Loving the lavani

My association with Lavani dates back to 2001 when I watched it live for the first time almost by chance at a festival in Mumbai and witnessed its magic its perfect mix of classiness and mass appeal Till then I used to think of Lavani as lowbrow art and only the classical arts as high artrdquo says writer and director Bhushan Korgaonkar whose directorial debut Love amp Lavani is set to premiere next weekThe play featuring live Lavani performances and weaving in a performative storytelling style is about the love story of dancer Shabanabai Ashturkar ldquoShe is in love with herself as a child and young adult and eventually finds the love of her liferdquo Korgaonkar tells usThe new production uses the same team of traditional Sangeet Bari artistes who were part of a show on the form directed by filmmaker Savitri Medhatul This was about eight years ago when Medhatul and Korgaonkar read out portions from Korgaonkarrsquos bookmdashalso titled Sangeet Barimdashto provide context to the live Lavani performances ldquoThis time I wanted to do something new with the same formrdquo says Korgaonkar ldquoDiffering from the earlier documentation theatre format in Love amp Lavani we use many new songs while two actors appear as sutradhars and also switch to characters enacting parts of thelove storyrdquoThe playrsquos songs are in Marathi and Hindi while its dialogues are in Hindi and Dakhni the language spoken by some Muslims of western Maharashtra Marathwada and Vidharba and of other regions such as Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and by the playrsquos protagonist Shabanabai who belongs to a matriarchal dancing community ldquoOur experience of Sangeet Bari tells us that despite Marathi being a language that not many people outside Maharashtra or even Mumbai understand the audiences connect with Lavani very quicklyrdquo says Korgaonkar whose book Sangeet Bari and the initial shows that grew out of it were in MarathiLove amp Lavani is a play with lavani performances weaved into a performative storytelling style It is the love story of dancer Shabanabai Ashturkar PICSM FAHIMB Spot Productions the company founded by Korgaonkar with a team of multidisciplinary collaborators with names such as Kunal Vijayakar and Geetanjali Kulkarni offering directorial inputs creates performances that enable communities to share stories and encourage audiences to explore sensory pleasures while often facilitating conversations around taboo topics ldquoThey show different shades and aspects of love and pleasure sensuality and sexuality and allow you to be open and expressive about your thoughts and feelingsrdquo says Korgaonkar At the same time audiences will also be introduced to a hidden world ldquoThere are some misconceptions in society about dancing women their morality and love livesI have tried to address theserdquo he says alluding to a recent Marathi film that showed this world as one dealing in prostitution with no acknowledgement of the value of its art ldquoI have handled it in a subtle way since nonMarathi people may not get the referencerdquo he addsBhushan KorgaonkarFor Lavani veteran and Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee Shakuntalabai Nagarkar ldquofilms and reality shows have presented a very different idea of Lavanirdquo Shakubai as she is popularly known speaks of learning the art form as a child from her mother and during her years spent among tamasha theatre troupes watching dancers such as Yamunabai Waiker and Roshanbai Satarkar performldquoPeople used to look upon Lavani dancers in a particular way earlier but after we started presenting traditional Lavani before people they began to appreciate the form There are people who have watched our shows as many as 20 timesrdquo says Shakubai who started performing professionally in the rsquo70s and has as part of the Sangeet Bari shows travelled across the country taking the production as far as GermanyWHAT Love amp LavaniWHERE Prithvi TheatreWHEN July 28FOR Rs 500