Being the only Nepali in the audience, I was pleasantly surprised by the huge crowd gathered inside the auditorium. Despite the absence of subtitles, which was a handicap for most in the audience, the performance earned rounds of applause at many instances.
Pallavi Pundir, a college student from Dehradun, was thrilled by the end of the play. “Watching a Nepali theatre without subtitles is a challenge, but I just couldn’t get up midway. Since I’m a music junkie myself, I loved the music. The props were used in the most efficient manner.”
The Bharat Rang Mahotsav has organized many renowned performances from both within and outside India. But the Caucasian Chalk Circle held an air of innocent charm and professional sophistication that many found missing in most of the other plays.
“I’ve watched four different plays during the fest, but Khariko Ghero gave me a different taste,” Pallavi said.
Another visitor in the audience, Puja Nair, from Mumbai, is not so passionate about theatre but shared that “Khariko Ghero” was an extravaganza.
“I’m watching a Nepali play for the first time, and even though theatre is not my forte, the choreography and music kept me hooked on throughout the performance,” she said, adding “Lighting, however, was a drawback for the play to some extent.”Sunil Pokharel, director of Arohan Gurukul as well as of the play, said, “It’s a matter of pride for Nepal to be part of the 13th Bharat Rang Mahotsav as it is considered among the biggest theatre festivals in Asia. Our experience in India is memorable while remembering last year’s performance, we had to do double show for The Doll’s House because of larger audience in Delhi.”
Arohan Gurukul members have come to India to participate in the Bharat Rang Mahostav several times. This year, they performed in Delhi and Chennai on January 17 and 20 respectively.
The two-weeklong festival was spread across eight different venues in Delhi itself and featured more than 80 plays, both Indian and foreign productions. The festival was open for nine days in Chennai, commencing from January 11, 2011. The theatre fest ended on January 22.
Bharat Rang Mahotsav, which is the main festival, is usually held in Delhi every year and is accompanied by a shorter event, Parallel Festival, in a second city, with selections from the main repertoire and sharing its fare with theatre lovers outside Delhi. This year, it came to Chennai.
Directed by Max Webster and Mia Theil Have, the five scenes in the play were divided into two episodes. One hour and 50 minutes long, the play presented two intertwined stories against a war backdrop. The Nepali component of 22 artists included a section on veteran theater personalities like Sunil Pokharel as Akkal Bahadur and Pashupati Rai as Gita.
It is usually believed that theatre in Nepali language exists outside Nepal in only Nepali-speaking places of India, such as Bengal, Sikkim and Darjeeling. This performance in Chennai, however, has now helped in changing this perception.
Catching the human frailties in smooth yet dramatic acts, the performance managed to not only capture and alter the conjured-up myths of Nepali society but also warmed the neighbor state audience up to its wonderful experience.
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