A maverick's monologue

Thespian Makarand Deshpande's new play Patni will see a jugalbandi of words by him and music by sitar and zitar maestro Niladri Kumar

Makarand Deshpande. Pic/Sneha Kharabe

While music has been integral to many Makarand Deshpande's works, there's a lot of curiosity around his new play, Patni. This is the first time the thespian has matched tunes, quite literally, with sitar and zitar maestro Niladri Kumar, leaving everyone wondering what he, an actor-director-playwright, is planning to do with Kumar, whose name has never been associated with theatre until now. Even as we sit at Prithvi café chatting over cups of their famous kawa, we are interrupted more than once by his actor friends, the likes of Rajit Kapoor and Divya Dutta, all wanting to know, what Deshpande is up to.

Patni will see the veteran actor deliver a monologue as Kumar tries to express that state of mind on stage, through his music. The play, says Deshpande, has taken off from his previous play Grihalakshmi, which was about a man trying to deal with the loss of his wife. "Some stories don't want to leave you. That play was more rooted in the story, the situations. This one is more about the state of mind. It's internal. It's the man presenting his dead wife to the audience. And she represents the love that doesn't want to die," he says, clarifying that it is not a story rooted in pathos. "Even the pain and angst of the man is loveable. There maybe sadness, but it is sweet. I've never done a solo performance of this kind before. It's not a soliloquy. There's a plot, there's progression, which is why I am calling it a play," he says.

Given the variety of plays he has written and the characters he has essayed, it is hard to describe his craft in distinct terms. "Years ago, when Anurag (Kashyap) was working as an actor, he had described my theatre as 'Makarandi natak'. You cannot use terms like 'surreal', 'fantastic', he had said. I would take that forward and say my theatre is about illusion and reality. It comes from the questions I have encountered in life, the drama I have observed; not because I read Aadhe Adhure. For instance, three years ago when I lost my mother, from the things I was trying to deal with at that time, my play Ma In Transit took shape," Deshpande says.

Even while developing Patni, each rehearsal was different from the other, we are told. "Niladri would play a different tune each day and I'd mouth a different line. But somehow, we found harmony in that. Even now, he's playing somewhere else, that's rehearsal for him, while I'm here," Deshpande chuckles, adding, "For me, acting and theatre is about finding a moment of truth and that doesn't come from rehearsals alone." Deshpande has never been caught up in the commerce behind his art. "I am not cut out for that and that clarity I had very early on in life. I told myself, I am not here to create a classic. So ticket sales have never bothered me." He's also one of the rare kinds to have given films a second preference. "In fact, I used to tell them at one point, give me smaller roles, so that I can spend more time in theatre," he laughs.

Where: Prithvi Theatre, Juhu
When: Jan 10-11, 7 pm and 9 pm
Entry: Rs 175-300
Contact: 26149546

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