Direction : Shivdas Ghodke Cast : Sulabha Arya, Siddharth Pratiwant, Deepali Badekar, Nikhil Rathod and others
MUMBAI KONACHI Review
MUMBAI KONACHI?, the title of a new play staged by IPTA, sounds like a chauvinistic slogan by the Shiv Sena. But it is far from it. In fact it is quite radical and raises important questions about people's right to the city.
The play was written by the eminent dalit writer Annabhau Sathe in the 1950s during the turbulent days of the Samyukta Maharashtra struggle. It is more relevant now after all these years.
The play asserts people's right to the city and opposes its dominance by vested interests.
The first performance was staged by IPTA at a packed Ravindra Natya Mandir Mini Theatre got a rousing welcome from the audience. Real solidarity between the actors and audience and all for a good cause. All seats were taken, some seniors like Kuldeep Singh, noted music director, did not seem to mind sitting on the steps.
Also present were IPTA veterans, producer Masood Akhtar, and Sulabha Arya played the sootradhar, the chorus, making tongue in cheeks comments.The set is designed by M.S. Sathyu.
The play was spectacular with a lot of humour. A large young and energetic cast did it in folk form with actors expressing so much with their bodies, adding so much to the written word.
It was directed by veteran Shivdas Ghodke with so much commitment, overcoming his illness, he has to use a stick to walk but is so enthusiastic.
It is serious theme, the conflict between capital and labour, the rich and the poor, but it was presented in such lively manner. No stereotypes. Even the exploiter Shetji, the businessman, was far from hackneyed. The performance began with Sathe's famous lavani depicting the inequality of Mumbai from Malabar hill to the working class areas.
It is to the immense credit of Annabhau Sathe that he emphasised the importance of people's right to the city so long ago. That is much before eminent urban thinkers like David Harvey, Henry Lefebvre, Edward Soja and Jane Jacobs if one can put it that way.
This consciousness in him was created out of a mass upsurge , big demonstrations and morchas were taken out in Maharashtra in protest against the decision to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra. Police firing took a toll of 107 protesters from different walks of life, it is in their memory that we have Hutatma Chowk at Flora Fountain.
The Samyukta Maharashtra movement was in good measure for merger of some border areas into Maharashtra but it was also rooted in the struggle against economic injustice, domination of the city by vested interests.
There is now world wide recognition to people's right to the city which is clear from so many charters and declarations including from UNESCO. There is recognition that ordinary people, workers contribute to the wealth of cities in big way. But the elite does not appreciate that. All signals suggest that there is a plan to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra.
Annabhau Sathe showed how common people created wealth and infrastructure. Mumbai got its electricity at the expense of hundreds of peasants who lost their land for the Mulshi dam in the hinterland for a hydro electric project.
Annabhau's vision was humanistic and universal. That is why he wrote a powada, a ballad, on the battle of Stalingrad against Hitler and the Spanish people's struggle against fascism. It is in recognition of his contribution that his statue was recently installed in Moscow.
We owe a lot to people like him and ordinary people's struggles for democracy and equality.
(Vidyadhar Date is senior journalist and culture critic.)
