Sunday 7 May 2023

"Charcha Tar Honarach" - Marathi play staged in Vashi (Mumbai) on 06.05.2023

The ideological turf - a fierce battle

हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए -   यहाँ क्लिक करके क्रम सं. 18 देखिए 


Whether this is a matter of might or thought is itself a controversial point but the nationalistic sweep on global level cannot be denied since last a few decades. There is a clear gain in a number of countries on ideological turf all over the world. This is not possible without a strong base of ideology. The medium of drama cannot keep itself aloof from it and addressing it symbolically may not be very effective in eliciting it with full ramifications. Elucidation on it needs to be outright wordy and spontaneous. This will allow the electricity of debate to reach viewers without any transmission loss. And the Marathi play "Charcha Tar Honarch" is just a corollary of it.

To put this heavily word-centric ideological battle on stage might not have been easy but the scriptwriter has thought an innovative way to create two intellectual debating characters in their pristine forms with bringing one more character - a judge-like person who has come from an international NGO with a task to choose the winner. For putting some dramatic spice there is a prize of Rs. Eleven Lakh for the winner. The woman debater is supporter of liberal thoughts and the man debater is one who takes pride in the past only. Each of the both is given chance to express his/her views on different controversial issues like Feminism, Traditions, Faviourite books etc.

The whole play was so replete of ideological Marathi words and the actors were so fast in Marathi tongues that it was really difficult for me to see the clear picture of the ideological salvos and the fencings built-in. Nevertheless I am giving below what I could make out of the silhouettes.

Incidentally the woman debater wins the debate and gets the 11 lakh rupees as prize. But she gives Rs. 5.5 lakh out of it to her contender. This symbolic cession of monetary benefit signifies an extremely important reality that an idea can not stand without it's antithesis and a society needs actually a perfect mix of both. None of them is more or less important rather both are valuable and both should survive for the progress of mankind.  

Hemant Edlabadkar is the writer and director of the play while Aastad Kale, Kshitij Jharapkar and Aditi Sarangdhar were the actors. The scriptwriter has shown his guts to depict the topics in it's true form without any manipulation which everyone tries to evade. So he must be praised. All the three actors acted well. The man in NGO officer's role impressed with his British accent. The man debater might have been more natural. The set-design was impressive and the  walls seemed to be a true replica of that of a JNU hostel. The colour of kurta of man debater should have been more different from the colour of window-screens and window-frames to make his appearance more impactful. 

Overall, it was a thought-provoking play which fills a very wide gap pervading in the society nowadays where nobody wants to discuss the most important matters. The dedication of the producer for social theme is praiseworthy and this is obvious that this product from their side is more for social benefit than for a monetary benefit.

......
Review by- Hemant Das 'Him'
Respond to- hemantdas2001@gmail.com / editorbejodindia@gmail.com
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