Immerse in Rajat Kapoor's unique theatrical take on Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov

Rajat Kapoor (centre) takes his team through the warmups before rehearsals for the play. Pics/Shadab Khan

There was a time when Russian literature was celebrated the world over. Chekhov, Tolstoy, Solzhenitsyn and Pushkin were popular choices among the reading elite. Above them all, was Fyodor Dostoevsky. In a 1928 essay, Sigmund Freud remarked on the author's creativity saying, "Dostoevsky is not far behind Shakespeare." Theatremaker Rajat Kapoor is sticking to that Freudian observation. He follows up his clowning take on Shakespeare's four tragedies with a new production tomorrow titled Karamjale Brothers, adapted from the Russian author's 1879 classic, The Brothers Karamazov.

From William to Fyodor

"You respond to certain books in a certain way. This is one book of Dostoevsky's that I had never managed to finish. I had read Demons, Crime and Punishment and the rest," Kapoor admits over a phone call.

Vinay Pathak (centre) rehearses his lines as the father, Karamjot

"We were taking Macbeth, What is Done is Done to the Chekhov International Theatre Festival in Moscow last year. Rajat picked up the book, and started reading it on the flight. I teased him that we could plot three world tours if he were to make something the size of that book," actor Vinay Pathak shares. Yet, Kapoor persisted, and kept working to adapt it into a new play.

It is not the first time he was tempted to adapt Dostoevsky, Kapoor says. "In 1990-91, Mani Kaul had made a film titled Ahmaq based on The Idiot. Even at that time, I had thought that it would make a great play," he recalls.

A portrait of Fyodor Dostoevsky. Pic Courtesy/Wikimedia Commons

Not the easiest book in the world to navigate, we point out. The title is often considered one of Dostoevsky's magnum opus alongside Crime and Punishment. With multiple complex characters, entangled relationships and deep-rooted themes of faith, existentialism, suffering and redemption, it can be verbose. "[The complexity] of the book is the beauty of it, and the challenge of it. Why would you pick up an easy thing anyway?" Kapoor explains. The name Karamjale is a sly doff of the hat to the nature of the characters, and their eventual fates.

Finding the key

It took Kapoor a year of working and re-working before bringing the script to the floor. Yet, he emphasises that the idea was not to recreate Dostoevsky, but to adapt him to current times. "We have to remember that it was only written a 150 years ago. In that sense, societal structure has not changed drastically. The key is the story and the narrative. Secondly, the effort of a playwright is to go beyond the narrative. This is where the ideas of Dostoevsky's works emerge," he says.
These powerful themes emerge through the actions and interactions of characters such as the father Fyodor Karamazov, the brothers Dmitri, Ivan and Alyosha Karamazov, and Grushenka and Katerina among others.

To bring these powerful characters, and the chemistry between them to life, the director has been working with the team led by Pathak, Radhika Mehrotra, Chandrachoor Rai, Ipshita Chakraborty among others, at a Versova studio. Pathak, a long-time collaborator, will play the gruff and ‘un-kosher' father, Karamjot in the play. "I had read Crime and Punishment, but this one is different. It is about a dysfunctional family, but a family nonetheless. The magic is how Dostoevsky deals with every character and their psyche, and goes deep inside them, layer by layer. For me, it is a phenomenal work," the actor remarks.

New beginnings

The production also marks new beginnings for Kapoor. "This is my first play in 20 years without clowns," Kapoor jokes. It was the different nature of the project that drew him, and Pathak to it. The latter says, "It had been a while since Rajat or I had done a play in Hindi, so it felt like the right thing to do."

For the director, it is the complex themes that draw his deeper interest. "What excites me is the transformation of the text. In that sense, the excitement is not different from Hamlet or Macbeth," he concludes.

ON Tomorrow, 7 pm; August 3, 4 pm and 7 pm
AT St Andrews Auditorium, St Dominic Road, Bandra West.
LOG ON TO in.bookmyshow.com
COST Rs 944 onwards