'Outcaste' staged by Raaga on 21.8.2018 in Patna

The unbearable bite of identity crisis

Yes, the life of so-called lower caste people are like tambourine. They are meant to be played by the heavyweights of the high-caste people. Even after seventy-two years of our independence we are still waiting with bated breath when this saying goes obsolete.

The pangs are not in trunck but in the roots. The man has taken good education but it does not help him any more. The caste-ridden society asks for his lineage before valuing him. And the more piercing fact who his father is? The society is the epitome of hypocrisy where everyone teaches that your status is determined by your deeds but when day of reckoning comes it's only caste and more particularly the caste of your father that matters. You might have lived only with your mother but she has no significance as far as lineage considerations are concerned. It's only the lineage of your father that matters. Now the million dollar question is how can a son of a kept woman may get the name of his father officially.

The play proceeds on two grounds- one, the identity crisis of a young man and other the levels of torture meted out to a poor woman i.e. her mother. Though the whole play is based on the autobiography of a renowned prolific writer and journalist Sharankumar Nimbale it is not the events but the way it happens is more important. The whole play is replete with music and dance of it's own genre. The  dance with deliberate rhythmic jerks was impressive. The perfect synchronization of musical beats and dance was creating somewhat occult rejoice to viewers.

Sharankumar Nimbale has given a taut script and all the ignominy, insult and distress have been fully depicted.  Randhir Kumar showed his high class professional approach while directing the play. In dance sequences, the steps of characters were rhythmic well  attuned with the drumbeats of the drumbeater..  Anjali Sharma, Ladli Kumari, Sunil Bihari, Vivek Kr, Abhishek Chauhan, Ashutosh Kr, Samir kr, Ravi Mahadevan, Raushan Kr, Rahul Ravi, Ranu Kr and Nand Kishore Kr were on stage actors. Bhupendra Kr, Aditya Gunjan, Abhishek Chauhan, Bal Gangadhar Bagi, Prabodh Vishwakarma contributed from backstage.

The whole play stuck to its sombre theme  and still managed not to look so because of the ripping recital of the story-related poems and dance thereon. It was not just acting, direction and stage decoration rather it was a  package of a whole host of performing arts. Either it was dialogue delivery, lyrics, dance or music they all were so innovative that seemed to have come from a different planet. The mammoth size round tambaurine ('dafalee') in the centre of the backstage told much of the story and real video clippings of atrocities on 'dalits' played over that making the dafalee as screen were a brilliant idea jointly of the set designer and the director.

Patel the partner of the kept woman was impressive with remarkable body language and dialogue delivery. Facial expressions  and emphatic dialogue delivery of Sunil Bihari and Ashutosh Abhigya were wonderful. Other male actors also kept pace with them and were justified with their nice deliverable.

The beauty of one of the scenes was that the kept woman persistently seemed to be doing her face up sitting before a big mirror and yet looked hardly better than a street woman. It symbolically conveyed that the good look does not come from outer smearing but from the internal feeling of dignified status. Her acting was up to the mark and other female characters also acted well.

The pithy poems of Vahare Sonwane lifted the value of the play to a new height. The team Bhupendra, Aditya, Abhishek and Bal were amazing with their stunning drumbeat based music. Dance director Om Prakash also did not lag behind anyone. The dance composed by him was undauntedly thumping and left a long lasting memory to viewers. The scene when Patel and his male friend are sitting enjoying the time while the kept woman shows her seducing item dance only on sound of drumbeats was really inebriating. 

Director Randhir Kumar has his own style of serving the story. The narrations are frequent and long to keep viewers alert. After all the sanctity of the difficulties can be maintained only in documentary film style and not as a cocktail formula film of Bollywood. But even while each character is narrating in their respective turn some movement like stepping ahead from one basket to another is kept on to keep the viewers engaged and give them a feel of drama. 

Just for the heck of it, a reviewer must say something negative and so it is said that there must have been flickers and glitters while dance was on. 

The director, actors, musicians and backstage artists worth a standing ovation for this superb show.

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Reviewer- Hemant Das 'Him'

Photographs- Binay Kumar

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