Would we temper actions differently if we stopped to consider how we'll be judged by posterity? How often do we contemplate long term consequences for what we advocate? In Badal Sircar's TEESVEEN SHATABDI, the protagonist conducts a mock trial calling up the spirits of people associated with the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There's the pilot who dropped the bombs hiding behind a wooden face insisting he was only following orders; the group commander seeking refuge for guilt in religion, survivors, children, Japanese doctors revealing what authorities sought to cover up.
Most crucial is Albert Einstein whose invention was grossly misused against humanity. The scientist's ghost confronts the dilemma of a researcher whose mandate is to share knowledge, confessing he wished he'd never been a scientist, better be a common labourer instead. Written in 1966, TEESVEEN SHATABDI has been revived by Rangshila Theatre Group in collaboration with the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) as a tribute to the great playwright who died earlier this year. A pioneer of alternative, audience-oriented theatre with socio-political overtones, TEESVEEN SHATABDI is one of Sircar's early proscenium plays emerging from the conscience of an idealist haunted by the spectre of belonging to a generation that produced the atom bomb.
Avneesh Mishra creates a production that is as stark as its theme. A bare stage with a wheelchair, cubes, and steps leading to a large drawing of the bomb. Characters, tinged or tainted with the smell of mass death, step out of the bomb to be confronted by a young, fiery inquisitor, Sharad (Shashi Chaturvedi). Real life images, projected on the bomb-screen, deepen the sense of unease. Haunting music by Shubrajyoti Barat and lights by Hidaayat Sami create a sombre mood.
TEESVEEN SHATABDI opens to an older Sharad, incapacitated, confined to a wheelchair, (symbolizing the helplessness of the man of conscience as well as the state to which the common man is reduced if he remains complicit by silence) babbling with an unseen force from the thirtieth century to whom he pleads innocence for the mess of the world.
The infirm Sharad is visited by his childhood friend Sadhan (Rajesh Tripathi). One had studied arts, the other science; together they had researched the after-effects of the atom bomb. As soul after soul bares the horrors that continue to torment in the afterlife as in life itself, Sadhan exclaims, 'What can we do! We are only passengers on a bus'. 'Even if we are passengers we must demand that the driver drives responsibly. The future of humanity is involved,' responds Sharad.
For director Avneesh Mishra, TEESVEEN SHATABDI is not merely a dialogue between the past and future but a prism through which to view contemporary events. Despite the evidence no lessons have been learnt from history. Instead Avneesh points out that the atom bomb triggered a race between nations to gain nuclear supremacy, a race that has brought our planet to the brink of annihilation with the risk of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorist organizations.
Closer to home and on an everyday basis, he talks of the dangers of radiation from cell phone towers atop residences, asking "are we as individuals, innocent bystanders to world events or are we as much responsible" by silent acquiescence?
TEESVEEN SHATABDI is Rangshila Theatre Group's second production. Their earlier REFUND, an adaptation of Hungarian playwright Fritz Karinthy's play, was a satire on the education system. Performances are uniformly good but the most striking were Sudhir Pandey and Satchit Puranik in their Japanese avataars. Tom Alter plays a double role as the group captain and later as Einstein, while the two children Monika Mishra and Ashok Deb poignantly convey the vulnerability of the innocent victim.
One looks forward to Rangshila's future productions.
*Meher Pestonji is a journalist, novelist and playwright. The radio version of her play, FEEDING CROWS won the South Asia segment of the BBC/British Council Radio Playwriting Competition in 2009 and was also the international runner-up.
