Popularising Kalidas’‘Abhigyan Shakuntalam’ on world stage

| | Bhubaneswar
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Popularising Kalidas’‘Abhigyan Shakuntalam’ on world stage

Tuesday, 30 May 2023 | PNS | Bhubaneswar

Kudos to this Odisha-born celebrated Indian theatre director Prof Dr Satyabrata Rout, who has added feathers unto the cap of mother India by straining his every nerve, putting his heart and soul together towards popularising Kalidas’ timeless, epoch-making monumental drama ‘Abhigyan Shakuntalam’ on world stage! The aesthetically-delightful Jhoti designs and pretty Muruja patterns at his village that he witnessed in his childhood days were intricately interwoven in his creative imagination that urged him to embrace the art of painting and play-producing later in his life. Today, he is an internationally-known theatre director with over 75 plays in his repertoire like ‘Passa’, ’Rashomon’, ‘Urubhangam’, ’Mrigtrishna’, ‘Baji’, ‘Animal Farm’, ‘Hayavadan’, ‘Nagamandal’, ‘30 Days in September’, ‘Pygmalion’, ‘Karna Katha’, ‘Evam Indrajit’, ‘Waiting for Godot’, ‘Matte Eklavya’, ‘Tumhara Vincent’, ‘August Ka Khwab’, ‘Adding Machine’ and ‘Abhigyan Shakuntalam’ to quote a few. Dr Rout recently retired as Professor, Department of Theatre, University of Hyderabad. Besides being an NSD alumnus, the theatrical experiences of his career include being the technical director of Madhya Pradesh Rangmandal, a theatre repertory established by renowned BV Karanth, who was the founder member of Theatre-in-Education, a wing of NSD. A globetrotter with a mission of serving the cause of theatre, Rout has conducted many international workshops on drama, produced a Spanish play at the Javeriana University, Bogota, ‘Nagamandala’ in Singhalese in Colombo, served as a visiting faculty in Maldives, Colombia, at University of Essex, England. A Sangeet Natak Academy award winner, he has bagged the prestigious ‘Mohan Rakesh Samman’ for his experimental play ‘Tumhara Vincent’ in addition to several other awards. He has penned some precious books on dramaturgy like ‘On the Crossroad of Theatre’, ‘Dialectics of New Direction Theory: A Critical Study’, ‘The Influence of BV Karanth on Indian Dramaturgy’.

In an interview to The Pioneer, Prof Rout spoke to Sugyan Choudhury on the trends and styles confronting the contemporary theatre world.  

You have earned rave reviews both at home and abroad by producing Kalidas’ ‘Abhigyan Shakuntalam’. What are the challenges you have faced in stage-adaptation of this timeless classical play?

As the recipient of prestigious Fulbright Fellowship, I was deputed as a visiting professor to the Central Michigan University to teach Indian Scenography to the undergraduate students. I had to produce a play with the drama students as part of my fellowship. I started working on ‘Abhigyan Shakuntalam’. The rehearsal went on finely until the end when the girl playing the lead role of Shakuntala suggested changing the ending of the play. It was the conflict of cross-cultural values that posed a challenge there. Owing to the curse of sage Durbasa on Shakuntala, as Kalidas concludes the story; King Dushyant could not recognise Shakuntala and returns her from his door with humiliation. Her mother comes to her rescue and takes her with her to the heaven where Shakuntala gives birth to a male child called Bharat. After being reminded of his marriage with the discovery of the wedding ring, Dushyant goes to Shakuntala, begs pardon and brings her and her son home to Hastina. The girl playing Shakuntala could not identify with her character as she belongs to a society where single parenthood is not unfamiliar, nor does it arouse stigma. She could not reconcile with the idea of following her spouse submissively after all this humiliation. She does not live in a society like ours where women have been made a slave to her male counterpart for generations. Kalidas wrote this play under the patronisation of a king who believed in male hegemony and for an audience who treated women as a commodity. On the other hand, I always have leanings to make the classics relevant to the contemporary time. I could perceive what would be the reaction of the audience and thought of bending the spine of Kalidas’ plot a little to accommodate the sentiments of alien audience hailing from a different cultural ethos. I let Shakuntala part with her child only and her staying alone. It is this unique re-imagination of ‘Abhigyan Shakuntalam’ that sets me apart from others who have produced this play.

How do you explain your fascination with ‘Abhigyan Shakuntalam’?

The sweet tender story about the intimate affairs of heart that its plotline weaves with dramatic turns and twists holds a strong and enduring fascination for me. Have you ever heard about how the German poet, playwright Goethe admired this play after perusing its translation? Goethe exclaims, “Wouldst thou the young year’s blossoms and the fruits of its decline, and all by which the soul is charmed, enraptured, feasted, fed, Wouldst thou the earth and heaven itself in one sole name combine? I name thee, O Shakuntala and all at once is said.” Goethe crowns Kalidas, the greatest poet of ancient India, with the title 'Shakespeare of India’.

How do you distinguish between Indian dramatic tradition and that of the West?

They (Westerners) are mostly seen to be following the tenets of drama laid down by Aristotle in his ‘Poetics’. They rarely depart from their tradition in regard to form and content of drama. They believe in imitating the life and reality. They represent life on the stage. But the old Indian aesthetics laid down by Sage Bharat Muni teaches us to recreate the life and reality. We never employ models wearing masks representing the deer running for life before murderous Dushyant. We recreate drama by using our body language just as what we do in Odishi dance.

Whom do you follow as your model?

Sometimes, people call me as cloning of Karanth. I feel blessed to have worked under the tutelage of BV Karanth for most part of my career. Besides, I have gained a lot by collaborating in various projects with different legendary thespians of the world like Richard Schechner, John Martin, Fritz Benefits, Frank Hoffmann, Barry John, Juan Monsalve, Beatriz Camargo, Habib Tanveer, KN Panikar, Prof Raj Bisaria, Rattan Thiyam, Bansi Kaul, MK Raina, Mohan Maharshi, Dr Anuradha Kapur, Dr Mohan Agashe, Shiela Bhatia and DR Ankur to name a few.

What advice would you like to give to a young person wanting to pursue a career in directing?

I would like to tell them that just learning art and craft of building drama is not be-all and end-all in this strange world. They need to have intellect; and to have intellectual acumen, they are required to read all kinds of literature so that they can innovate and experiment.

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