Shivaji in our times

A new play on the founder of the Maratha empire has an unusual take on his policies as a king

On May 20, Marathi play Shivaji Underground in Bhimnagar Mohalla staged its first show at the Yashwantrao Chavan Natyagrih in Dadar, central Mumbai. It was a hit, word got around and viewers started beating a path to wherever the play was being staged. In smaller cities such as Sangli, Satara and Kolhapur, auditoriums filled beyond capacity.

In the five months since, Shivaji Underground has had 75 shows, most of them to full houses. The 76th show will be staged at Mumbai’s iconic Shivaji Mandir auditorium in Dadar on October 21 and the plan is to celebrate it in style — inviting a celebrity guest, maybe.

It is the play’s rather unusual title that has attracted audiences to the auditorium, feels Nandu Madhav, its director. “People heard the name of the play and bought tickets,” he says. Madhav is a well-known actor in Marathi theatre and cinema — he played the role of Dadasaheb Phalke in Harishchandrachi Factory, India’s official nominee to the Oscars in 2009.

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Shivaji Underground is a musical play structured as a debate between two groups — one wanting to portray Shivaji as a mythical figure, the founder of the Maratha empire, and the other wanting to highlight his ideas and policies as a king, and their impact today on people’s economic, social and political lives.

A heavy theme, one would think. But the play manages to be entertaining, presenting dialogues, songs and episodes interspersed with humour in a way that it leads to a meaningful and realistic understanding of Shivaji.

The play’s theme and plot was conceived by Sambhaji Bhagat, a poet and musician, who also came up with the idea of the title. “I added the word ‘mohalla’ to it,” says Madhav. Bhagat has long been been fascinated with the impact of Shivaji on the lives of people in Maharashtra and has been researching the subject for many years.

Madhav and Bhagat began the initial discussions for the play around two years ago. Most of the cast of Shivaji Underground has been drawn from Rangmala, a theatre group from Jalna in central Maharashtra which is comprised of villagers from all over the district. The villagers — some of them farmers, some tailors and others — would meet periodically and put up plays on rural themes.

Madhav and Bhagat, along with the playwright, Rajkumar Tangde, spent time in Jalna, meeting actors and conducting a workshop to make them understand the relevance of Shivaji, his policies on religion, caste issues, women and other social issues. “As discussions continued I told the group that I would find them a good director but they suggested that I direct the play,” says Madhav.

“The play in its initial form was about four-and-a-half hours long. There were many associated stories but we had to knock them out to bring it down to about two-and-a-half hours,” says Madhav. He then organised a reading of the play in Mumbai where directors Paresh Mokashi (of Harishchandrachi Factory fame) and Shafaq Khan were invited.

At a time when plays are put up hurriedly in 15-20 days, Madhav and his team worked on Shivaji Underground for over six months, with four months spent in intensive rehearsals on farms at Jam Samarth at Jalna.

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The play opens with a Gondhal-like narration, which is the dramatic style used by Marathi folk theatre to narrate mythical and religious stories. Actors are positioned on the stage at various levels to indicate their intellectual and political position. A graphic image of a mudra (coin) from Shivaji’s reign is placed at the centre. The play also uses a dialect of Marathi native to the Parbhani district, says Madhav.

“What makes a difference is that the actors are also activists. They have been reading about Shivaji. So they are convinced of the play’s message,” says Madhav. Shivaji Underground uses various events to drive home the message. Primary of these concerns Yama, the god of death, who is asked by Indra to bring Shivaji to heaven along with his ideas. But Shivaji forgets his ideas on earth and goes back, but not before leaving his crown with Yama as a guarantee that he will be back. Shivaji never returns and Yama is suspended from service.

Music is used imaginatively to embellish the performance. Besides Gondhal, Shivaji Underground uses folk forms such as Ovi, Katha and Powada for the narration. Bhagat, who is also the music director, has somewhat altered the Powada, a form of ballad, to make it relevant to the play. His efforts have been rewarded with this year’s “best music director in the theatre segment” award at the Marathi International Film & Theatre Awards. Shivaji Underground too won a jury award at MIFTA. Sambhaji Tangde, who played Dharma Shahir, won best supporting actor award while Madhav was nominated in the best director category by MIFTA.

“Our intention is to now take this play to villages and small towns,” says Bhagat. It has also been selected for staging at next year’s National School of Drama festival.