Mumbai theatre spotlights caste, gender and sport through Ottam

On the morning of December 19 2006 a leading national daily ran a headline that was far removed from sportsmanship ldquoMan or womanrdquo The dig was aimed directly at Tamil Nadu athlete Santhi Soundarajan who had just been stripped of her silver medal in the 800 metres race at the 2006 Doha Asian Games after a sex test deemed her lsquonot womanly enoughrsquo In 2014 it was Olympian Dutee Chand who faced a similar wrath leading up to the Commonwealth Games As the saga unfolded Mumbaibased theatremaker Sapan Saran had an ear to the ground This weekend she brings the story to stage with OttamThe cast performs a scene from the play PICS COURTESYBENOY ROYldquoI read about Dutee Chandrsquos fight for justice in 2015 Over the next five years I researched on the various themes and strands present in the play and finished writing the script in 2019 The play was meant to open in 2020 but the pandemic brought things to a haltrdquo she recalls Having opened at Prithvi Festival last year it returns to the city after a stopover at the recently concluded Serendipity Arts Festival GoaSanthi Soundarajan sixth from right standing and Sapan Saran fifth from right standing at a training session in Mayiladuthurai Tamil Nadu PIC COURTESYSAPAN SARANOn stage this weekend Mumbaikars will meet Akai Amaran the fictional protagonist mdash a composite of all the women including Soundarajan and Chand who dealt with the trauma of the controversial sex test regulations Amaran is a Paraiyar girl from rural Tamil Nadu who battles caste and class barriers to become one of Indiarsquos leading track and field athletes Her arduously created world collapses when she is asked to undertake a gender testThe play features a cast from diverse socioeconomic backgroundsTherersquos a world of difference between lsquofollowingrsquo a sport and being a cog in the sporting system in India Saran confirms ldquoI wanted to experience more and felt the urge to meet athletes and spend time with them not only to listen to their lifestories but also their impulses aspirations desires and the nuanced emotions that are only visible through immersionrdquo she says Eventually the theatremaker was able to meet Dutee Chand in Hyderabad and Santhi Soundarajan in Tamil Nadu ldquoIn fact the choreographer Maithily Bhupatkar and I even spent a couple of days in Chennai to train with Santhi Soundarajanrdquo she revealsSapan SaranThe theatremaker describes her central character as someone who is ldquounaware of the intersectional complexity of her own existencerdquo The cast and crew of Ottam however had to understand all the worlds that live inside Akai ldquoThe first month of rehearsals was orientation month There were conversations readings workshops and masterclasses including a talk by senior sports journalist Sharda Ugra and a folk training workshop by Chennai based Parai player and educator Adalaarasurdquo she reveals Closer to home Mumbaibased athletics coach Cyril DrsquoSouza helped the cast soak in the spirit with track and beach training sessionsWersquore glad to hear that the play does not unfold from the gaze of an outsider albeit a wellread socially conscious one Saran puts together a young cast that brings with it a diverse range of lived experiences as they come not only from various schools of theatre but are also from different socioeconomicbackgroundsIt might as well be an open secret by now that Indian audiences love to lap up a spirited underdog story about women in sport mdash think Chak De India 2007 or the Priyanka Chopra starrer Mary Kom 2014 What happens when you decide to include the reality of caste in it we ask Saran For the uninitiated in 2018 Santhi Soundarajan filed a complaint against a colleague at the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu SDAT for harassing her over her caste ldquoI donrsquot think any conversation on women empowerment is possible without talking about caste in India That said I donrsquot see myself as an activist Irsquom a theatremaker My job is to ask questions provoke and stimulate Art looks at these minor shifts as radical moments This cannot happen by ensuring comfort for an audience I hope Ottam leads to discomfortrdquo she signs offON January 3 and 4 7 pmAT Rangshila Theatre Harminder Singh Road Aram Nagar Part 1 VersovaLOG ON TO inbookmyshowcomENTRY Rs 400