Helmed by a writer who has researched the dance form for years, this play eschews popular, simplistic representations to draw focus on customs, art and lives of dancers
Shakuntalabai Nagarkar. Pics/Kunal Vijayakar
My association with Lavani dates back to 2001 when I watched it live for the first time almost by chance at a festival in Mumbai, and witnessed its magic, its perfect mix of classiness and mass appeal. Till then, I used to think of Lavani as low-brow art and only the classical arts as high art,” says writer and director Bhushan Korgaonkar, whose directorial debut Love & Lavani is set to premiere next week.
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The play, featuring live Lavani performances and weaving in a performative storytelling style, is about the love story of dancer Shabanabai Ashturkar. “She is in love with herself as a child and young adult and eventually finds the love of her life,” Korgaonkar tells us.
The new production uses the same team of traditional Sangeet Bari artistes who were part of a show on the form directed by filmmaker Savitri Medhatul. This was about eight years ago, when Medhatul and Korgaonkar, read out portions from Korgaonkar’s book—also titled Sangeet Bari—to provide context to the live Lavani performances. “[This time] I wanted to do something new with the same form,” says Korgaonkar. “Differing from the earlier documentation theatre format, in Love & Lavani, we use many new songs while two actors appear as sutradhars, and also switch to characters enacting parts of the
love story.”
The play’s songs are in Marathi and Hindi, while its dialogues are in Hindi and Dakhni, the language spoken by some Muslims of western Maharashtra, Marathwada and Vidharba; and of other regions such as Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and by the play’s protagonist Shabanabai who belongs to a matriarchal dancing community. “Our experience of Sangeet Bari tells us that despite Marathi being a language that not many people outside Maharashtra or even Mumbai understand, the audiences connect with Lavani very quickly,” says Korgaonkar, whose book Sangeet Bari and the initial shows that grew out of it were in Marathi.
Love & Lavani is a play with lavani performances weaved into a performative storytelling style. It is the love story of dancer Shabanabai Ashturkar. PICS/M FAHIM
B Spot Productions, the company founded by Korgaonkar with a team of multidisciplinary collaborators, with names such as Kunal Vijayakar and Geetanjali Kulkarni offering directorial inputs, creates performances that enable communities to share stories and encourage audiences to explore sensory pleasures while often facilitating conversations around taboo topics. “They show different shades and aspects of love and pleasure, sensuality and sexuality and allow you to be open and expressive about your thoughts and feelings,” says Korgaonkar. At the same time, audiences will also be introduced to a hidden world. “There are some misconceptions in society about dancing women, their morality and love lives.
I have tried to address these,” he says, alluding to a recent Marathi film that showed this world as one dealing in prostitution, with no acknowledgement of the value of its art. “I have handled it in a subtle way since non-Marathi people may not get the reference,” he adds.
Bhushan Korgaonkar
For Lavani veteran and Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee Shakuntalabai Nagarkar, “films and reality shows have presented a very different idea of Lavani”. Shakubai, as she is popularly known, speaks of learning the art form as a child from her mother and during her years spent among tamasha theatre troupes, watching dancers such as Yamunabai Waiker and Roshanbai Satarkar perform.
“People used to look upon Lavani dancers in a particular way earlier, but after we started presenting traditional Lavani before people, they began to appreciate the form. There are people who have watched our shows as many as 20 times,” says Shakubai, who started performing professionally in the ’70s and has, as part of the Sangeet Bari shows, travelled across the country, taking the production as far as Germany.
WHAT: Love & Lavani
WHERE: Prithvi Theatre
WHEN: July 28
FOR: Rs 500
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