…by Theatre Nisha - a commendable effort I should say! The play is about 2 hours long and delicately weaves the story of about 10 prostitutes (or 9??) from different time frames. The play starts with Rishyasringa, an excluded hermit, who lives among the trees and has never seen women. A courtesan named Tarangini is then sent to him to woo him and break his vows, but is later beheaded. This part was a bit surprising, because according the Ramayana I have read, Shanta, the daughter of King Romapada is sent by him to break his vows and they get married too. Tarangini’s seduction and Rishyasringa’s emotions when his vows of abstinence are washed over by the waves of his new-found desire were sensuous and beautifully crafted.The next episode is about an old couple who try to save a prostitute from her pimp. The old man gets killed in the process. The last scene where his wife cries over the dead body was extremely realistic and poignant. Then, there is an episode of an ordinary man who works at the barracks, and another one about a prostitute who kills her owner and convinces a bartender to lie for her in front of the policemen. These were pretty short and interesting nevertheless.
Another episode on Urvashi’s curse on Arjuna was misplaced. Urvashi desires Arjuna and when he refuses, saying that she is mother of his race, she curses him to live among the women in his 13th year of exile. Urvashi’s vilification to a mere prostitute was way off mark and uninspiring. This episode was very ‘sleep-inducing’ according to kiki, and only me, vamp and kiki clapped for this because it ended with GP’s aalaap (for the uninitiated, an aalaap is the ‘aaaaa’ part of classical music, in the simplest terms possible).
The last episode had Bala, the director himself, playing the part of a torturer (cleverly named Fuehrer) during the Nazi regime. He torments a woman until she accepts that she is a homosexual whore and then kills her. This episode was exceptionally intense with an unforgettable climax.
The play was haunting and enjoyable, but the episodes were unconnected and very long. The literal translation of Sanskrit texts into English became lackluster after a while. With uncomplicated costumes, very few lights, a flautist and guitarist for background music, the stage looked minimalist and sleek. A few episodes only had an inconspicuous bench serving as a prop and still looked stimulating.
All the same, it is refreshing to see that theatre (and conservative Chennai) has come of age. Hats off to Bala for this attempt at portraying prostitution so daringly and not succumbing to clichés.
