THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For the average Malayali, Khasak is a landscape steeped in myth, an unsettling matrix of madness, poverty and guilt. It’s where Ravi dissolves into his private frenzy, a land of wild palm trees and remorseless sun.
It’s where Kunhamina stands in a patch of flower-filled woodland feeding the peafowl; it’s the place of blue-veined Maimuna, retarded Appu Kili and his green dragonflies.
Conjuring such a world on stage seems almost blasphemous if not impossible, especially when it’s where legends abound. Deepan Sivaraman attempted it two years back, his theatrical adaptation of Khasakkinte Ithihasam opening to raving reviews, and now, the play will open National Drama Festival that begins in the city today.
“We have staged it over 25 times, but it’s the first time we are coming to the south of Kerala,” says the director.
The narrative idiom of literature is totally different from theatre, which has a clear physical dimension. “To develop the visual imagery and to recreate it live on stage was a challenge,” he says. The novel, with a strong and evident metaphysical edge, got its theatrical syntax at Trikaripur.
There, a potpourri of people from different walks of life, most of them theatre buffs, got involved - actors, farmers, doctors, fishermen, teachers and auto drivers.
Deepan knew he was invading something sacred, perhaps the most-revered text in Malayalam when he attempted the play. “Transforming a novel into a play is a difficult task altogether and I have tried to stay close to the original as much as possible,” he says.
Caught in the labyrinth of Khasak are a slew of characters and the 200-minute-long play features many. “It’s the story of many many people and each story is integral to the narrative. Normally Ravi is seen as the central character but in the play all the tracks are treated equally.”
He adds even the original text is not a hero-his-conflict-and-final-catharsis kind of stuff. “It’s a novel that deals with so many lives, the lives of the folks of Khasak.
The author had very solid reasons in creating and sustaining different characters at various narrative junctures.
Certain characters in the play have become a little bigger than their original counterparts. But some others have become smaller and it shows the way I tried to read the novel. In my play Ravi is not really a central character, he is only important as all others are,” he says.
Deepan’s play is not just an audio-visual treat as it painstakingly recreates the atmospherics of Khasak with soil, smell, water and fire in an open arena. “There is an element of ritual in the text, which also celebrates the bond mankind shares with nature.
Bringing about this ritualistic element in a performing space and making it experiential was again a challenge,” he says. Deepan agrees that his play tries to explore the possibility of sensory experiences on stage. “We always see it as two-dimensional, you watch the stage and listen to the dialogues. But I believe experience is a amalgam of different senses, sometimes a smell or taste can evoke a an intensely private memory.”
Deepan believes it’s unfair to take a story off its environs, the sensory overflow that defines its essence. “I think in the play I have tried to create this consolidated experience through various sensations. For example the muddy smell of the first monsoon, the nostalgic smell of an ethnic delicacy or the smoky smell of fire torches- they are all parts of our memory.
Smells are very much part of your existence and culture. I wanted my play to be a total sensory experience,” he adds. The play, presented by KMK Trikaripur. will have three stagings on March 16, 17 and 18 at Attakkulangara Central School.