This Mahabharata adaptation is enlivened by rock music, Kathak and Kalari

MUMBAI ‘Jaya: The Victory’, a rock musical based on the Mahabharata has many parallels in contemporary global politics, marking the epic’s universal pull. “It is not like the story doesn’t speak to you anymore because you already know it. You see the human soul in all its naked, wicked ugliness and relate because so much of it mirrors our lives,” says director of the play Lillete Dubey, who finds talks of utter and total subjugation and annihilation both in Gaza and Ukraine a throwback to the Mahabharata.
“When Krishna asks Duryodhana to compromise with only five villages for the Pandavas, he says he won’t part with land enough to hold a needle tip. This isn’t so removed from what’s happening in Gaza, is it?” she asks and adds, “Is it any wonder that the Mahabharata is a theme revisited multiple times in literature (Iravati Karve) theatre (Peter Brooks), cinema (Shyam Benegal) and more?”
The Mahabharata is boldly reimagined in ‘Jaya…’ with a mesh of rock music, Kathak and Kalari. As he struggles with the intricacies of truth, power, and destiny, Yudhishthira, the eldest Pandava sibling is the trigger for the story to erupt. “When the Pandavas ascend to heaven, Yudhishthira is shocked to see Duryodhana and Shakuni there and the narrative of the play shifts to them as protagonists,” says Dubey who found “the compelling examination of human nature of the play juxtaposing Yudhishthira’s ideas with the diametrically opposed ideologies of Duryodhana and Karna fascinating.”
Just as it had fascinated her in when she first heard of ‘Jaya..’ 28 years ago from IITian Sandeep Kanjilal, a self-taught musician who had re-imagined the epic as a rock opera. “It took me two years to throw everything I had into the open-air production sprawling across 10,000 square feet incorporating natural water bodies and trees to make it completely immersive.” However, despite an encouraging initial response the play petered off.
She wasn’t done with it, but her film career was taking off as ‘Zubeida’, ‘Gadar’, ‘Monsoon Wedding’, ‘Om Jai Jagdish’, ‘Pinjar’ and ‘Baghbaan’ came in quick succession. “Though other plays took precedence, I couldn’t let ‘Jaya…’ go. It sat within simmering.” She links it to lack of original content in English. “Though I’ve nothing against it, for how long are actors supposed to be caught in blizzards and celebrate Thanksgiving in a hot, humid Mumbai? Where are our own stories?” she asks. “We have more than abundant talent in India. But putting up a state-of-the-art production with potent original soundtrack, thrilling performers, striking images and the perfect lighting needs money. That’s where things often come unstuck.”
Film and TV actor Vikrant Chaturvedi (he has dubbed several ads, Indian animation and Hindi dubs of Hollywood fare) who plays Duryodhana says once Dubey actually told him to “act himself,” at rehearsals it was easy to find his character’s groove. “There’s a line in the play where my character is described as ‘vain as an apsara and proud as a God.’ So, there was that too!” he chuckles and let’s on that he doesn’t go by conventional boxes: hero and villain. “Here Duryodhana is the hero. Look at his point of view. Despite being the eldest, his father was denied the right to rule because he was blind. Can you think of anything more morally wrong? Today could we slight a challenged person and rob them of their right? Also, though none of Pandu’s children were his legitimate offspring they claim his lineage. Duryodhana only wants to correct a wrong.”
His friend and co-actor Asif who plays Shakuni says he wanted to take the caricature out of the character. “He’s loud, garish and wears pink and dances all the time but I still wanted the audience to understand the pain from where his bitterness was coming.” He says Dubey only had a one-line brief for him. “Don’t make him camp.”
Similarly, Megan who plays Draupadi was told: “Draupadi is NO victim. She’s strong, resilient and empowered.” For example, in Draupadi’s love song to her five husbands – even though it wasn’t her choice to marry them all – she is anything but submissive and timid and tells the audience what a woman desires and tells them she gets it all from her five husbands. “Does that suggest victimhood?” she asks.
When this writer asked Tirthankar Poddar aka 2Blue who plays Yudhistir, what a rock singer-performer like him was doing in a Hindu mythological he laughed. “You see, we’re what we do. We’re verbs, not nouns. Job titles can’t define us. What is inside does…” He also did not find the coming together of rock music with kathak and kalari like idli-with-sauce.
“We’re habituated to idli with sambhar even if it doesn’t fire us up any more. But idli with sauce could do that. Look at the raunchy item song Chammak Challo. When Akon sang it, it added sauce to idli and created a hit. Lillete has done the same with ‘Jaya…’ No wonder it resonates.”
Pop star, singer, composer and actor Sherrin Varghese who plays Krishna, is a surprise cast. “This is not a spiritual/devotional play but an intensely intellectual one so I wanted Krishna to be as unconventional as possible. No crowns, no peacock feather or anything,” says Dubey. Varghese (who readers will recall from India’s first boy band A Band of Boys) who plays a bald Krishna admits, “It was a challenge getting into character but I love the way it has finally shaped up.”
Danny Sura who plays Arjun said he finds the character’s graph very interesting. “Unlike the all-knowing Krishna who even knows how the war is going to end, Arjun goes through a lot to become the confident, equanimous warrior in the end.” But he gets to play Krishna too when Varghese can’t be there for a show. “I always wanted to be Krishna and manifested the part for myself so that I could sing too.”
(The play will be performed at Jamshed Bhabha Theatre today at 4 pm and 7.30 pm)