Cultural carnival

Eighty-nine artistes and technicians staged 12 performances in a first-of-its-kind three-day Gujarati theatre festival, Ek Ooncha Maylo Parogram

When Gujarati theatre stalwart Manoj Shah would travel to various parts of the country with his theatre company Ideas Unlimited, he was always fascinated by the tremendous response to his plays. Motivated by the impetus, he realised it was time to organise a first-of-its-kind three- day Gujarati theatre festival, Ek Ooncha Maylo Parogram, to create an awareness about the great works of Gujarati litterateurs amongst the younger generation. It was also the perfect opportunity for Shah to highlight the alternate theatre movement pioneered by his company by incorporating various art forms like poetry, essays, short stories, painting, music and folk traditions in its productions and analyse their plays in the last decade.

Shah chose the six best yet culturally-diverse productions of his company for the festival that was held from June 25 to 27 at Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai. “It was a great opportunity to showcase the works of writers like Chandrakant Shah’s Master Phoolmani, where you see the glory of Gujarati theatre in a Bhangvadi style musical, Shishir Ramavat’s Jeete Hain Shaan Se, a play that shows animals in a lab laughing on humankind, Bharat Naik’s Amarfal, the eternal story of Raja Bharatheri in which we had introduced Ahlam Khan, the daughter of legend Amjad Khan on the Gujarati stage. Then there’s Vinit Shukla’s Mareez, wherein you witness the dramatic life of a well-known Gujarati poet, Mihir Bhutta’s Jal Jal Mere Patang, a biopic of a Vedantic scholar M.N. Dwivedi, whose work was hidden for more than 80 years, Gujarat Ni Ashmita Hello Gujarati, a work of medieval era presented in a musical format,” says Shah.

The writer-director also felt that these productions catered to the classes and masses and were the perfect productions that depicted the various facets of the diverse Gujarati culture. These plays also used paintings as a visual medium and heightened the creative experience of the audience. Works of artistes like Bhupen Khakkar and Atul Dodiya were showcased in Master Phoolmani and Jal Jal Mare Patang. He explains, “Today’s generation is unaware of our rich and vast Gujarati literature and culture. These six plays were created between 1999 and 2010. They had the ability to create an awakening of the rich Gujarati cultural heritage among the younger generation. In theatre, as in other walks of life, there is the dichotomy of class and mass, these productions have the power to encompass both.”

Six platform performances were also staged by writers as an alternate means of entertainment that helped the audience to warm up for the main plays. When Shah approached acclaimed writer Uttam Gada to direct one such performance, the latter chose to make a satire on Gujarati writer Shri Gunvantrai Acharya’s novel Dariyalal and named it Red Sea. While the original story is set in the 17th century and narrates the adventures of sea-farers, Gada’s script revolved around the dialogue between the writer and a modern-day director who wants to film the novel.

“I chose Dariyalal firstly because it’s a masterpiece and the younger generation is not too familiar with it. Secondly, through my satirical take, I wanted to depict how literary classics are manipulated for commercial filmi ventures today. While Dariyalal means sons of the sea, in my take, the director translates it literally as red sea. That in a way depicts how he’s unable to understand the true meaning of a literary work,” says Gada.

Not only was this performance lapped up by the audience, but over all, the festival proved to a be a huge success with as many as 89 artistes and technicians participating in it. Inspired by the huge success, Shah is now keen on organising such festivals more often and spreading cultural awareness.