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Kiran Nagarkar saw it in 1978, how writers and artists will kiss ass

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Aditya Mani Jha
Aditya Mani JhaApr 24, 2015 | 11:43

Kiran Nagarkar saw it in 1978, how writers and artists will kiss ass

Kiran Nagarkar's Bedtime Story, based on, but certainly not limited to the Mahabharata, is a play that anticipates its own suppression. The directions for its staging include the presence of a group of Hell's Angels carrying batons, bike chains and pistols. They enter the auditorium in the middle of the narrator's opening monologue, which immediately acknowledges this intrusion. "You are probably wondering what these armed men are doing here. Don't let them worry you. They are here to protect us. (...) You can't have already forgotten the stones on the first night of [Vijay Tendulkar's] Ghashiram Kotwal or how they forced The Last Temptation of Christ to close down though it had been passed by the Censor Board."

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For a story like the Mahabharata, chock-full of graphic violence, sexual humiliation and a lot of other horrible things, it is perhaps just as well that the audience members in Bedtime Story are flanked by a biker gang miming all manner of brutality. Extra-judicial censorship, planned and executed by right-wing goons, suppressed the play in 1978, when theatre legend Shriram Lagoo tried his best to stage it. Nearly four decades later, Harper Collins has published this landmark play in a double bill format, along with a screenplay called Black Tulip. Bedtime Story uses the template of the Mahabharata to twist the storylines of key characters like Arjuna, Dronacharya, Draupadi, Lord Krishna and, crucially, Eklavya, the prodigal Bhil archer who can claim to have received the rawest deal in a book overflowing with injustice.

Nagarkar wrote a new introduction to the play for this edition. In this ten-page essay, he wishes he could see the world growing up, rendering his play irrelevant. But unfortunately, most of the issues that Nagarkar raises in Bedtime Story remain as urgent and sadly, as neglected by the powers-that-be as ever.

The standard technique of the play is to juxtapose a scene from the actual Mahabharata with its modern-day counterpart, exposing the hypocrisies of the characters - and of society as a whole - in the process. But in a brilliant anachronistic twist, the oppressed Mahabharata characters in Bedtime Story have "learnt" from their mistakes, while their descendants mirror the doomed trajectories of the original text. So we have Eklavya, a Mahar medical student, trying to save his upper caste friend Arjun from the bloodthirsty family of Draupadi, who he has been sleeping with on the sly.

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Despite his noble intentions, it is Eklavya who is caught and castrated while Arjun escapes after a few blows. Draupadi's father abuses him thus: "First it was that do-gooder Mahatma Gandhi who filled their heads with ideas. Then came our spineless government, reserving all the best jobs for them. They're Mahars when it suits them. Otherwise they're neo-Buddhists. They're getting too smart by half, the bastards."

When you read recent newspaper reports about 20 men, most of them from disadvantaged tribes, being gunned down by the Andhra Pradesh police force, you realise how prescient Nagarkar's words were. (According to People's Watch, a human rights NGO, the slain bore marks of torture, and that they were shot at close range, probably within a police compound.) When you see the ruling party plotting to deny reservation benefits to Dalit converts, you know that we are still a nation of condescending bastards who insist on calling the weak and the oppressed "too smart by half".

Bedtime Story is similarly prophetic in the segment which portrays the members of a business family on the verge of a split, with Rupali, the daughter-in-law, being at the heart of the matter. This drama could well have been based on the Ambanis and the Reliance split. But what I found even more fascinating was this: Arun, one of the brothers and an artist, speaks to Rupali about "women, gays, untouchables, blacks". Retorting strongly, Rupali tells him what might be Nagarkar's single greatest piece of advice for young artists: "Ah yes, all the right buzz words. What if just this once you stopped making politically correct gestures and got your hands dirty with something that's real, something that twists your innards, something genuine for a change."

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For this is perhaps the most dangerous things that Nagarkar saw coming, back in 1978: that writers, artists and musicians would take the safe path, kiss the right asses and remain cosily apolitical instead of speaking their mind, letting their art speak for itself, free from fear of reproach or backlash. Bedtime Story anticipates an era of fear and loathing, and it is absolutely imperative that this play be read and performed as widely as possible.

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Bedtime Story, Harper Collins; Rs 455.

Last updated: April 24, 2015 | 11:43
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