‘I am not learning to be an actor but a non-actor’: Geetanjali Kulkarni

Kulkarni told Korgaonkar that she had explored all the navrasa in her work, except one. Nobody had given her shringar ras, the emotion of erotic love, romance and beauty. After the show, Kulkarni stayed in touch with Korgaonkar and the performers.

In 2022, Korgaonkar made Lavani ke Rang, which focuses on a traditional form of Lavani, called Sangeet Bari. It is little-known outside Maharashtra (and largely misunderstood within it). Sangeet Bari, a favourite of the Peshwas, is made up of songs, dances and music. It is practised by a matriarchal community of artists but there are too many misconceptions and taboos that have pushed the form to the fringe. The urban mainstream still has to give dignity to the artistes. Korgaonkar aimed to bring Sangeet Bari into the spotlight. He offered Kulkarni the part of a “theatre malkin,” the owner of a space dedicated to Sangeet Bari.

Decked out in a Lavani dancer’s nauvari sari, full golden jewellery and gajra, Kulkarni plays the narrator. She is flirty, hinting at favours for chosen customers, shrewd and yet has a hint of innocence. She guides the audience into the ways of Sangeet Bari. “Hamara pura samaj streepradhan hai. Hum pura ghar khud sambhalte hai. Hamare bachhon ko bhi hum hamara naam lagate hain (We are a matriarchal society. We run our homes ourselves and give our children our surnames),” she says.

A scene from the play Lavani ke Rang (Courtesy Aman Gupta)

The challenge for Kulkarni was that cast with her were some of the greatest living artistes of Sangeet Bari — Pushpa Satarkar, Gauri Jadhav, Latabai Walikar and the formidable veteran Shakuntalabai Nagarkar. “I wasn’t sure initially how an urban woman could look and talk like a Lavani artiste. There is always an element of ‘acting’ when modern actors take up semi-urban or rural characters but it was not so with Geetanjali. When she got on stage, I couldn’t take my eyes off her,” says Nagarkar, who won the META for Best Actor in Lead Role (Female).

The play opened at Prithvi Theatre in November 2022 and held audiences of different ages and genders in its grip. Dancing erupted in the hall. At META, one of India’s most prestigious competitions, which was held last week in Delhi, Lavani ke Rang emerged as one of the 10 finalists from almost 400 entries from across India.

“I have changed not only in my art but also as a human being during this play. It is important to understand that modern theatre is not more than 100 years old and we don’t have the kind of base that folk forms have. We talk about discipline in our work but traditional artists live their art so their constitution, their blood, is different. The mingling of traditional and contemporary art is important for both. I am not learning to be an actor here but to be non-actor, like one of the Lavani performers,” says Kulkarni, 50.

The constant process of learning and unlearning makes it difficult to pin down Kulkarni to a role or style. She has been a part of some of the biggest productions in recent years. She played an abused woman with her own ideas of violence in Shanbag’s iconic S*x M*rality and Cens*rship (2009). She is a driven mother called Danger Ma in Manav Kaul’s Mumtaz Bhai Patangwale (2010), a cross-dressing Shakespearean heroine in Atul Kumar’s Piya Behrupiya (2012), and an elephant that makes an epic journey from India to Europe in Mohit Takalkar’s Gajab Kahani (2017). Along the way, Kulkarni has won a META for Best Supporting Actor 2010 for S*x M*rality and Cens*rship and was part of META Best Ensemble award for Piya Behrupiya in 2014.

“I keep my eyes and ears and brain open and am always searching for people who are trying to tell stories that are different. It was I who approached Atul Kumar when I heard he was going to do a production that would travel to the Shakespeare’s Globe as part of the London Olympic Games’ Cultural Olympiad in 2012,” she says. She was doing Marathi theatre when she met Sunil Shanbag and told him frankly that she was no longer getting the kind of productions she saw herself doing. She wanted to do experimental theatre in Hindi or English. This was two years before Shanbag made S*x M*rality and Cens*rship, an play based on Vijay Tendulkar’s classic, Sakharam Binder, which ran into trouble with the censors. She had approached Takalkar four years before Gajab Kahani.

Kulkarni has been watching theatre since she was very young. Going to the theatre is a very normal thing in Maharashtra and Kulkarni’s middle-class family in Mumbai were regulars. She saw all veteran actors, such as Dr Shriram Lagoo and Vijaya Mehta, while growing up. Community theatre was also big. “We used to choreograph entertainment programmes like dances and one-act plays. I liked that platform and enjoyed the attention,” she says.

After Class X, she opted for Arts at Ramnarain Ruia College in Matunga which was active in theatre. This is when Kulkarni had to admit to herself that she was not good enough on stage. “I was shy and low on confidence. I thought that I had to learn acting and this prompted me to apply to the National School of Drama (NSD) in Delhi,” she says.

Kulkarni was 20 when she entered NSD but, to this day, she remembers each and every class she ever attended. Apart from stalwarts of theatre who formed the faculty at NSD, Kulkarni benefited from the company of classmates such as Swanand Kirkire, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Atul Kulkarni (her husband). “It was enriching to have the talented actor and singer from Assam, Jilmil Hajarika, as my roommate,” she says. Hajarika, who is now based in Thrissur, Kerala, says Kulkarni was focussed from the beginning. “What most people don’t see is that Geetanjali has the quality of a fighter. When she has a personal problem or is dealing with loss, she responds by going deeper into whatever role she is doing at the time. She thinks more about her character, she works more on her abhinay. Her tapasya is her theatre,” says Hajarika.

By the time she left NSD in 1996, Kulkarni had the tools of theatre but felt confused about who she really wanted to be as a performer. The real-life experience came in the form of a series of plays with Paresh Mokashi. Mukam Post Bombilwadi, made in 2001, went onto have 500 shows. They did Sangeet Debuchya Mulee that had 100 shows. Sangeet Lagnakallol followed in 2004 that had 250 shows and won a number of awards. The troupe was visiting villages across the state, performing and travelling nights on end. “This helped me. I realised how to approach a role and what my process could be,” she said.

The experiences she has gained in theatre have carried over to Kulkarni’s screen and OTT appearances, evident in the critically-acclaimed Court (2014) and Sir (2018). “Kabhi kabhi jab aapka kaam zyada logon take pahuchta hai, you feel good about it. The kind of financial stability films give you also makes you more confident as a person because theatre cannot give that kind of money,” she says. Her personal life, too, keeps her flexible as an artiste. There’s still a genre of theatre she has not explored. “I would really like to do a solo performance. Bhushan and I were planning a solo but now that Lavani ke Rang has happened, I think a solo will take a few years more,” says Kulkarni.

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