In Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh’s poem Brahmarakshas—it is considered his most influential literary work—the Hindi poet writes ‘Bawari ki unn ghadi gehraaiyon mein shuny, brahmarakshas ek baitha hai’ (In the void of the stepwell’s thick darkness, resides an evil saint).
The ‘Brahmarakshas’—the spirit of the evil Brahmin—in this poem is a scholar, a wanderer who stays in a drain and finds it difficult to impart knowledge to others. Muktibodh’s Brahmrakshas is brought to life once again in Kala Yuga, a play scripted and staged by New Delhi-based theatre collective Mrit Pathshala. Formed in July 2021, Mrit Pathshala or ‘the dead school’ seeks to approach storytelling in a nuanced manner and in the process, is building a community for those who want to indulge in constructive dialogue about “anything that impacts human civilisation.”
“We started Mrit Pathshala with a team that wanted to provoke certain thoughts through the medium of live performances,” shares Akshay Raheja (25), a theatre practitioner who founded the collective.
Of narratives that matter
A particularly interesting thing about Mrit Pathshala is the fact that the collective’s end is pre-decided. If you come across their Instagram page, you will notice ‘2021-2030’ written in their bio, indicating that they plan to dismantle the organisation by the decade’s end. Addressing this unheard-of idea, Raheja, a 2018 graduate of Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, Rohini, shares, “My education in management has to contribute for this time period.
We were taught in business school that time is a very important contributory source in taking up any project. While starting this organisation, our goal was how far can we see into the future and commit to this movement, and that came to be around 10 years.” Raheja further mentions that storytelling has evolved in the last decade. “With OTT and other mediums, everything has changed. With live performance arts as a tool of storytelling, 10 years felt like a duration that we could stick to [to nurture] this medium.”
The current focus for Raheja and his team is to craft meaningful and engaging stories. “Conversations don’t engage people anymore,” he comments. The collective, thus, seeks to create an open space where they can have meaningful conversations without making choices or beliefs a hindrance.
Tale of a ‘raakshas’
Team Mrit Pathshala recently performed Kala Yuga for the sixth time—their first performance was in November, 2021—at Sanatan Dharam Mandir, New Multan Nagar. The play—Raheja helmed the project as writer and director—deals with interesting and deep questions of sanity by outlining the story of a woman, a daughter, a Vedic demon, and Atharvan (a sage who is known to be the first listener of the Atharva Veda). Talking about his experience, Karan Dara (25) from Kalkaji, who essayed the role of Brahmarakshas, shares, “The process for me was very complex, at first. But then, I sort of realised that it [the rehearsals] helped me learn a lot of things in terms of breath work, body movements, etc.”
This team—they intend to take Kala Yuga to other countries—is optimistic about working on several experimental projects before their final curtain call.