Playwright: Sitanshu Yashaschandra
Director: Nisarg Trivedi
Tuesday, 28 August 2012 I 7:00 pm I Gujarati Sahitya Parishad
Language: Gujarati
This is a play that presents a new Narasimh Maheta, as also the timeless one, the “Adi Kavi’. Written by Sitanshu Yashaschandra, this verse play is a tribute that modernity pays to its origins. Presented in two acts, the play enquires into the poems and the personality of a great poet, rebel and lover.
The Lover Narsimh: To love God has never been easy. The play brings out ecstasy and agony of it all. Narasimh’s superb and eternal pada-poems of love blend gently with Sitanshu’s affectionate and ironic narrative, written throughout in Jhulanaa Chhand (a meter dear to Narasimh), and variations in its panch-kala maatra. Young actors, trained in classical and sugam Indian music sing it all live on the stage.
The Rebel Narsimh: To rebel against a rigid culture is equally hard. Narsimh lived his life dangerously, taking on hostile forces of family, society, religion, economy and the State. Through creative hermeneutics, the playwright interprets each ‘Kasoti’/test in the poet’s life: hundi, haar, maameru and so on.
The Poet Narasimh: Matchless in Gujarat, amongst the immortals in India, an equal to any in World literature. The play presents the intense beauty of his poems, its texts and contexts, sung and enacted alive on the stage.
A brilliant Modern poet-playwright pays warm tribute and salutes the Greatest of Gujarati Poets and laments his absence amongst us today. Don’t miss.
The first session of Vachikam was received with a standing ovation - a historical response to any Vachikam (dramatic reading) in Gujarat. Prominent poet-playwright and Padmashri recipient Sitanshu Yashaschandra graced the function with his presence and the encouragement was doubled by the presence of Mr. Bhagyesh Jha, Cultural Secretary of Gujarat State. Amongst other thespians present were playwright Pravin Pandya, veteran actress and director Aditi Desai, Poet Rajendra Patel, writer-director Kabir Thakor. Vachikam will be a monthly event to offer the dramatic pleasure through reading.
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