HYDERABAD: 2020 was a horrible year as the world descended into a realm of satirical absurdity, a dark comedy. The pandemic unleashed its relentless grip on society, leaving behind a trail of loneliness and despair.
In a bizarre twist of fate, strangers became both our allies and adversaries, as confusion and panic gripped our collective consciousness. Locked within the confines of our homes, we found solace in the virtual realm. Social media became a lifeline, connecting us to a vast network of faces and voices. Yet, amidst the sea of digital interactions, the profound sense of isolation persisted.
Unveiling the intricacies of the scenario with a nuanced and polemical touch, Chanakya Vyas’s play ‘Jhund’ emerges as a dark comedy that masterfully encapsulates the bewildering uncertainty inflicted by the COVID-induced lockdowns.
“The play is inspired by two different texts: a Polish play called ‘Striptease’, written by Slawomir Mrozek in the seventies. I found a Hindi translation of the same by a very well-known screenwriter and playwright named Ashok Mishra, who lives in Mumbai. Also, there is a short story in Gujarati called ‘The Crowd’. Both these texts are very different, there is no common link as such. Interestingly, the ideas in both these texts kind of made sense when I was trying to explore them during the pandemic,” said the writer and director, Chanakya Vyas.
“We started in 2021 when the Ranga Shankara Theater Festival invited people to respond to the pandemic. They wanted people to depict whatever we felt during the pandemic as humanity, and represent the human condition largely. These two texts were interesting because the plays are about two characters, two strangers who get locked up in a room. ‘The Crowd’ is about an unknown authority guiding the crowd and the crowd cannot see the authority, but they’re being guided. So I thought this was an interesting thing because, during the pandemic, we were not allowed to go out. So it was, in one sense, like imprisonment, a metaphor of us being confined to our houses,” Vyas added.
Talking about the storyline of the play, he says, “There are two strangers who get locked up in a room with no real definition of geography. The play is about them figuring out how to get out. In that process, they’re also asked to join a cryptic social media network, which they use to communicate and chat. It also is a commentary on how a lot of our assumptions about the ‘other’ and about the ‘outside-inside’ dichotomy. Social media plays an important role here because I thought during the pandemic we were heavily glued onto it. Social media also has a subplot in the story. It’s kind of treated with kind this absurd, dark comedy approach. You are laughing through it, but you are also kind of laughing at the tragedy of these two people in that sense. That’s why it’s like a dark comedy.”
Certainly, as the outside world became a mystery, a realm shrouded in uncertainty, causing panic and confusion, it exposed the fragility of human existence. We had become actors in a dark comedy, stumbling through the scenes and desperately trying to find the punchline.
Despite the heavy themes the play deals with, Vivek Vijayakumaran said there weren’t any major challenges as an actor. “It was smooth mostly. After a point, it became sort of unrealistic, so how much definition should we give to the character? Those are some of the challenges that we did talk about. It is a very tight play, 55 minutes long. It has the unique quality of dealing with heavy issues in a dark, satirical manner which is quite rare,” he said, adding that he is excited to perform in front of a Hyderabadi audience, it being his first performance in the city.
In terms of language and communication, Vyas said that the play is in Hindi and works well for the Hyderabad audience and despite the urban audience being used to talking in Hinglish, they have made an interesting choice in retaining some of the words from the Hindi in which the play was written.
“That was an interesting challenge and a good choice because words like shanti, pratishtha, aantarik swatantrata give a break from the colloquial language we know of,” said Vyas. When asked what should the audience look forward to, Vivek said, “Just come, have a good laugh and also take away something to think about.”