HYDERABAD : Sneaking into one of the rehearsals provides a rare glimpse of actor Vinay Varma being a director. The founder of the theatre group Sutradhar artfully guides the scenes with the wisdom of his years of experience. He meticulously adjusts the actors’ postures, refines their dialogue delivery, and fine-tunes their positions and gestures. Then, in a sudden moment of appreciation, he compliments them by remarking, “You have no idea how beautiful this looks, visually!”
CE had the opportunity to catch up with Varma regarding Sutradhar’s upcoming play, “Passwala.” This theatrical piece is a representation of Jayant Pawar’s conversation with a crematorium keeper in Warli, Mumbai. Dramatised by Varma, the play is Sutradhar’s maiden Marathi production.
It is a reflection of life, an introspection of life vis a vis death, depicted through the eyes of the crematorium keeper. His simple persona and diligent approach towards his profession lead to some dark humour.
“Jayant Pawar was a senior journalist and a playwright, known for his play Adhantar. He wrote about the working class, their struggles and travails. The script for Passwala came to me through Adhantar’s translator Dr Maya Pandit, who was a professor at EFLU. She sent me Pawar’s actual interview with the crematorium keeper. It’s a government crematorium, not a privately owned one. Pawar gets to know about the philosophy of life and is shaken up by the Passwala’s thoughts, his attitude towards bodies, the significance of human relations and life in general, vis-a-vis his tragedies,” explained Varma.
Dilip Salgarkar and Ravi Patankar portray the lead roles in the play. The former, an esteemed figure in Hyderabad’s theatre scene, takes on the role of the Passwala, while the latter, recently back from teaching Physics in the US, assumes the role of the journalist.
Varma told CE that the duo were selected after months of hunting, as he wanted the audience to know the characters right from the first glimpse of the actors on stage. “For the Passwala, we wanted someone who looks like he has been through life. True to that, Dilip himself has been into theatre for the past 40 years and quite masterly submits himself to the craft. Ravi, on the other hand, fits well for the role of the journalist,” said Varma.
While talking about their characters and their journey through the production of this play, the actors could not refrain from sharing what they think of Varma as a director. Ravi, who is now back on stage after 11 years, said, “The first day when he gave us the script, it was just a question-answer thing. We thought we could just finish the play by merely sitting in one place. With Vinay’s intervention, we could see that a simple conversation can be brought on the stage through proper visualisation. The minute details he points out, like a frown on your face, make you conscious of your body language, the stage setting and other things.”
Working on the play for the past two and half months, with countless rehearsals, actors believe they have improved each day. In line with some of its past productions like Dushala or Ismat Ek Aurat, this one too is produced with minimal stage settings and deploys more body language and auditory aids.
“We have kept the character of the policeman because it is in complete contrast with the Passwala. He comes, mechanically declares the number of bodies being brought in, has a glass of water and goes away. The other is a man who has lost a two-month-old child. The idea is to show how the keeper deals with each of these characters in his own way. To some, it may seem like he is being diligent with his job, to others, he may seem insightful,” said Varma.