This Hindi adaptation of a Russian play dives into lives of Mumbai’s lower class

A Hindi stage adaptation of a Russian play highlights the story of the people who have spent their lives on the streets of Mumbai

Russian writer Maxim Gorky’s 1902 play, The Lower Depths has seen many film and theatre adaptations over the years. From the 1946 Hindi film Neecha Nagar that won the The Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival that year to the 1957 Japanese film by the same name, the play has been alive in the entertainment world across decades. Now, bringing it to the stage once again, the In-person batch of 2022-23 of Drama School Mumbai will be performing the production at G5A Warehouse today.

Helmed by actor, director and writer Rasika Agashe, the play is adapted to a Mumbai setting based on the 1958 Hindi translation. “While adapting the play for stage, the productions have always been Russian-based. This is the first time that an adaptation talks about Mumbai’s lower classes. Even for plays in general, they mostly tell the stories of the middle-class. So, we tried to make this a story about the lives and dreams of a class that has been sidelined,” Agashe tells us in a conversation. She reveals that the title of the play ‘Log Jo Dikhte Nahi’ came from the idea of how the people who live on the streets are seen everywhere in the city, and yet, ignored by the society.

Students of Drama School Mumbai feature in the play

“When I told them about the adaptation, the students found it interesting. The original play is a well-crafted production, so we picked the roles from the story and tried to turn them into Indian characters,” she says. Agashe further mentions, “I focused on the Indian realistic style of acting. So, we wanted to know in detail how the everyday lives of the people go on; what they do on a mundane afternoon? Or what jobs they have? Hence, we visited a basti nearby where we observed their behaviour and then started writing the story.”

The play has a brilliant list of poems by some prominent names in Hindi and Urdu poetry. “We came with the idea of inculcating poems while writing the story. For example, a stage actor who never got his break expresses his emotions through a poem. But we realised that sadness is not the only expression in life. So we tried to keep a mix of poetry works that would equally sum up life — a series of highs and lows.” The director explains that this is how they came around composing a song out of Faiz Ahmed Faiz poem, Kutte. “We will be opening the play with a song too,” she adds.

Agashe believes that it is important to tell these stories. “These performing actors mostly come from privileged backgrounds, where they have no idea how people who do not have the privilege of money live. I wanted to make a play where the audience along with the actors get to see more than what they usually see in their mundane lives,” she concludes.

On: Today and April 20; 5 pm and 8 pm
At: G5A Warehouse, Laxmi Mills Estate, Mahalaxmi
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