Reviving Marathi theatre through vintage plays

Last year, when actor Sunil Barve wanted to celebrate the silver jubilee of his theatre career, he came up with a novel idea. He could see almost every producer ruing the decline in the standard of play scripts and decided that he would turn to the tried and trusted playwrights of the golden era of Marathi theatre, thus creating an opportunity for older generations to revisit their work and exposing youngsters to some of the significant plays of yesteryear.
Drawing from his study of botany in his college days, Barve named his production company Herbarium, a name that is reminiscent of the dried leaves and flowers kept within the pages of books, that leave behind some wonderful memories.
Since he knew exactly how the economics of the Marathi stage works and was aware that actors are unwilling to devote too much time to theatre due to television commitments, Barve decided to produce just five plays and limit each to a run of 25 shows.
He took another step that made him a target of some criticism. He priced the shows at double the norm in Marathi theatre, an action he defends by stating that he wanted his actors, technicians and backstage workers to be paid the way live performers are internationally.
"I've watched some theatre abroad,'' he says, "and I wanted to include some of their ways within our scenario, printing brochures, ensuring that the set retains the same quality right through and even taking curtain calls, something we don't do on the Marathi stage. In fact, I found that audiences loved the novel idea of getting better acquainted with the actors through a curtain call.''
Barve chose five directors-Pratima Kulkarni, Mangesh Kadam, Vijay Kenkre, Chandrakant Kulkarni and Girish Joshi-and invited them to pick a vintage play with a cast of young actors in order to give them the rare opportunity of performing in well-known, well-written older plays with their more complex rhythms of language and diction.
His first production, Vasant Kanetkar's Suryachi Pille, a satirical comedy on the corruption of Gandhian values, directed by Pratima Kulkarni, was a runaway success. Every show, even at the 2700-plus capacity Shanmukhanand Auditorium, was sold out within hours of the opening of plans, demonstrating Marathi theatregoers' hunger for good theatre with the backbone of an excellent script.
The second play in the series, Bal Kolhatkar's Lahanpan Dega Deva, directed by Mangesh Kadam, resembles Hrishikesh Mukherjee's film Bawarchi, though it was first staged in 1969, a couple of years before the film. It opened on November 24, at 8.30 pm at Dinanath Natyagriha, and once again will have a run of just 25 shows, 13 in Mumbai and 12 in the rest of Maharashtra. Clearly, some more Houseful boards are on the cards.