'Godse' joins 'Gandhi' to condemn violence

PUNE: This Nathuram Godse has full police protection whenever he makes a public appearance.
When he performed to a full house at the Balgandharva Rang Mandir on Tuesday, at least five policemen were waiting in the wing while some more sat in the audience ready to shoot down any trouble.
Yet, the inaugural show of the much-talked-about play Mee Nathuram Godse Boltoy went on smoothly in Pune despite demonstrations by Congress workers.In fact, the group of nine artistes who perform in the play have become so used to the morchas and demonstrations that both ''Nathuram Godse'' and ''Mahatma Gandhi'' do not even bat an eyelid while speaking about the traumatic incidents of the past few months. And this includes the burning of their bus by Congress activists in Mumbai on June 1.
"We fail to understand why so much noise is being made about the play even after the judiciary gave its clearance," says the fair and hazel-eyed Sharad Ponkshe, who plays Nathuram. "Sometimes, we feel frustrated and wonder when all this nonsense will end so that we can stage the shows without police protection," he remarks.
Neither Ponkshe nor Rajesh Kamble, who plays Mahatma Gandhi, nor Abhijit Chavan, who is inspector Sawant in the play, ever felt that the demonstrations would culminate into the burning of their bus. "We were terribly disturbed by the incident but, strangely enough, our resolve to continue with the play became even stronger. And none of this ever affected the calibre of our performance or the intensity with which we perform, or even the yearning for perfection," remarks Kamble, who is playing Gandhi the second time in his career after Gandhi ani Ambedkar.
At one stage, Kamble did wonder whether the artistes themselves would be attacked next, but he never thought of dropping out of the play. Added to this was the opposition from family members of all the artistes. "We convinced our families. We told them that we were enjoying full support of the audience wherever we went and there was also the police to protect us," he reveals.
"One thing is very clear--those who burnt our bus were certainly not followers of Mahatma Gandhi," says Ponkshe, who feels that the role of Nathuram is a milestone in his career. "I want people to remember me when they think about Nathuram Godse. I want them to say, ''Yes! this is how Nathuram would have looked and behaved,"'' he says, adding that despite the traumatic incident he does not repent having accepted the role. "It is a very powerful, author-backed character, which has all the shades," he points out.
Abhijit Chavan cannot seem to get over the June 1 incident or the way all the artistes and the audience rallied behind the producer and director. "All the clothes which we wear in the play were burnt along with a part of the set. We were able to procure two dhotis for Rajesh (Gandhi), but the rest of us were wearing jeans and casuals. Yet the audience fully supported us," he recalls.
After the three shows in Pune Mee Nathuram... will go to Mumbai, come back to Pune for two more shows and then venture into Marathwada. What with the stiff opposition to the staging of the play, a three-year-long court battle to get it cleared, its author Pradeep Dalvi''s recent outbursts against the play, and his demand for a ban, plus the recent burning of the bus, director Vinay Apte and producer Uday Dhurat have kept ready four sets of the play to overcome any eventuality.