The Gods go crazy at Horniman this Sunday

A vengeful Naarad, a short tempered Lakshmi, a lusty Lord Shiva and spirited Tamasha artists make Adalay Maazha Thetar an entertainer for non-Marathi speaking audiences too

This weekend, you'll see how the Gods above are just as vulnerable and volatile as humans, in an open-air free staging of a Marathi adaptation of die-hard playwright Vijay Tendulkar's Hindi piece, Brahma Vishnu Maheswara. Director Hemant Hajare,u00a0 who also worked behind-the-scenes in the original play, has added to Iravati Karnik's adaptation, his own natural wit and the sauciness of the Tamasha school of acting. The final product, Naarad Raagawala Aahey aka Adalay Maazha Thetar, does away with barriers of language. This play-within-a-play is a comedy, mythological, tamasha, political statement, all rolled into one.

Naarad (Mangesh Shirsagar) is seething with anger at the curse cast upon him by Goddess Lakshmi (Shilpa Sane) that led to his deflowering. He coerces demon price Kirit (Habib Khan) to undergo penance to please Lord Shiva (Prashant Lokhande) into making him the invincible Bhasmasoor. Brahma, Vishnu and Indra get dragged into the revenge game.

Offstage, the director finds some actors missing in action. He calls in proxy a group of professional tamasha artists whose show was coincidentally cancelled. What ensues is a side-splitting mismatch between two distinct genres of acting, and some dancing.

"Since I have directed a tamasha-based play earlier, getting the dialect, dance and acting to blend seamlessly with the plot, was painless," said the director at an unticketed staging held on Tuesday by theatre group, Awishkar. Seems about right. Some of the actors are real-life tamasha artists, like Anil Shinde who plays troupe leader, and acting hopeful Maushi, who gets a part as Indra.

Mangesh looks teeth-gnashing furious. Shilpa gives an all-out powerhouse performance. Habib portrays the only truly sincere character convincingly. Prashant is howlarious as the lusty Tamasha actor who can't help being melodramatic.


At: Horniman Circle Garden, Fort on April 4 and 5 at 8 pm.

Entry is free