A wayward girl. Pent up anger. A mercurial take on life. Takes refuge in 30 day relationships.
A painfully quiet woman. Loses herself often in her past. Takes refuge in Lord Krsna.
A horrible, murky past connects one to the other.
A past one could die to forget and another would want to keep alive, only if to rub the pain in.
30 days in September is a gripping drama that deals with incest.
Amazing performances and incisive writing by Mahesh Dattani.
For once, I liked the Dubey ladies too.
It's strange. This incest.
I remember my very first reaction when I read about it in a popular Danielle Steel book - Malice.
First few pages into the book and I felt violated. Could this really be happening or had Danielle gone berserk? A dad ??
The book had scared me enough to be put away.
I went to it only after I had sorted my thoughts.
That was about 6 years back.
Things haven't changed much. Our society still turns a blind eye to incest. Heck, India doesn't even have a law that deems it as crime.
Most victims are scarred for life and live in the shadows forever.
Families do not step up. Shame, guilt, family honour take precedence over the dignity and violation of a child.
It's not like incest doesn't happen elsewhere. Yet, in some countries, like ours, the stigma is probably tougher to get over.
I came across Harish Iyer's moving tale. One can only respect the man. But, again, not every person can be a Harish.
So I can only hope that such stories are spoken and written about more.
Anything, to keep our children safe and our society sensitive.
This Tuesday I got a chance to go for Girish Karnad's play called the "Wedding Album".
This was different for me for 2 reasons - first, it was the first time I was watching a Karnad play and second, I watched it alone !
It being a working day and with most people I know not into "theatre" - I went all by myself.
I have heard a LOT about Karnad and his prowess for coming out with sharp, witty and intelligent plays. Naturally, I had sky high expectations.
The play has been directed by Lillete Dubey and is divided into two acts. The star cast includes some well known theatre personalities like Ira Dubey, Smita Jaykar, Amar Talwar, Utkarsh Mazumdar, etc. Though the cast has changed a lot of times since the play has been acted across the globe, Ira Dubey is the one constant - playing the role of the protagonist - about to be married off.
Wedding Album narrates the story of a middle class family (the "Nadkarnis") getting together for the youngest daughter's wedding - the excitement and nervousness that pervade a household for getting a child married off is shown very well in the play.
The play starts with video recording of Ira, being made by her brother, an attempt to show her "true, beautiful self" to the would be "Dulha" for an introduction. How a global world, with the advent of technology, has affected the very traditional Indian marriage - forms the crux of the story.
As the story advances, we get a peek into the ordinary lives of the Nadkarnis, their hopes and aspirations, little skirmishes and complaints, successes and personal failures. The story had some charming moments and witty dialogues that kept the audiences in splits.
However, all said and done, I did not find this Album a very enticing one. It dragged in many places. Having watched some very witty plays like "The Class of 84" and "Double Deal" - this one, seemed slow and moving in various directions all at once !
A lot of topics have been touched and talked about - that could probably have been avoided.
Also, though the play is a contemporary look at a middle class family, yet, it was difficult to digest the reasons why a "21st century" girl might want to get married and settle down with an NRI - as portrayed in the play. The very act of the wedding being treated as a burden and something to be done away with didn't appeal much to me. Are Indian arranged marriages really so boring and burdensome??
Yet, the audiences seemed to enjoy the play so much that I thought probably I didn't have my mind in the right place.
I hope to see more of Karnad's works. Hopefully, the next time around, I shall have a genuine laugh at the banter.
