The missing dialogue

Staged at Bharat Natya Mandir on May 5,the play is inspired by a story named The Hitchhiking Game,written by the Czech author Milan Kundera in his collection Laughable Loves. Talking about the play,Ashutosh Parandkar,director says,“Writer Shashank Shende and I have been working on this play for the past 18 months. The original story involves the intricacies between a European couple. What needed to be taken into consideration while developing the Marathi script were cultural differences that exist between their culture and the Indian culture. It was then that we decided to keep aside the original story and develop our own story based on scenarios that happen in India.”

What followed the script writing procedure that lasted for over four months was the finalisation of scenes,cast,music,lights and numerous technicalities. “For over a month or two,we called various actors from our own organisation and told them to portray the scenes we jotted down. While finalising on actors was one aspect,the second and most important aspect was to avoid biases that we might have had towards our own script. From the 25 scenes that we shortlisted,only eight or nine were finalised after a series of permutations and combinations and of course,suggestions and interventions,” smiles he.

The play,a 90-minute deerghanka,with the help of eight characters,showcased by two actors,Mayur Khandge and Aarti Wadagbalkar,unveils the missing dialogue between a working couple. “This is quite a common practice in India. Husband and wife working in shifts actually do not get to see each other for the entire week. Mobile phones,or for that matter e-mail are the only way to communicate in such cases. Added botherations such as job insecurity,pink slips,identity crisis result in stressed relationships. We thought that this ‘missing dialogue’ needed to be addressed,” adds he.

A play belonging to the ‘parallel theatre’ genre,Aaja Meri.. is portrayed using different methods of unveiling the story that Parandkar compares with abstracts.

“We put the scenes in such a manner that though they are linked with each other,they have an independent existence. Linking them was a Herculean task and it wouldn’t have been possible without precious inputs from music director Rohit Nagbhide and light designer Harshawardhan Pathak,” says Parandkar.

Expressing satisfaction over the parallel theatre scene in the city as well as the wide variety of subjects handled effectively by parallel theatre,Parandkar says,“We are now staging the play in Mumbai,post which it will be open in other cities as well.”