Picture credits: Swagato Basumallick
ARCHNA ASTHANA
The iconic freedom fighter, barrister, politician, family man that the world knows as Mahatma Gandhi is revered for his ideals of non-violence, civil disobedience, satyagraha, swadeshi; as much as he is reviled for his many flaws, experiments, and ambiguous decisions.
Quirky or enlightened, you cannot but be engrossed in the storytelling prowess of Sujit Saraf, the founder of Naatak who wrote and directed this epic of the larger than life man at Cubberly Theater in Palo Alto recently. Saraf makes the point that knowing the story of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi should be required of every Indian citizen, whether they agree or disagree with his ideals.
He introduced the play through a poetic reference to a cart led by a pair of bullocks with a dog running in between; each animal thinking he was the one pulling the cart. With respect to Gandhi, some think of him as the bullock, or the dog, or even the cart. If Gandhi himself was asked that question, Saraf quips, he would chuckle and say he was the poet who wrote those lines.
The power outage that resulted in an hour’s late start did not quell the mounting expectations of theatregoers as they were regaled by singers sitting satyagraha style and rendering Gandhian songs. Any leftover annoyance was mitigated by the gracious Saraf offering complimentary snacks at intermission. The fast paced, quick changing vignettes of Gandhi’s life traced the arc from a young man of 19 years embarking on a journey abroad until his death at age 77 at the hands of the unrepentant Nathuram Godse.
Gandhi witnessed and experienced humiliation at the hands of the white rulers during his initial years in South Africa through racially motivated unjust policies, which propelled him into active leadership for the rest of his life. Orating at assemblies, organizing Congress, urging his fellow countrymen to not accept inequality, but instead to unite, work hard, and take national pride, he succeeds with organized Satyagraha, non-cooperation and peaceful civil disobedience in British-ruled India to gain independence.
Gandhi seeks moral guidance from the Vedas, synchronizes his views with his religious and erudite friend Raichand (Sandeep Gadhvi), is motivated by John Ruskin’s “Unto this last” to restore dignity of labor, and embraces experimenting to seek his guiding truth. Gandhi eschews Western clothing and leads an ascetic Brahmacharya life, imposing self-restraint. His many actions such as dubious experiments with celibacy, recruitment of Indian troops for the British army in both World Wars, supporting the Khilafat movement, letting Bhagat Singh be hanged, among others, earned him both respect and resentment. However, the sociopolitical reforms he initiated carried through, culminating in the birth of an independent India, due, in no small part to his decades-long efforts.
Soumya Agastya is to be applauded for an unbiased massive production involving 103 characters played by 35 actors, 12 dancers and eight musicians, supported by an 85-member crew. Nachiketa Yakkundi and his musical group has become a staple, along with a nubile dance troupe, that provided welcome interludes and highlights to the intense political drama. Ritwik Verma and Natraj Kumar were stellar in representing the young and older Gandhi.
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