Cast(e)ing aspirations

How often do we find ourselves drawn into the controversies of caste and class and the politics surrounding them? Something similar is what Anand Patil and his wife, the protagonists of ‘Aanandbhog Mall’ go through in their early thirties of a so called ‘blissfully’ married life. After Kashmir Kashmir ‘Aanandbhog Mall’ is the latest offering by Aasakta, an experimental theatre group from Pune . Directed by Mohit Takalkar and written by Ashutosh Potdar, the play delves into the intimacies of a married life of a couple surrounded by the hoopla of politics of caste and class. The play is essentially in Marathi with a Kolhapuri dialect used.

Ashutosh Potdar started scripting this play three years back. He was witnessing the tensions among different caste groups in his hometown Kolhapur then and decided that he must do something about it. The caste differences have prevailed in our country since ages and continue to do so even in the modern times. They continue to rock the foundations of mankind and delving deeper into it we realize that it still creates friction among various groups. The hierarchy goes on building to an extent which creates disagreements and discords.

The couple in the play comes from two different kinds of social order and hence entirely different backgrounds with respect to their cultural and social differences. Right from their mannerisms to the way they talk or think is different. A large part of their background makes a difference to their married life and as a result the cultural baggage that they carry begins to show in their relationship. They come to settle in a city from a small town and are influenced to large extent by the media surrounding them. There is an instance where the husband asks the wife to look like Mallika Sherawat. The couple faces a situation where their present is haunted and threatened by the past.

Ashutosh says, “It is almost like negotiating with reality and compromising with the present”. There is a conflict in the minds of ‘to be’ and ‘wanting to be’. They are caught in a regular tussle between the theories of modernity and tradition. “They want to cling to their tradition without losing out on modernity”, says Ashutosh. They come across as confused and disconcerted wanting to ‘progress’ and ‘develop’. Although they are well educated and read newspapers like ‘Pudhari’, they realize the importance of education that is above the petty politics that they are still entangled in between conflicts of interests.

The mall to them represents a change. It stands for modernism, development and freedom which are soon to be overshadowed by the problems they face in a city. They come to the city with a hope of change and wanting to be away from the caste hierarchy that is rampant in the rural side of India. But they soon realize that although in metropolitans ,caste system may not thrive as much as in rural but there is an underlying class system which makes life all the more troublesome. Eventually they find themselves entwined in some kind of hierarchy whether it is caste or class. ‘Shifting Hierarchies’ is what Ashutosh calls it.

The play explores into the conflicting and confused minds of the two disconcerted protagonists who have aspirations to ‘develop’ in this ‘golbal’ world. Ashutosh Potdar is working for the first time with Director Mohit Takalkar. They met a year back and hit off well and the association has culminated into ‘Aanandbhog Mall’. Ashutosh who has been associated with several liberal movements in Kolhapur has also worked with the Narmada Bachao Andolan samiti. Talking about his experience he says, “It was absolutely great working with Mohit. His visualization is spectacular and intense”. Mohit is an award winning director and has directed several plays in the past which have toured the length and breadth of Maharashtra and have been invited to several national and international festivals.

Published on 27th November,2009 in The Asian Age