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That the play Rashomon Blues is based on Japanese period drama film Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa, which released over 60 years ago, doesn’t take away any bit from its relevance. Its subject is as relevant today as it was when it was first released in 1950. The hard-hitting story caught Mumbai-based theatre artiste Bijon Mondol’s attention about a decade ago, when he came across the film’s Hindi adaptation by Rameshchandra Shah.
“It basically deals with human values. After reading the adaptation, I realised that though each one of us in the society portrays ourselves as perfect human beings, deep down inside, we all are corrupt in some way or the other,” says Mondol, who has directed the Hindi play Rashomon Blues, which was staged as part of the Vinod Doshi Memorial Festival that was held in Pune from February 24 to 28 .
The pretentious side of the human race that Mondol talks about makes its presence felt strongly in the play, which is a musical. Originally written by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, the story portrays a sword fighter and his wife who are assaulted by a criminal; the event leads to the wife’s rape and the husband’s murder. During the trial in the court, all the witnesses give completely different versions as testimonies, driven by their own perspectives of the incident. The fourth witness, who found the body, reveals that he, in fact, saw the entire incident. But his version too, is completely different from all the previous ones. “The play has an open end — it is left for the audience to decide who is telling the truth and who is lying. Each person present in the audience can have a different view on the event,” says the director, who staged the play’s maiden show during the Prithvi Theatre Festival in Mumbai last year. Recently, it was staged at the Latur Theatre festival and the Kala Ghoda Festival.
Mondol, who also essays the role of the husband, founded Ranga Theatre in Mumbai in 2008. The group essentially does plays based on classics. Their repertoire includes Karna (2008), based on the character in the Mahabharata; Andha Yug – A fusion (2010) that depicts a contemporary version of Dharamvir Bharti’s verse play by the same name; Quixotic Wonderland (2012), a creative blend of Don Quixote and Alice in Wonderland; and Oedipus Rex (2010) was inspired by Sophocles’ tragedy. In 2009, Ranga Theatre also staged a play titled Pi In Search of God’s Name, based on the novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel, much before the release of Ang Lee’s award-winning film by the same name.
Although the classics form the basis of Ranga Theatre’s plays, the stories tend to get a contemporary makeover. “We introduce some new element in all the plays. For example, in Karna, there is an extensive use of martial arts such as Chhau of Orissa and Thangta of Manipur,” says the director-actor, adding that in Andha Yug, in order to reach out to the younger audience, the group included a fusion band and used 16 songs.
Citing the case of Rashomon Blues, Mondol says, “Since it’s a musical, poetry and songs are integral to it. We have consciously included music, which breaks the seriousness of the play. Because of the use of music that has an urban feel, though the dark theme of the play hits the audience hard, they don’t get an eerie feeling. We have developed a few poems that have been infused in different scenes of the play.”
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