Dreams Of Taleem play review , English play review

	Direction : Sunil Shanbag Writer : Sachin Kundalkar Cast : Divya Jagdale, Geetanjali Kulkarni, Suvrat Joshi, Anand Tiwari
Dreams Of Taleem play review

Pooja Gautam

Host-A-Performance | Schedules

I am told that Chetan Datar was a theatre person of great potential. His work was creating waves in the Marathi theatre circle and its ripples were felt by theatre artistes outside the community as well. His death in 2008 was untimely. It feels unfortunate that I haven't had a chance to see Chetan's work before this play, which is essentially a tribute to him. I saw what he was capable of and it feels bad to lose such a sensitive writer.

The play within the play in DREAMS OF TALEEM, written by Sachin Kundalkar, and directed by Sunil Shanbag was Chetan Datar's 1 MADHAV BAGH. The story of a mother dealing with her youngest and favorite son's homosexuality is not your typical breakfast chitchat topic to say the least. Kudos therefore to Chetan for dealing with it the way he did and hats off to Sunil Shanbag for presenting it at a time when homosexuality in India still remains taboo to a great extent.

However, as we all know all good things aren't necessarily great. DREAMS OF TALEEM is one such play that creates that fine line of distinction between the two. For all its good intentions, it falls short of expectation. Sachin Kundalkar weaves in his storyline to fit in with Chetan Datar's original. Not that Kundalkar's story is ineffective in any way; it just so happens that somewhere between the original and the text overriding it, it becomes repetitive and predictable enough.

One end of the play deals with the complex emotions that a mother feels when she discovers her son's homosexuality. The son commits suicide. Sounds stereotypical? Think again. The twist in the story or the most beautiful part of it is that even after the mother discovers that her son is a homosexual, she doesn't outrightly disown him and neither does she accept his ways. By casually asking her son out for dinner, the mother tries to organize her own thoughts and gives her son a chance to explain the choices that he has made.

Sachin Kundalkar's overlapping text has Anay, yet again a homosexual, who is passionate about the theatre. His parents once again do not understand their son. Anay's sore point is that he hasn't directed a play for six months. Besides he and and his actor-boyfriend Yash are also unable to find any support from their family for the choices they have made. Anay's purpose in life is a script (Chetan's 1 Madhav Bagh) but the writer is unnamed. We can only guess that he is perhaps Chetan. When Sita, played by Divya Jaglade, agrees to do Anay's play, it looks like he has hit the jackpot at last. The rest is a glimpse in the lives of all the characters as well as the unknown writer.

As I mentioned before, although the concept seemed honourable enough, the execution wasn't so convincing. The emotions needed to be explored a little better as did the different facets of the characters. Yash played by Anand Tiwari seemed completely wasted as the depth of his character was barely approached. As an actor Anand does very well for his part and I wish that there was more of him on the stage.

There was an effort to blend the two texts; however the effect was not that impactful. Beyond a point, some fine editing would have helped. Suvrat Joshi as Anay was unconvincing to put it mildly. He was one of the weakest links in the play and only succeeded in forcing the audience's attention to other actors on the stage. Divya Jaglade as Sita was fantastic to put it simply. But the one person who stole the show and made the audiences sit up in their chairs was Geetanjali Kulkarni. She played Sita's mother and made you feel those undercurrents of emotions best. She was truly the star of the evening.

The music was nice, soothing or jarring depending on the scene being enacted. The music along with the set created the right ambience. The set was simple and charming. If you want to see something unconventional but not greatly thought provoking, then here's your play.

*Pooja Gautam is a business journalist who enjoys theatre

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