Being associated with theatre for more than two decades and closely watching the ‘drama unfold’ in the cultural fabric of the city and elsewhere, I didn’t realise how time flies until one day, I received a note from theatre group Aasakta Kalamanch, announcing completion of 17 years of their work in theatre. What caught my attention was how they had planned to celebrate this. Over the years, they have been documenting their productions, something rare in the arts world, which they will upload, one each month for the next 15 months. The idea is to give the theatre fraternity and their audience these recorded plays as an act of gratitude and self introspection.
It was years back that a group of youngsters from diverse backgrounds, splinted from the PDA, citing ideological differences, and walked a path together as ‘Aasakta’. They took risks, cherished the audiences but never played to the gallery. Moving out of their comfort zone, they belted out play after play, engaging the intellectuals and casual theatre goers alike. They were instrumental in keeping the flame of the experimental circuit alive.
Drawing from young playwrights and stalwarts like Mahesh Elkunchwar, Ramu Ramnathan, Sachin Kundalkar, Girish Karnad and others, Aasakta members built a chemistry within themselves and with the audiences. They truly carved a niche for themselves in the theatre world, not only in Pune but also in the country and abroad. They were home to growing talent — many from its repertoire made it to the silver screen with thundering success.
I have seen most of their productions and have nostalgic memories — of judging one of their early productions, Brain Surgeon, which had noted actress Radhika Apte in the lead, watching Sagar Deshmukh staging his versatility as an actor with finesse, seeing Geetanjali Kulkarni at her best, emulating an elephant in Gajab Kahani and a string of other visual experiences.
It wasn’t all rosy and I did at times wonder why they had taken up a certain project or created such a production, but that was all a step to ‘learn to unlearn and then learn again’.
Thus far, Aasakta has produced plays in Marathi, Hindi and English. In the span of 17 years, the group has had more than 750 performances of different plays that it has produced. Apart from the several awards that they have won at various state level competitions and performances at National Theatre Festival throughout its journey, Aasakta has received accolades from the audience and critics alike. Their plays have been selected and performed at National School of Drama’s Bharat Rang Mahotsav and TIE’s Jashn- e-Bachpan, Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards, Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre and Satellite Theatre Festivals, Prithvi Theatre Festival, Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival, Park Theatre Festival, etc.
This gesture is not their swan song, rather a pause to recharge to take another plunge. They have a lot planned in the coming years. And we as audience are waiting!
MEMBERS REMINISCE
As Mohit Takalkar, one of the founder members and director says, ‘This attempt of serially uploading our plays is a way to acknowledge all the artists and audiences who have walked with us and braved it all, over the years. I am aware that watching video recordings is never comparable to experiencing a live play, but this work had to be archived. It not only documented our journey, but also helped us introspect and critically look at what we had done. Some of it seems redundant and makes us aware of changing times and the need of the hour.’
“After I returned from the UK in 2011, my world view had changed. I sought a different look at theatre. We had a fairly good audience following in our growing up years. But when we moved from the intimate space of Sudarshan Rangmanch to bigger auditoriums and did more Hindi and English plays, hoping to reach a larger audience, we saw a dwindling audience response. People didn’t seem to be interested in moving out of their comfort zones and take in challenging productions.
“Earlier we took on work that excited us, the artists bonded well and it was like one big family. Today, everything is calculated and the bonding stays for that one production. I really miss those deeper ties that were being formed then.
“Seventeen is when adolescence transforms into adulthood. It’s that delicate cusp at which everything changes, within as well as around. We are still eager, excited, energised, nervous, reflective, charged and trembling simultaneously. Aasakta was and will always be about the people who built it. And of course, the countless hours spent in rehearsal rooms. These rooms were a safe space. Safe enough for one to be who one truly is, a space of hard work, exploration, and discussions and of course disagreements. They were a gymnasium for the body and the mind where people worked out daily. While some felt disillusioned, some bloomed. Several people came and went. Some of them stayed on. Some still acknowledge the part Aasakta played in their growing years whereas some have withdrawn from it altogether. But every single one of these actors, technicians, artists, writers contributed to make Aasakta richer. They helped it nurture and grow.
“Together we created a diverse repertoire. Looking back at these plays today, some seem outdated, some even shabby in their craft and most of them naive. But we are proud that we gave our everything to them and put in our best towards understanding this complex craft.
“This journey was and will hopefully always remain about exploration, experimentation and questioning. And this is bound to lead to many failures. We embraced these failures and documented them so that whenever we look back at them every few years, we can analyse where and how and why we went wrong. Aasakta is the space where we want to celebrate theatre through transparency and critical engagement.”
Ashish Mehta, an actor and the spine of the group, adds, “We had started an academic exercise in the form of a monthly activity called Ringan, but had to shut the project after a while. We also regret that we never got down to doing much work in the genre of children’s theatre. The audience today is unpredictable and volatile. We are still grappling with ways to rope in an audience, but never at the cost of compromising on quality. It is interesting times we live in, have a lot to say but somehow complacency and mediocrity has set in, which seems to be here to stay. I often wonder where the larger audience has gone, what their choices are, what do they relish? But one thing is for sure that this is our space and we seek to reclaim it!”
