Writer : Sam Steiner Direction : Mohit Takalkar Cast : Lalit Prabhakar, Mallika Singh Hanspal
GHANTA GHANTA GHANTA GHANTA GHANTA Review
GHANTA GHANTA directed by Mohit Takalkar, penned by Sam Steiner in English and translated to Marathi by Niranjan Pedanekar, is a 100-minute conversational play beginning with an odd couple like many others with a seemingly comfortable relationship which then goes through unexpected ride of emotional and mental discomforts with a New Quietude Bill passed by the authoritative government which limits a person's daily conversation to 140 words. When a couple who already are poles apart due to their nature of being and mental wiring are thrown into this world with this new absurdity of talking limit, they struggle, fight, rebel, find new tricks to converse in limited ways and sometime submit to 'the silence'.
As much as the Quietude Bill may sound absurd, the real life is equally absurd too. No one would have imagined demonetization would become a reality but it did and we eventually succumbed to it. The couple too may eventually succumb to these 140 words with time, but what happens in the process of adapting to this new law, how much of 'I' remains in us when we limit ourselves to 140 words per day? Can our heart to heart conversation with our loved ones be reduced to monosyllabic tones? Will this deprivation of conversations lead to alienation and despair.
The play raises some gruesome existential questions such as 'who needs words, the privileged or the underprivileged? Will the economy of words lead to better production? Will speaking less result with a culture that doesn't resist or protest? Will the Quietude bill eventually curb dissent? Would it make us less humane where we won't even be able to ask the house help or the shopkeeper simple things like 'How are you doing?' what about Religious songs and sermons, will they be exempted and what about cricket commentary? Can we remain apolitical in our friendships or relationships? Doesn't the ideological inclination of our partner affect our relationship?
GHANTA GHANTA peeks into a situation like the Covid 19 pandemic through the prism of this Quietude Bill and portrays the possibilities and harsh realities how decisions taken at governmental level interfere into our daily lives, our familial lives as much as we think the political doesn't impact the personal. The play rather probes an inquiry into the personal as political and vice versa.
Ghanta Marathi and Hindi slang means 'Can't do anything'. GHANTA GHANTA states if we can't do anything, how do we go about it. Does the odd couple discover new ways to sail through this state-enforced quietude? Is Love enough to carry a relationship? What's love after all? The play traverses various topics such as notion of freedom, class differences, dissent, issues of the working class, labels and brackets that categorize everything and so forth.
The minimal and exquisite design of the set lends the play a great support to tell this playful story of the politics of language and economics of words. GHANTA GHANTA is a verbose play with strength in its writing, performed brilliantly by Lalit Prabhakar and Mallika Singh Hanspal. The musical interludes are carefully selected and designed creating an alluring effect.
Although GHANTA GHANTA is a prodigious production, it is also minimal and optimally stylized, which creates the desired atmosphere of being inside a world of disintegrating values and burdening politics of language.
Dr. Omkar Bhatkar is a Sociologist and Playwright. He has been teaching Film Theory and Aesthetics and involved in theatre-making, poetry, and cinema for a decade now. He runs the eclectic St. Andrew’s Centre for Philosophy and Performing Arts and is the Artistic Director of Metamorphosis Theatre and Films.
GHANTA GHANTA GHANTA GHANTA GHANTA Play Schedule(s)
