Draupadi, the essence of a woman, continues to remain alive in the subconscious of the human mind. The suffering of the wife of Arjuna, who was shared by his brothers in the epic tale of Mahabharata, is well- known. Looking at things from her perspective and wisdom is the theme of the theatre production Draupadi. Produced
and co-directed by Shivani Pasrich, it questions the spirit of a woman and raises interesting questions about tolerance and faith. Anjolie Ela Menon has designed the signature while costumes have been done by Ritu Kumar, with Shubha Mudgal rendering her voice for the vocals. It is co-directed by Tina Johnson.
The production, which culminated out of much thought and intense preparation, took over two-and-a-half years to come together. “I couldn’t ever imagine that I could come up with Draupadi. It has been a team effort and Draupadi is simply not putting scenes together,” says Pasrich. In her words, the play is a vibrant production with life and spirit enthused in it, which is quite literally as well. The regular sequences of drama don’t come across as mundane and that works for the topic that Pasrich is working on. Incorporation of elements from the mundane life and filling the spaces with Draupadi’s thoughts come across as an interesting mechanism. It seems as a confluence of the sacred space with the vices of the human nature.
The protagonist of the play Maaya, essayed by Charu Shankar, is caught between the dilemmas. Her angst against the wrong doings of her brother-in-law Kaurav Sharma, played by Sanjit Bedi, is well-justified. There are moments of rage and vengeance, which are controlled by Draupadi, essayed by Pasrich who keeps coming to Maaya. Arjun, Maaya’s husband, is always caught between the duties of being a dutiful son, good brother and a caring husband. Well portrayed by actor Arjun Fauzdar, he is always about the righteous path (dharma). The story revolves around a family of two brothers and Maaya who is married to Arjun. The problems crop up when Kaurav begins to take advantage of Maaya and she raises her voice against it. Maaya and Arjun decide to leave home and thus begins a series of mundane life problems which revolve around bitter issues of money and hatred towards the injustice in life. The metaphors that have been used make an interesting connect with the audience. Lord Krishna comes in different avatars of a dhobi and sareewala and makes Maaya understand the complexities of life. Brilliantly essayed by Dilip Shankar, the man brings refreshes every scene with his presence and titbits of gyaan. A scene where Maaya washes her hair with water, metaphorically washing away the sadness of the past on stage, makes a strong impact as the connect becomes stronger by the actual use of the prop.
“Dilip helped me a lot while formulating the script and we were pretty much on the same plane. The cast came together one by one and gave their inputs as well. So it is has been a lot of research, madness and conviction in the project,” says Pasrich. “The project became special since each of us had a feeling of ownership. It was like our own baby and that worked,” says Pasrich. Anjolie didn’t hesitate once and helped Pasrich with many other inputs. “Ritu and I have come a long way and I asked if we needed a fashion show to promote it, but she had this cut-the-nonsense attitude and simply asked me to work on the production,” adds Pasrich. Sanskriti Kendra, a place which had no connect with the outer world, was their location of rehearsals which actually meant going through a rigorous amount of preparation for their characters. “It was a beautiful place with green fields and spaces around,” says Pasrich.
They have been invited to New York and London and also have shows coming up in January.