Cause and Effect

“The original play revolves around a couple,who are both professors. Then comes along the suicide of an acquaintance (Sitanath) and the couple,Sharad and Vasanti,spend copious amounts of time trying to analyse it and arrive at what triggered it,” says Naik,elaborating,“They consider myriad possibilities and try to understand life as incidental to history. At the end of the play,the protagonists discover much about themselves and their respective psyches through the exercise.”

The adaptation seeks to give the play a contemporary touch. “The names of the protagonists have been changed to Jay and Richa and the deceased has been named Raghav,who is Jay’s acquaintance,” says Naik,adding,“Above all,they are no longer professors,but IT professionals.”

Karhadkar,who plays Richa,says,“Their profession had to be changed. The times when the play was originally written were marked by idealism and ideology and Sircar himself was sympathetic to the Left movement. We have gotten rid of those influences since they are something the current generation does not relate to.” But they retained the thought of the original play. “The play is an attack on ignorance. It tells us that history is not just a subject to be read as discourse,but a cause that effects our existence,” says Karhadkar.

As in the original play,in the adaptation too,the couple comes up with their respective interpretations of what caused Raghav’s suicide. “Richa’s simplistic explanation is that Raghav killed himself because his wife left him,” says Karhadkar,adding,“Jay finds her explanation melodramatic and suggests that perhaps Raghav was a closet paedophile,and couldn’t bear his existence. Jay gets these strange notions from the repeated mention of child abuse and reporting on rape of minors,which one sees on news.”

Building on its argument on the importance of history,the original plays incorporates several natural and man-made disasters that have shaped the course of humanity and Sircar seems to suggest that our existence is incidental to these occurrences. The latest world phenomenon that the original play alludes to is the Vietnam war. Aaj ka Baaki Itihas,in its bid to make it contemporary,incorporates several events such as the 9/11 and 26/11 attacks in the play.

Aaj ka Baaki Itihas was staged in Pune on November 10. The next shows are at Kalakini Sanskrutik Kenra in Talegaon and Ramakrishna More Sabhagruha in Chinchwad on November 16 and 24 respectively