Journalism of Courage
Veteran theatre actor and director Madhav Vaze has presented Shakespeares Hamlet to the Marathi audience in two acts.
From being a child actor in the 1953 epic Marathi film Shyamchi Aai to playing the mourning father in Bollywood film 3 Idiots,73-year-old Madhav Vaze has done it all. And now,the thespian is bringing Shakespeares Hamlet back to life in Marathi.
The last play that he directed was Tughlaq,written by Girish Karnad. After that,I just didnt find anything that caught my fancy, he says. But over a year ago,he came across a Marathi translation of Hamlet by author Parshuram Deshpande. It was probably one of the closest translations I had come across. It is in Marathi,yet maintained the essence of the great master, says Vaze.
Their first performance on Monday evening at Yashvantrao Chavan Auditorium saw the original five-act play being staged in only two acts. And Vaze is satisfied with his decision of not sticking to the original format. It was not easy to cut it down to just two acts,but we had to keep the modern sensibilities in mind. No one will spend five hours to watch a play, says Vaze. After Deshpande,also based in Pune,agreed to chop it down to two acts,it took him almost a year to do it.
When you shorten a play,you have to be very careful not to lose its essence. It was a tough choice but Parshuram has done a great job, says Vaze.
He maintains that more than worrying about getting lost in translation,he was apprehensive about the poetic language of the play. We have all young people on board this time,with most of the cast in their 20s. We spent almost two months just perfecting the language getting the Marathi diction,pronunciation,rhythm and pauses right, says Vaze.
The character of Ophelia has been played by Pune-based actor Neha Mahajan,who was last seen in Deepa Mehtas Midnight’s Children and will be seen in Marathi film Ajoba. Engineering student Kanak Datye is playing Hamlet.
Vaze,who now plans to take the play to other cities as well as to various festivals,is not averse to the idea of directing a film. My work has always been influenced by Satyajit Ray and Shyam Benegal. If the right opportunity comes,I would enjoy directing a film as well, he says.
Hamlet will be staged on March 22 and 23 at Bharat Nataya Mandir and Yashvantrao Chavan Auditorium respectively.
