Travel back in time to Mumbai's first Ramleela performance, Navratri celebration

What pops up in your mind when I say Navratrirdquo Suresh Mishra general secretary of Shri Maharashtra Ramleela Mandal asks us rhetoricallyBefore we can reply he interjects ldquoIt is usually Ramleela but here in Mumbai it is garba That was a disconnect for us natives of Uttar Pradesh in MumbairdquoRama and Laxman take on the stage at Shri Maharashtra Ramleela at Azad Maidan The performing troop this year has been called in from Mathura after the Ayodhya artistes disbanded during COVID19 Previously local paanwalas and kalipeeli drivers from UP based in Mumbai would perform PicsSameer MarkandeBoth Mishra and this writer hail from UP and have a connection with Lucknow where one of the worldrsquos oldest Ramleela performances is said to have been established over 500 years ago by saintpoet Tulsidas himself Mishra is also associated with Mumbairsquos oldest Ramleela a celebration organised by migrants from North India who missed watching the portrayal of Ramayana back home The Ramleela is a theatrical performance and retelling of the epic Ramayana which tells the story of the King of Ayodhya Rama and his virtues Spread across 10 days the daily retelling depicts a variety of scenes and includes a rich mix of dialogue recital and narration performed for a large audience free during the nine days of Navratri It culminates with Lanka Dahan or the burning of an effigy of Ramarsquos adversary Ravan and his empire As the illuminated Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC heritage building looms over Azad Maidan on the third day of Navratri the historic Shri Maharashtra Ramleela which is in its 64th year is ready with its afterdusk offeringMahesh Sawant 24 browses through old photographs of Dadar Paschim Vibhaj Sarvajanik Navratri Utsav Mandal when Marathi and Hindi orchestra Marathi play and classical music were part of the celebrations As part of festivities Bal Thackeray was also made to sit in a dock and answer questions from the community in a friendly spiritModern malaise however adds a dampener to celestial celebrations The approach to the pandal rues Mishra is ditch ridden Borrowing imagery from Ramayana what else he says ldquoThis year we had to make a Ram Setu over puddles of water to better the approach to the pandal Our pleas fell on deaf ears We have for long demanded a single window permission system for Navratri celebrations like it is done for Ganeshotsav Sab Ram ke naam pe satta main aate hain aur phir bhool jate hainrdquo Mishra saysMeanwhile in another corner of the city under the shadow of the facade of Khandke Building near Dadarrsquos Plaza Cinema a group of people are ready to welcome devotees to their modest pandal which has a rich legacy that goes all the way back to 1926 when social reformer Prabhodankar Thackeray started the cityrsquos first Navratri festivities with a thrust on inclusion The original painting of Maa Ambe as drawn by Prabhodankar Thackeray in the early 1900s for Navratri celebrations at Khandke building During COVID19 the painting was retouched and was placed at the pandal again after many decades PicsAshish RaneJust a year later in 1927 Mishra says his grandfather Pt Shobhnath Mishra arrived in Mumbai from Amethi He worked as a sweeper at The Times of India building at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus before moving up the rungs to become a liftman His enterprise saw him hustle to eventually become a newspaper distributor Mishra says he distributed every big newspaper worth its headline in Mumbai ldquoexcept the one he worked withrdquo ldquoFrom Bombay to Badlapur we ruled for 40 years My grandfatherrsquos story was a rag to riches one A road in Fort Karmveer Pt Shobhnath Mishra Marg in Churchgate is named after him for the community service he didrdquoDespite the success he saw senior Mishra missed home He like others from Uttar Pradesh who had made this city their own longed for a taste of its culture especially during the festivals ldquoIn 1958 he started this Ramleela as the first in Mumbai from Goa Street in Fort In two years it became a massive celebration that would see swelling crowds It had to be shifted to its present location in Azad Maidan when the Fort neighbourhood couldnrsquot accommodate any more peoplerdquo remembers MishraKapil Dev Bharadwaj actor and lead Braj Vrindavan RamKrishna LilaAs per the last Census conducted in 2011 of the total 90 lakh migrants in Maharashtra the biggest group of 27 lakh migrants is from UP followed by Karnataka 14 lakh and Gujarat 98 lakhIn the years that followed the Ramleela grew to include local UPites on its rostermdashpaanwalas and those driving kalipeeli taxis came on board to enact the various characters on stage ldquoA month prior to the event which was celebrated back then for 12 days the commoners of our community in Mumbai would gather and practice their roles They were perfect because apart from an innate interest they spoke the Awadhi dialect to the T which is the primary cultural nuance of our Ramleelas back homerdquo This collection of local performers all of whom resided here was called Shiv Shakti Kala Mandli They had a successful run from 1977 till 2006 It was the poor manrsquos entertainment says Mishra For the next 13 years until the COVID19 pandemic the Shri Maharashtra Ramleela Mandal managed to bring down a performance troop from Ayodhya to give Mumbaikars an authentic taste of Awadhi Ramleela Thousands joined every autumn to watch Rama Laxman and Sitarsquos story play out before themKapil Dev Bharadwaj leading the Braj Vrindavan RamKrishna Leela gets ready to perform as Ram on stage as Sita played by another male artiste looks onDuring the pandemic and resultant lockdowns however the Ayodhya mandli was left scattered In those two years when public performances were banned the Shri Maharashtra Ramleela Mandal somehow managed to not break tradition and continued to run the Akhand Ramayana for 24 hours ldquoCommittee members became the audience because we couldnrsquot gather a crowd but we made sure the Navratri pandal continuedrdquo he says Two years after the crisis the mandli is still missing some of its members and the Braj