The much awaited Vijay Tendulkar play that has been directed by two of our very own Ashokans, Saranya Subramanian and Varsha Ramachandran is finally here! We couldn’t be more excited to hear more about the play from the directors itself.
1. What exactly is the plot of the play?
Saranya: We don’t want to give away any spoilers, but it mocks colonialism, the legal system, patriarchy, and Indian social issues that unfortunately are relevant at every point in history.
Varsha: You’ll know when you watch it! Please come. It’s basically a metaphorical power play that seems to challenge patriarchy through a representation of it. It deals with social issues that are highly relevant even today.
2. What aspect of directing a play did you enjoy the most?
Saranya: Yelling at the cast, LOL.
Varsha: Bossing over our cast, definitely.
3. If you had a chance to be a character in the play, who would you be and why?
Saranya: Kashikar. He gets to pick his ears in public.
Varsha: Sukhatme. He’s a wannabe lawyer and a total asshole with immense confidence in his abilities despite not actually having any. I love that.
4. What is your favorite excerpt from the script?
Saranya: The final monologue–it’ll blow your mind.
Varsha: Sadly or not, the line, “Mujhme kya kami hai?” Riday yelling it out is a funny sight, which is why you should definitely be there on the 23rd of April!
5. How did this play help you to learn more about yourself as a person?
Saranya: I learnt that I enjoy being behind the stage a lot!
Varsha: It takes me a lot to depend on someone else for things. Co-directing taught me to be more trusting of someone else’s abilities, and Saranya made it easy to be dependent on her.
6. What is one weakness you have when it comes to direction? What is one strength?
Saranya: My weakness is my lack of patience. But my strength, through all this, was Varsha. She’s the reason why I held onto some patience and powered through.
Varsha: Cheesy as it sounds, I’d say the cast was our strength–and I think I speak for both of us here–for the most part. My weakness was the language–there were a lot of instances when we had to look to the cast to help us translate or find a word or phrase in Hindi that could communicate what we wanted to say. Neither of us is great at Hindi and I found myself wishing I had more command over the language at a lot of points.
7. How do you plan to take this play to a bigger platform?
Saranya: I hope so!
Varsha: We’re not sure. A couple of our cast members plan on leaving after this year, and we’re still unsure about whether or not we’d like to continue without them or replace them.
8. What is the moral of the play?
Saranya: To realize that who we are, and who we become, is all because of society.
Varsha: To never underestimate the influence society can have on people and how conditioned we are.
The court comes to session at 9 PM on the 23rd of April in Dr. Reddy’s Auditorium. We are super psyched about this play. Are you?
Edited by Rangoli Gupta
Photographs curated by Varsha Ramachandran