Panipat revisited

Two hundred and thirty eight years of servility and pain, freedom and ecstacy have gone by. Yet time has done little to wash away memories of the third battle of Panipat when Sadashiv Rao Peshwa8217;s army took on Ahmed Shah Abdali8217;s invading troops. And even today, this bloody blot on Maharashtra8217;s history 8212; when virtually the entire Maratha army was wiped out 8212; continues to evoke nightmarish memories.Failure. That8217;s the one word that has always been associated with this momentous battle. So much so, that the Marathi phrase Panipat jhale8217; which literally means Panipat happened is used to describe defeat in any walk of life. And the mention of the North-Indian town that stood witness to the gruesome death of innumerable soldiers, still evokes sore, even shameful memories.Ironically, this humiliating defeat has enough ammunition to make a dramatic production and has actually found its way to the Marathi stage. Ranangan, Battlefield, based on Vishwas Patil8217;s Sahitya Akademi award winning novel Panipat, anddirected by Waman Kendre, opens in the city this weekend.

8220;I am taking a risk as far as my career is concerned,8221; says Kendre. And a gamble it is. Not just because of its overwhelming historical canvas and the financial risk of shouldering a mammoth production, but also because it deals with a painful event that wiped out an entire generation of Maharashtrian men 8212; 1.5 lakh deaths in a day, on January 14, 1761.But much logic and thought has gone into this brave decision. 8220;The shock of the defeat was so great that no one ever gave this subject a thought,8221; he says. 8220;I felt the need to analyse this campaign, try and understand what kept over a lakh soldiers far away from home for so long, and why none of them ran away from the battlefield despite severe hardships.8221;.After careful research, Kendre discovered it was immense love for their motherland and an intense desire for sovereignty that helped these men brave every adversity. It was also this courage that inspired him to put his heart on these unsungheroes.But even after Kendre and producer Mohan Wagh got together for the production, it took an entire year for novelist Patil to turn playwright and convert his book into a script. He meticulously picked and chose incidents from the novel that lent themselves well to a theatrical format. In fact, Kendre had originally visualised the play for an open-air theatre with a lot of room, perhaps a massive ground. But because of budget constraints, the idea got shelved even before it took off. Now it is flexible enough to fit in anywhere, including the compact Shivaji Mandir stage.But that8217;s perhaps the only compromise the Ranangan team has made.

Otherwise it8217;s still a grand production what with ace designer Bhanu Athaiya taking charge of the costume department and real swords being brought in from Manipur for four-minute sword-fight. Birjat Ngangomba, a sword-fight trainer and former teacher of martial arts at the National School of Drama, has also been flown in from the North-Eastern state.Another noveltythat Ranangan brings to the Marathi stage is a fresh crop of actors. In fact, barring Avinash Narkar who is a well-known face on stage, none of the actors have any experience with professional theatre. And not without reason either. 8220;The oldest warrior in the battle of Panipat was Abdali himself, who was all of 35 years of age. Sadashiv Rao Peshwa was 28 and Vishwasrao Peshwa just 17. There was no point in pushing established but aged actors into their roles,8221; says Kendre.Most of these actors will play more than just one part what with 20 of them splitting nearly 70 roles between them. This perhaps is Kendre8217;s greatest challenge in the production.

But the gritty director of such plays as Zulva, Nati Goti and Tempt Me Not is not one to let any hurdle bog him down.

8211;ANAGHA SAWANT

Ranangan, on February 28, 1999. At Shivaji Mandir, Dadar