Re-looking Mahabharata through Ultimate Kurukshetra
Ultimate Kurukshetra,hosted by Actors Ensemble India Forum, was staged in Rangashankara on January 6th.
Set against the backdrop of the first day of Kurukshetra, the play revolves around six characters, Sudarshana -a warrior, Adi- his charioteer, Maya-a courtesan and Daksha -a mahout, Vyasa and Yuyutsu, who try to choose what is the “right action”.
The play also addresses the misinterpretations of Mahabharata in a way that leaves the audience in splits. Written and directed by Ram Ganesh Kamatham,it returned to Rangashankara within a month after popular demand.
Ultimate Kurukshetra has been in writing for 14 years, and is going through several drafts of rewriting.
“We used to do readings for few years with a different cast and crew, and it was first performed on December last year,” said Mallika Prasad, who plays the role of Maya. She is also the founder of Actors Ensemble India Forum, a theatre and media production that works on practice-led research and creating new texts.
When it comes to characters, Prasad said they are going through dilemmas and are deciding what they want to do. Except for Yuyutsu and Vyasa, the characters are purely fictional.
“We wanted to talk about the question that is raised in the Gita, that is right action. So it can be applied to anybody,” said Prasad.
Kamatham said the idea of ‘fictional’ characters allows audiences to see the epic from a fresh perspective.
“We see the ‘common’ person’s view of the epic, and can dwell on how the small actions of ‘heroes’ can have devastating consequences on the ordinary people. Thus small or relatively minor incidents (the burning of the Khandava forest, the burning of the palace of lac in Varnavata, the ‘battle for cattle’ in Matsya) become life changing moments for the ‘fictional’ characters.”
He also plays the role of Yuyutsu, a lesser known character in Mahabharata.
Chaitanya Karihalli M, a Kannada filmmaker and theatre professional,said that Kamatham uses characters to comment on Mahabharata with irreverent passion.
“It looks like he’s making fun of Mahabharata but then you’ll realise that he’s making a bigger point, that is on war. You have to fight on the right side, not on the side you’re trusted on.”
The play also presents Vyasa as a contemporary subject. Dr.Anil Abraham, who plays the role of Vyasa walks in an unstable manner to the stage dressed in a colourful shirt and dhoti.
When Maya asks him about his new literary work, he says, “I have 8,000 slokas…in my mind,” and points at Adi(charioteer) struggling with an elephant mask,”maybe he should be my scribe.”
Kamatham said the play doesn’t dramatize these characters as semi-divine or religious figures and rather presents them as mundane.
“We play a lot with the unstable notions of authorship peculiar to the epics in this play. Vyasa is not one man, but could have been many people. Similarly Patanjali, is not one man, but could be many, and could also have been a woman,” he said.
Karihalli’s favourite character is Adi played by Harish Seshadri.
“He is a marvelous actor, and his character is written very well. Adi has gone through a lot of hell in his life, and he doesn’t have any regrets that’s normally seen in men. We don’t take him seriously, but slowly learn to empathise with him.”
Kamatham said the play will appeal to an audience if they read Mahabharata as a comic book, or a single giant tome of shlokas, or as a disparate collection of 18 books.
“We live in particularly muddled times where facts have given way to post-truth, and where despite significant scientific and social progress there are very stupid statements being made about India’s past achievements and current national challenges. This is a play that allows us to laugh at ourselves a little. And perhaps by having a good laugh, we can see the deeper timeless and universal truths that the play engages,” he said.
