LET there be LIGHT

But Shanbag soon realised that Dak Ghar will have more impact today if it is juxtaposed against a contemporary story. While reading about Tagores play,he stumbled upon the real-life story of a Polish Jew doctor and childrens author,Janusz Korczak,who set up camps to care for orphans during the Holocaust. The director says,In 1942,Warsaw,Poland,the Nazis moved all Jews to a ghetto. A pediatrician Janusz Korczak ran an orphanage. He has been the topic of books,movies,plays,operas and television series.

Shanbag explains that since Dak Ghar was penned in the late 19th century, he wanted to find a contemporary relevance. Its a simple,idealistic,romantic and mystical play. I thought of juxtaposing it with Korczaks story to lend it a sense of power. Thats how Walking To The Sun was born. The doctor is trying to prepare the kids from the orphanage to face the grim realities of the Holocaust. The English-Hindi play is seen through the eyes of Amal and Korczak. While Amal is yearning for freedom,Korczak is talking about his experiences during the Holocaust and the persecution of Jews. There are points where both the stories come together,move away and finally come together again.

The director did his preliminary research about the doctor by reading up his biography penned by Betty Lifton and also got hold of his personal diaries,which threw up some interesting facts. When the Germans ordered his famous orphanage evacuated,Korczak was forced to gather the 200 children in his care. He led them with quiet dignity on a final march through the ghetto streets to the train that would take them to resettlement in the Eastthe Nazi euphemism for the death camp Treblinka.

He had also introduced progressive orphanages designed as communities in Poland,founded the first national childrens newspaper,trained teachers in moral education and worked in juvenile courts defending childrens rights. His books How To Love A Child and The Childs Right To Respect gave parents and teachers new insights into child psychology.

Shanbag commissioned Bengaluru-based playwright Vivek Narayan to pen the script for Walking To The Sun. After exchanging 12 drafts in a span of three months,the final draft was locked. He cast Satyajit Sharma,Sudhir Pandey,Jagdish Rajpurohit,Manasi Rachh,Bhushan Boregaonkar,Shailesh Hejmadi,Anand Pande,Animesh Kamath and Amruta Sant for the play. While Sharma,who is seen in popular soap Balika Vadhu,portrays Korczaks role,veteran Pandey plays the pivotal role of Thakurda,a wise person who understands kids and proves to be Amals guiding light.

He later roped in Kolkata singer and lyricist Moushumi Bhowmick,who collaborated with British composer Oliver Weeks to compose the music for the play. While Bhowmick created the Indian track at her Kolkata residence,Weeks created the Western track at his London home. It was a tremendous collaboration of Bengali and European sounds. Music is a third character in the play. It adds a wonderful layer of colour and emotionality to it.

Over the recent years,Shanbag has become synonymous with juxtaposing classic works with contemporary works to give it a new dimension in his plays like Dreams Of Taleem and SX,MRALITY,AND,CENSRSHIP. Dreams Of Taleem was a play within which renowned playwright Chetan Datars No.1 Madhavbagh about a mother coming to terms with her sons sexuality was staged,SX,MRALITY,AND,CENSRSHIP raised the most controversial issues of our time morality and censorship by taking Vijay Tendulkars classic Sakharam Binder as a reference point.

He explains,No.1 Madhavbagh,Sakharam Binder and Dak Ghar are well-known texts. I thought of giving them a new context. Its my current preoccupation of juxtaposing two texts. I find it extremely exciting as it gives multiple dimensions and presents various points of view to the audience. The sum of two works gives a new meaning to my plays. While in Dreams Of Taleem, I had politicsed alternate sexuality,in SX,MRALITY,AND,CENSRSHIP I used the context of time differently. In Walking To The Sun I have juxtaposed the beautiful philosophical view of life with the powerful dark period in the history of human civilisation. Both these stark opposites come alive on stage.

Shanbag used interesting visual elements like light,colour and use of space to depict this contrast. While Dak Ghar has warm Indian colours,Korczaks story uses a lot of blue,grey shades. Walking To The Sun,which premiered earlier this month at Prithvi Theatre,Mumbai,has received an interesting response. Shanbag says,8221;Its a difficult play. While some have been moved to tears,others have been touched by the storys warmth. It8217;s a tough work to see and react to its ideas and emotionality,8221; he signs off.

Walking To The Sun was staged at the National Centre for Performing Arts,Mumbai on October 16 and 17.