A nostalgic past & the terrific today

Friday evening wasn’t just another cultural evening at Ravindra Bharathi. It was the day when the city experienced one of the best plays, which embodied not only Indian but also the universal society and culture bred alienation, disaffection and desperation.

Titled ‘India Oye’, the play directed by RK Shenoy, which is an adaption of ‘America Hurrah’ (written by Jean Claude van Itallie), depicted the chaos in the everyday life of Indians. The play staged by Dramatist Anonymous portrayed the burgeoning peculiar consumerism in India, since its independence. Divided into three sequences, it was a perfect reflection to the pace at which our civilisations are changing.

Using physical and verbal choreography, the first sequence ‘Interview’ scrutinised the streamlining of life in modern urban. Post successions of a few interviews of people from all classes, from a maid to a capitalist and Public Relations officer, the play transits to reveal a street, which acts a path to later disclose numerous situations illustrating helplessness, anonymity, desperation and institutionalised de-humanisation.

The beauty at which the directed showed how voices go unheard in today’s India, was indeed reflecting in the performance of artistes, especially Jay, who played the role of a painter. India Oye was not only a mockery on the current corporate and capitalist system we are blindly following, but also a satiric take on how hollow have people propagating religion become, which was evident in the scene where a girl who lost her way in the city goes unanswered asking for help from a person holding a card reading- Jesus saves; come and be saved.

That’s indeed the irony of our lives. And, the same girl on approaching a minister, gets nothing more than a speech, which is perhaps an irrelevant word of mouth, thereby also depicting the sad state of our political system. How the media defines and plays down the same people who feed off of it, was another aspect well portrayed in the second sequence.

The sitcoms and soaps being telecast on television mirror the real life consequences reciting right in front of the box, illuminating the contrasting difference between the two worlds – one where problems can be solved by a fashionably flaunted cigarette, and one where emotions are not linear, and people are not cardboard cutouts.

The final sequence, which was abstract, hints at extinction of our civilisation. It depicts the results of an acquisitive, consumer society. This is the point where there is a contrasting difference between the nostalgic past and the terrific present. The background score and costumes were close to perfect.

What was fascinating is that the closed space was full despite the not-so-comfortable chairs. One thing that was a sore thumb was the sound console. And, of course, the group can’t be blamed for that; it is the auditorium’s negligent state.

By:Tushar Kalawatia