Journalism of Courage
Based on a story written by Gulzar,the play Junglenama will be premiered in Pune this Saturday
When you are directing something which is written by a legendary figure like Gulzar,then obviously you are under a lot of pressure. There is a lot of depth in his language. We have tried to maintain the originality of the story without tampering with his lines, says Sarang Sathaye who has directed the play Junglenama written by Gulzar. The play will be staged at the Symbiosis Vishwabhavan Auditorium on May 15,7. 30 onwards.
As the play promises to entertain audience of all age groups,Sathaye and Varun Narvekar,who has assisted him in stage adaptation have taken few steps to make some scenes children-centric. For instance for depicting few darker scenes in the play,instead of eliminating them completely,the duo opted to stage them in a subtle way rather than overdoing it.
After Pune where it is premiered,the play travels to Mumbai. Since the play is in Hindi,it will have a wider reach unlike regional plays. Depending upon the response we receive,we plan to hold it in other cities too, adds Sathaye.
The most interesting part of Junglenama is that the team has incorporated shadow puppetry in a very innovative way. Infact instead of getting the art outsourced,the group decided to learn the nuances. We have executed shadow puppetry in the places where the original story has lengthy narrations. The process of learning something new and using it in an evolved form was fun, says the director.
Sathaye admits that staging the story,as a play was a difficult task. The first thing that comes to your mind is to present it in an animated form. But I wanted to go a step ahead. Initially we wanted to use puppets on the stage but since theatre is all about make-believe we made our actors act as animals, says Sathaye who feels that the story by Gulzar is very thought provoking.
(The play will be held at the Symbiosis Vishwabhavan Auditorium on May 15,7. 30 onwards.)
