A contemporary take on Gandhi and his life

Portraying a larger than life figure is no mean bu siness. Moreover, when it is about Mahatma Gandhi, Father of the Nation, the challenges to give something new to the audience are many.

What new can there be on Gandhi? Well, for that you have to wat ch this play. Deepak Antani who holds a record in India Book of Records for portraying maximum number of Gandhi roles does so with elan with his experimental Hindi

drama

that took him one and a half years to research and six months to write –

MK Gandhi Hajir Ho

. The

play

premiered in the city recently marking Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary celebrations.

The magic of this play is that it will even appeal to a foreigner who knows nothing about India. It has that quality to inform and engage across ages, though with a caution – ‘It is fictionalised version inspired from real life events.’ And even if you are not interested in any of these, watch this play for the love of

theatre

and get some tips on personal and social development.

Coming at a time when majority of the population had not experienced the freedom struggle and partition trauma, and is perceiving Gandhi through half-baked information and controversies surrounding his various decisions available online, the interactive experimental play tries to address them by saying that Gandhi himself has decided to come and address them.

The play opens with a small video clip of Gandhi and slowly takes theaudience into a ‘court room’ devoid of a judge and a dock but having a lawyer (Mehul Buch) representing the common man from behind a desk with Gandhi (Deepak Antani) often choosing to sit onto his floor mattress. It is not a historical play and you get that contemporary touch mirroring today’s society when a group of Gandhians start protesting on how can the late Mahatma be summoned. The play with a touch of satire and humour seems unbiased in portraying Gandhi as a human silencing every curiosity and doubt of the audience using the flashback technique.

Deepak in the role of Gandhi takes you by surprise where more than his near perfect make up and body language, it is his sweet melodious voice that strikes a connect.Other characters too, be it the ones who played Irwin (Axit Vyas) or Bhagat Singh’s father or Jinnah (Karan Waghela) are impressive.

Make up, costume, artistic use of lights enhance the drama’s visual appeal often drawing focus on significant characters in the proscenium. Most music and sound rely on famous bhajans by Gandhiji and their use at certain turning points is brilliant.

Minor technical glitch aside with it being the first show, the play has something for everyone across age groups. “We should try to be our own judge and not a lawyer. We should practice what we preach.”