A weekend retrospective celebrating Pu La Deshpande’s cultural legacy

Anyone who grew up in the Central suburbs outside Mumbai in the early 1990s would be more than familiar with the voice of Pu La Deshpande over a random tape recorder narrating Mhais Author playwright composer mdash and one of the earliest standup comics in the vernacular mdash he was a prolific audio bookseller too ldquoPu La was oneofakind There were and even now are very few people in Mumbai who are interested in and have done significant work in so many fields of artrdquo says veteran writer and theatre maker Shanta GokhaleMusic in his veinsA key facet was his role as a founding member of the National Centre of Performing Arts NCPA since 1969 Pandit Satyasheel Deshpande is among the few to know it well ldquoI knew him over the years because of my father Vamanrao Deshpande and my guru Pandit Kumar Gandharva Pu La could write humour like few others But he always said lsquoMusic is my first loversquordquo Deshpande sharesA previous staging of Mad Sakharam Pics courtesyMangesh SatputeThis love for music flowed into his approach to other works The musician adds ldquoWhen musicians talk about music they can be unmusical But his writings even outside music had a musicality In that sense Pu Larsquos love for one art flowed into every other sphere that he took interest inrdquoLove for literatureThis love for music led him to take a keen interest in the process of archiving at the NCPA A voracious reader his works often reflected the depth of his knowledge always with the lightness of humourThis sense of fun is what drew Mangesh Satpute to the work Marathi Vangmayacha Gholiv Itihas The production will be part of two the other being Mad Sakharam that will celebrate the noted author this weekend Where Mad Sakharam was a response to the ban on Vijay Tendulkarrsquos Sakharam Binder the other play is a tongueincheek series that Pu La wrote for the magazine MauzSatyasheel Deshpande Mangesh Satpute and Shanta Gokhale PicRane AshishldquoA few people from a generation would remember PN Joshirsquos Marathi Vangmayacha Itihas Pu La transformed it into a satire mdash a column on Sant Tukaram for 15 marks or on Sant Eknath for 20 marks He is laughing at us as readers and also at the way we read literaturerdquo the director sharesClown with classFor Gokhale this childlike sense of fun that set him apart from everyone ldquoMercifully he was not pedantic He loved everything he did in a spirit of joy He thrived on human connections He wanted to share his joy in the arts with people and the people loved him for itrdquo she revealsPt Deshpande recalls that even towards the end Pu Larsquos wit did not wane ldquoDuring those years I would bring him records of Bal Gandharva and others I remember one moment when poets Aruna Dhere and Shanta Shelke were with Sunitabai Pu La Deshpandersquos wife talking about moments when prose turns into poetry Just at that moment there was a song of Krishnarao Chonkar playing Now Chonkar had a unique feature that when he sang an alaap he would look like he was about to sneeze Just at that moment Pu La leaned over to me saying lsquothis is the moment before a sneezersquordquoPL Deshpande at a reading right actors rehearse before a performance of Marathi Vangmayacha Gholiv ItihasWhat is the secret to becoming such a polymath we wonder ldquoA fan asked him this stereotypical questionrdquo Deshpande laughs ldquoand without missing a beat Pu La answered lsquoLux beauty soaprsquo In seriousness he attributed his birth and growing up in the suburb of Vile Parle with its vibrant culturerdquo Satpute echoes this saying ldquoIt is difficult to quantify the role Pu La played in shaping the culture of the city and its suburbsrdquo This Dombivlikar concursON November 30 5 pm onwardsAT Godrej Dance Theatre NCPA Nariman PointLOG ON TO ncpamumbaicomCOST Rs 360 onwards members Rs 400 onwards nonmembers