of carpenters as a young,gum-chewing assistant takes notes. Mr Director hobbles around the stage with a slight limp,makes a correction here,drops a suggestion there,then shakes his head in dismay at the preparations. I am dedicating this piece to Ebrahim Alkazi,my mentor, he says,sitting on a chair littered with cigarette butts. This is not the first time he is staging Andha Yug (The Age of Blindness). But the last was more than a decade ago,in 1997,in a turmoil-ridden Nepal. Much has changed since. This is Delhi,India,the stage of national politics,where everyday someone wants to conceive of a new,political Mahabharata.

You always discover and rediscover classics, says Bhanu,bringing us back to context. The director of the latest version of Andha Yug isnt about to be distracted as he is on an epic journey of his own. Humanity seems to have come to a crossroad and all messiahs,ideologies and philosophies have failed us. All we can do now is look within ourselves for inherent humanity, says Bhanu,hinting at the various scandals,corruption incidents and violence of the current times.

Cue : Stand by

The Set: The wind is a silent spectator,moving over crumbling walls of a ruined monument,making its way to a desolate stage where a great war has been won and lost. A shattered chariot lies overturned,its broken wheels scattered far across,and bleeding corpses are spread as clarion calls to vultures.

Notes from the rehearsal : A group dressed in T-shirts,jeans and sneakers ignores this devastation,and walks around with bowed heads,talking to themselves,gesticulating with their hands. Zombies? No,they are actors who have brought alive the Mahabharata,the epic battle that was fought on the fields of Kurukshetra .

Voice over: Counted among the modern classics of the Indian stage,Andha Yug is being staged in the vast ruins of Delhis Kotla Feroz Shah. It was almost 50 years ago that stage veteran Alkazis version of this play had opened at this same venue and late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru watched from the front row.

The plot: The five-act tragedy unfolds on the last day of the Mahabharata war,and opens with visions of devastation in the once prosperous city of Hastinapur. The blind king Dhritirashtra and his blindfolded queen Gandhari sit in their chamber waiting for news about the outcome of the war while in the battlefield,guru Dronacharya is dead,and his son,the warrior Ashwatthama,has released the deadly Brahmastra against mankind. Nobody comes forward to stop the Brahmastra,symbolising our inability to prevent the sociopolitical ills of the world, says Bharti. Modern allusions abound in this intense,reflective play that eminent playwright Dharamvir Bharati had written against the backdrop of the partition of India.

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Cast and Crew: Bharatis 90-minute recreation of this episode from mythology,also boasts a star-studded cast. Theatre veterans Mohan Maharishi and Uttara Baokar play Dhritarashtra and Gandhari respectively,while Bollywood actor Om Puri will give the voice-over for Krishnas character.

Curtains Up: Presented by Sahitya Kala Parishad at Kotla Feroz Shah from Oct 15-23 (except Oct 17

and 20). Passes are available at

the venue.

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Ebrahim Alkazi