Just Walking Around

Marathi Theater

An interesting and an inspiring aspect of Shivaji Park – Dadar area is its Marathi Theater and the support it draws even today from the Maharashtrian community. Even in  this day and age of larger than life movies with its glamorous portrayals of  romance or tragedy or heroism sprinkled with large scale special effects there are stories that need to experience in person on a much smaller scale on  a one to one direct dialog. That’s where the theater or Natak comes into picture. The stories happen live before our eyes played out by seasoned character actors who bring them alive with their powerful and mesmerizing  performance on stage. They don’t have the liberty of retakes and re-shoots that the so called start of the Cinema have. What happens on stage is all live and the reaction to a particular scene is instantaneous . The applause is all real . Some of the seasoned stage actors say they are intoxicated by these live reactions and that is what they yearn for.

The Shivaji Mandir and the auditorium at The Chabildas School have always been the epicenter of the Marathi Theater. Stalwarts like Dr.Sriram Lagu , Arvind Deshpande , Dr.Kashinath Ghanekar , Prabhakar Panshikar , Sulabha Deshpande , Bhakti Barve , Bharti Achrekar , Veena Gupte etc have performed at these venues and mesmerized the audiences with their performances.Plays written by well know playwrights like Acharya Atre ,Pu La Deshpande ,Jaywant Dalvi , Vijay Tendulkar

My first tryst with Marathi theater was when dad took us to Shivaji Mandir to watch Ramdas Padhye’s Puppet theater a musical , the name I can’t recollect but it was real fun. It had the famous Ardhawat Rao , who would go “ Doka Phirla doka phirla" and rotate his head every time he was under stress . It also had his chatterbox wife Aavadabai , the white fluffy talking bunny rabbit who later was used as brand ambassador of Lijjat Papad and Sasa detergent powder. A first of its kind concept in the 80’s. The play was a musical comedy with song dance and great one liners , figure this a parrot is perched on a swing inside a cage hung in Ramdas Padhye’s house , in the middle of the afternoon a Police officer walks in to meet Ramdas Padhdye , Ramdas asks him to be seated at the same time the parrot says “yaa basa Peru kha” ( Come have seat and have some Guava) , the Police officer is offended and say “He kay peru khaychi vel aahe” ( Is this the time to eat Peru)  , the Parrot quips “Mag yaa basa ani hafte kha” ( cove have seat and take a bribe).. The audience burst into laughter. It was a memorable experience. The dark surroundings when light were turned off, the stage curtain going up , the actors , actress and the lovable puppets coming on stage . The stage  designed as per the scene and the story .And the story itself coming alive on the stage right in front of your eyes, mesmerizing you all along.

Much later when I was a little older we had gone to the same theater “Shivaji Mandir” to watch 

“Moruchi Maushi”. The play was written by the famous Marathi playwright Acharya Atre ( Pralhad Keshav Atre) the master of sarcasm. The story  was  based on the English play Charley’s Aunt. The play was  a hilarious & laugh- a-riot comedy. It was best known for Vijay Chavan’s iconic role in this famous Marathi Stage drama where he regaled in the title role of Moru's Maushi (Aunt )

Set in the post-Independence era when different Sansthans (princely states) of India were being demolished, the play dealt with three college friends Moru (Prashant Damle), Bhaiyya (Pradeep Patwardhan) and Bandya (Vijay Chavan). In the story Moru and Bhaiyya were sharing a bungalow they had rented. Moru's aunt, the queen of Kanda Sansthan, was supposed to coming visiting. So Moru and Bhaiyya call their girlfriends from their neighborhood to give her company but at the last minute the aunt's visit is cancelled and Bandya, who is playing a female part for a theatre group is coaxed by his two friends to become Moru's Maushi. What followed was a fun-filled drama with Bhaiyya's uncle and the girls' uncle proposing to mavshi and the arrival of the real mavshi and her niece who happens to be Bandya's girlfriend.

The main attraction of the play was 'Tang ting tinga', a song from the play where Vijay Chavan was at his best - dancing, jumping, playing games in a sari. Watching him on stage , the audience would root for him and there was always a cheer for an encore “Once More ..Once More”

After all these years I can still vividly remember the funny scenes and the prolific song. And every time I do so , a huge smile crosses my lips .

The play ran for more than 1000 performances and one of the actors in this play Prashant Damle , later went on to become the next superstar of Marathi Theater. He has to his name 2 World records .One of his plays “Gela Madhav Kunikade” went on for more than 10,000 performances and ran to packed houses for over 15 years . The other record is stupendous , he played 3 different characters in 3 different plays and performed for 5 shows at 5 different locations in Mumbai in one day. An achievement no other actor would have come even close.

Marathi theater itself  is an altogether different experience for a person in the audience. It’s a live its happening , the story unfolds before your eyes right there on the stage. In midst of the darkness all the emotions flow by from laughter , to happiness , to anger , to sadness everything flood you and hits you straight in the heart. The great dialogues uttered by the artists on the stage inspire you and make you proud .

Going back home after the play you are in a state of mixed emotion , sad at the sad scenes ponder over serious scenes trying to understand the play wrights point of view and happy remembering the funny scenes…..

If you ask my opinion next time you decide to watch a inane movie at the neighborhood Multiplex , I would recommend go watch a comedy Marathi play instead . It would be the best deal , you won’t have to spend a bomb neither for the tickets nor for the combo snacks. Spend a much smaller amount at the theatre , enjoy the play amidst the famous Mumbaiya snack of bata wada and a hot cutting chai and come out refreshing and Happy Happy HAAAAAPPY….