Karl Marx Hyderabad mein

Old wine served in an old bottle with a thatched cork; this pretty much sums up the character of the play ‘Karl Marx Hyderabad Mein’, an Indian adaptation of the age-old monologue ‘Karl Marx in Soho’. The play, which is a ball of putty in the hands of performers, is relevant in any day and age just like Marx. There will always be oppressors and the oppressed and there will always be some Marxists.

Saying that the play was bad won’t be right. The play had no lack of talent. All that lacked was a little creativity. The teachings of Karl Marx are just as relevant and important today as they were a century ago. It is just that, there is no dearth of pseudo Marxists today beating the same old tune around poverty and injustice and propagating impractical solutions. Veteran actor Deepak Mahan, who plays Karl Marx, holds the hour-long monologue with magnetic pace and expressions.

The director Ayatulla Khan played his cards right and casted someone who can looked anti Marx and yet pulled off the character with ease. The script was tinkered with a little to incorporate the contemporary political situation, but largely remained the part of the same old narrative that we hear on our news channels every day to absolute no effect.

The director takes a dig at everyone. From Modi to Kejriwal, no one was spared which actually set the initial expectations from the play pretty high. As the play progresses, we hear nothing new. The same teachings of Marx which could have had a modern spin or interpretation, or the director could have gone with a satire to give the bit of zing. Instead the team Rangrez Sarokaar from Mumbai decided to go with the rhetoric which, although important, everyone is tired of hearing.

We all know the problems of India; we all know the unreal mean income of people living below poverty line and the cronyism that is played out daily at their expense. Hearing a practical solution for it or even a fantasy around it would have been refreshing and who knows actually helpful.

What worked for the play was the sheer energy of the team. The energy of Shashi Behl, who prepared this play in memory of her Marxist husband, was infectious. She seemed no less committed to her husband’s philosophy than Jennny, Marx’s wife who gave up everything for him. The innocence of the director and team and the radiating positivity from them at the end of the show made up for any boredom that one would have felt during the show.

And it wasn’t that they did not know how heavy Marx can be for the audience. As the director so eloquently put at the end of the play, “Aap ne ek ghante Marx ko suna hai, chhoti baatnahi hai.” (You have heard Marx for one hour, it is not a small thing.)

By:Saharssh