A LETTERED SOUL, BOOK 2- MUSINGS ON ART AND CULTURE

ESSENTIAL TRUTHS ALWAYS STING. TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION.

COMPLIANCE(2012)

One phone call can lead to a catastrophic domino effect on culture. Or it can serve to heighten the length and breadth of misogyny that the same culture attempts to hide by presenting a picture of economic upswing and employability, both meant to imply greater independence for women.

If truth is stranger than fiction and modern tendencies make our private vulnerabilities public through the destructive force of media, COMPLIANCE is a timeless wake-up call.

As shocking and far-fetched its premise sounds, the exploitation of working class demographic and bodily siege on an unsuspecting young female within the confines of a busy fast-food restaurant, on a random Friday evening, all gets underway on the pretext of a law and order situation. Heirarchies within this off-shoot of the capitalist structure reveal unfounded suspicions. They also reveal the moral rot at the core of everyday misogyny where one's sense of dignity is brought into question over a dubious phone call. It is in the way we look at others who don't have resources to defend themselves and have to buckle under authority even if the latter is a hoax. Dreama Walker heartbreakingly attests to that end.

A secure foundation for the workplace is compromised when trust is breached and doubts are planted in a conscientious mind. Ann Dowd exemplifies that. In the end, the idea of victimhood blurs between both women. One of them suffers a blow that is far-reaching on top of hours of mental trauma and her subjugation. Her body is no longer her own here.

COMPLIANCE is a compact study inspired by nearly thousand cases of hoax calls that led to such horrendous outcomes. The perpetrators were not only perverted mentally but knew how to exploit the weakest, most vulnerable aspects of unsuspecting folks or bring about their inner monsters, as in the case of the man( Bill Camp) who ends up doing an unmentionable deed to the young girl, in near-captivity in a backroom.

Invisible evil has the strongest channels to spread its impact. This work predates the present digital landscape where one call can drain us of dignity, monetary security and end up tainting reputations. COMPLIANCE works so well because through its conceit we are being interrogated for our feet of clay under duress. We exercise shock, a sense of complicity, even voyeurism while seething with indignation at the fate innocent folks are handed out. Our pain and empathy are brought to bear ultimately.

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AADHE ADHURE(2014)

Every family is a deadly trap. Every member is a creature of habit, holding massive misgivings, having seen and heard things not becoming of one single unit. However, this single unit has the strongest sway to make the personal universal. To understand everyday frustrations of the middle-class is to know that opting for a radical step away from one's moral certitude and established code of normalcy is to ironically fall back on the same stifling routine even if one is willing to repeat a cycle of repression down posterity.

Thanks to Zee Theatre, Mohan Rakesh's iconic Hindi play reached this cinephile with hard truths that can never grow old or fall out of line with the way we live, with constant unhappiness more preferable to real change. AADHE ADHURE is an apt title as it entraps mother and children( Ira Dubey, Rajeev Siddharth and Anushka Sawhney) here in a cycle of mundanity from which an escape to the big bad world outside is sought. Resistance to conformity is a strain on them. The father( Mohan Agashe) is a victim and victimiser both. Ways of a worldly order have made him more feeble. He resigns, takes the verbal barbs and retreats. The mother is a dynamite, holding so much anger and vulnerability within her that only Martha from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? can be her rightful predecessor in the dramatic canon.

In the final act, our perceptions change because the perspectives are handed over to two senior prefects whose lifelong confrontation is a must -watch. The man is accused of being a bedrock who has drained the father's life-force. The woman(Lillette Dubey), who has already made attempts to find another hearth with other men, finds a can of worms open up about her own shifting choices. We are left with pieces of personalities that don't conform to conventional wisdom precisely because their inner sadness and hopelessness have rendered them empty. I also find enactments of the three men by the same actor courtesy the great Mr. Agashe an illustration of how men are all the same, only with different physical characteristics and social status.

AADHE ADHURE is realistic, gritty, reflected in the messy living spaces being an extension of the people, and is performed with a sting that we just can't escape. We wholly empathise with these prisoners of fate.

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KHAMOSH! ADAALAT JAARI HAI(2017)

Another sterling theatrical rendition of a classic Vijay Tendulkar work milks the excitement occasioned by a courtroom drama in totally unexpected ways. It leads to confirmation of eternal cultural motifs and prejudices especially in the context of young, single women.

The sense of fun, camaraderie and joyous tempers as members of a theatre troupe arrive at a hall for purposes of rehearsal are all in the service of expert exposition. Even then the judgements and unease are present in the room. The true implosion happens as the very arc of improvisation and social commentary coalesce in manners of ostracising the peppy young lady( Nandita Das) whose personal life seems to be a subject of concern for all. Das, ever the natural performer with a predilection for subtle nuances, has a way of being jovial such that we instinctively know she has much pain to conceal. Somehow her independence is at odds with every man and the only other woman within this troupe.

Soon, the mock proceedings meant as a warm-up exercise take the ungainly weight of a trial by fire. Culture, misogyny, prejudices against single women as opposed to the choice of a single male(Swanand Kirkire), ageism, allegations of promiscuity, stigmas attached to abortion and pre-marital pregnancy all come under the scanner in seamless fashion. Such is the level of ingrained misogyny that the older woman who wants to contribute to improvisations within the play is constantly cut short by her better-half and deemed unworthy. She has the same level of viciousness against the younger woman.

Lines of reality and fiction have a way of blurring when human emotions are executed with finesse and candor. The final monologue acts as the voice of the cornered woman's soul as much as indictment of a society that only has its sentences reserved for her, never denouncing the men who end up physically abusing her or setting her on a path of self-destruction in the first place.

Watch as Das faces the camera as the play within the play ends to the footfall of people entering the hall. We wonder if this play within the play was actually the work that the performers were creating to an already rapt audience. Either way, Das' expressive restraint and emotional registers along with the other able performers mark this one as a haunting piece.

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