Record Play

When professor Waman Kendre’s latest directorial venture opens today at the National Centre for Performing Arts,Mumbai,it will create a record. Never before has the same play opened in three different languages on the same day,performed by the same cast and organised by the same crew. And yet,all of this happened just by chance. “I never decided to do the play in three languages,” says Kendre. “One day,I just improvised upon the idea of doing the play in Marathi,and then decided to do it in English and Hindi,” he adds.

The play in question is Madhyam Vyayog,originally a Sanskrit script written by Bhasa,remembered as one of the greatest Sanskrit playwrights. Incidentally,this is also the first Sanskrit-style play Kendre has worked on. Why,then,did he choose it? “This is a rich and strong theatre tradition,but it has now become a dying form and is inaccessible to the masses,” he explains. This play will mark Kendre’s return to theatre after a break of eight years. The play is called Priya Bawari in Marathi,Mohe Piya in Hindi and O My Love in English.

Performed from the point of view of Hidimba,from the Mahabharata,the play tells her story,alongwith her son Ghatotkacha and her husband,Bhima. As the story goes,Bhima and Hidimba were attracted to each other and Hidimba wished to marry him. She persuaded Bhima’s mother to allow them to marry and they reached an agreement which stated that once Hidimba was pregnant with Bhima’s son,he would be free to leave. Many years later,the two are reunited,after their son,Ghatotkacha,fetches Bhima as a sacrifice for his mother to break her fast with. The son,however,initially refuses to accept this man as his father,angered by the fact that he wasn’t there while he was growing up. Ultimately,Ghatotkacha gives in and the three become a family again.