Yatri's latest play turns the traditional Ramleela on its head, with a tantrum-throwing Raavan holding a village to ransom. It's a back-to-basics laugh riot
Yatri's latest play turns the traditional Ramleela on its head, with a tantrum-throwing Raavan holding a village to ransom. It's a back-to-basics laugh riot
In its 60th production, theatre group Yatri moves away from its speciality drawing room comedies and lends a desi touch to Prithvi Theatre.
While their latest play is based on the typical village Ramleela, in this version, through a bizarre twist of events, the 10-headed demon king of Lanka hogs all the attention, prompting the audience to call the performance Raavanleela.
A typical village Ramleela rarely includes professional actors or chic stage design. Carrying on in the same vein, the actors in the play had the play had to pretend that they knew nothing of professional acting. 
Director Om Katareu00a0plays an overweight Sita, flanked by Arpit Sharma and Rohit Sharma;u00a0Raavan aka Gagan Riar has also composed the folk music
Director Om Katare wanted to stay true to this aspect when he started work on his new play. "In the desi Ramleela, it does not matter how the performance unfolds, what the quality is like.
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The actors are not trained, and they often forget their dialogues despite a prompter, who often ends up silencing a restless audience too," Katare shares.
Raavan Leela begins with Raavan's entry on the sixth day of the typical Ramleela. Everything continues perfectly well until Sitaharan, where Raavan aka Kirtar Singhu00a0(played by Gagan Riar), is expected to lift an overweight Sita (played by Katare) and whisk her away. Raavan is offended that he is expected to do the work of a bulldozer, and thus begins an ego tussle.
In the play, among the many problems that the organisers of the Ramleela face, is that of dealing with with Kirtar Singh who demands a hike in fee. "Raavan has a clash with the organisers over increasing his fees to Rs 300. When the Ramleela is about to end, he refuses to die, despite being hit by a flurry of arrows, until the organisers agree to his demands," says Katare.
The director likens Raavan's demands to those of union leaders. Like a desi Ramleela, this play also features folk songs, composed byu00a0 Riar. Katare has taken some liberty and introduced a few 'modern' ideas in his production. "We have subtly blended in modern touches, especially in the costume.
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Our Raavan wears chunky accessories," he says, including a neckpiece that says 'virus'. Since Ram personifies an antidote to Raavan, he wears a chunky 'anti virus' pendant. Cheeky, but fitting.
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On August 26 and 27 at 9 pm; August 28 at 6 pm and 9 pm. at Prithvi Theatre, Janki Kutir, Juhu Church Road, Vile Parle (W). call 26149546. Tickets Rs 200 on August 26, 27, and Rs 300 on August 28
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