Vrindavan RamKrishna Leela from Mathura the city of Lord Krishnarsquos birth has been called to helm the celebrations now Twenty threeyearold Kapil Dev Bharadwaj leads the troop and plays the role of Rama While it is the troops first performance at this pandal the group has been regaling audiences at the other end of Azad Maidan where they have performed with the Sahitya Kala Manch Ramleela for four decadesMishra however is partial to his own ldquoOur Ramleela is specialrdquo he declares ldquoBecause we maintain the maryada discipline of Ramcharitmanas No women actors are involved it is the men who role play Hum nahin chahte humare darshako ka kisi bhi prakar se bhaav vikrit ho This isnrsquot a place for naachgaana where women are dancing on stage it is a holy act and we maintain this holinessrdquo says a sombre Bharadwaj as he oversees that the actors start getting ready for the evening in the makeshift tent behind the stage Twenty six actors and four stage managers have arrived from Mathura for the 10day folk theatre performance Their costumes reflect the myriad colours of the rainbow enhanced by the liberal use of glitter The stage decor mirrors a leaf out of Ramayana for each and every scenePortraits of founders Pt Shobhnath Mishra left and Raj Narayan Pandey of one of the oldest Ramleela in Mumbai at the Azad Maidan stageldquoAfter we are in costume and elaborate makeup we recite mantras from the Vedas and do praanpratishtha of the mukut crown before placing it on our head to become Shri Rama Laxman ji and Sita ji The mantras and small puja is similar to what is done of an idol where we invite the God to reign the idol and take its form So after the puja when we dawn the mukut we feel Ram ji or Sita ji inside us they speak through us It is magicalrdquo Bharadwaj was 12 when he first performed with his father in Mathura for the past five years he has played the role of Rama The troop also travelled to Thailand Canada and Singapore under his father courtesy the Indian government Bharadwaj claimsAt Khandke Building in Dadar there is no ldquodandiya raasrdquo But the pandal is famous enough to attract politicians and film stars Seeped in history this Navratra celebration was started by Bal Thackerayrsquos father as early as 1926 But the Dadar Paschim Vibhag Sarvajanik Navratri Utsav Mandal was registered some 70 years ago its office bearers tell midday ldquoThere is no documented evidence but it was in this building that everything shaped up for Shiv Sena Prabhodankar Thackeray instated this celebration and all members of the Thackeray family pay their obeisance to Goddess Ambe at this pandal every yearrdquo shares Anand Pednekar president of the mandal ldquoThe idea was to bring all Marathi and Hindu people together much the same way Lokmanya Tilak did for Ganeshotsav in Maharashtra This pandal was for everybody like it still is todayrdquo he addsAbhijit Rane VP Dadar Paschim Vibhag Sarvajanik Navratri Utsav MandalHowever history recalls another story one that is attached to overcoming caste hierarchy According to Babasaheb Ambedkarrsquos associate Changdeo Khairmode in his biography of the political leader Dr Bhimrao Ramji AmbedkarVolume II Ambedkar had once met with resistance and conspiracy from uppercaste Hindus when he was invited to speak at a Ganeshotsav event in Dadar Editor of the website prabhodankarcom and authority on the senior Thackeray Sachin Parab says ldquoThe Navratra celebration was started by Prabhodankar Ambedkar and Raobahadur Sitaram Keshav Bole as a movement against the Brahmanical stronghold of Ganeshotsav in Maharashtra In 1923 the Dadar Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav was led and controlled by Brahmins who did not allow Dalits and lower caste members to get involved Donations were collected from everyone but the management and office bearers were Brahmins alone A movement opposing this was started by Ambedkar and Bole When it was leading nowhere Prabhodankar who was a reformer was included In an answer to the Brahminical Ganeshotsav the opentoall Navratra celebrations were started in Khandke Building which had people of all castes involved at every levelrdquoKarmvir Pt Shobhnath Mishra Marg at Churchgate named after Suresh Mishrarsquos grandfather A native of Amethi he began the cityrsquos first Ramleela PicAshish RajeAnd when it did begin somewhere around 1926 Prabhodankar handpainted a cutout of Goddess Ambe which the committee members say they have kept safely at their office ldquoFor the longest time the painted cutout was used during the celebrations but later we shifted to a pure clay idol In the two years of the pandemic we decided to use the cutout again We gave it an overhaul with fresh paintrdquo says Mahesh Sawant 24 the third generation member of his family to be involved in the festivities Sawant along with other young members burned the midnight oil after their day jobs to make the replica of the Khandoba temple in Jejuri Pune from cardboard plywood and packaging boxes which is now the backdrop of the pandalThe Shri Maharashtra Ramleela Mandal plays out the oldest performance of the Ramcharitmanas over a span of 10 days at Azad Maidan Performers from Ayodhya and Mathura are involved in entertaining the North Indians who are away from home in MumbaiSombre celebrations with a priest performing the evening aarti as devotees join in now forms a part of the celebrations but members say that when the mandal was flush with funds and restrictions of space and sound were not in place the celebrations went from grand to grander with each year ldquoWe used to hold Marathi nataks a Hindi and Marathi orchestra would also play on stage there would be classical music but never dance that is not part of our tradition You will still see no man or woman dancing at this pandal unlike elsewhererdquo says vice president Abhijit Rane Prafull Potnis treasurer adds that in 197677 they held a skitbased on the Rajat Sharmaled talk show Aap Ki Adalat A dock was created and Bal Thackeray was made to take questions from the community members And he participated in the right spirit Now with the 10 pm loud speaker deadline we keep it low key But the aarti is done every dayrdquoSuresh Mishra Anand Pednekar and Prafull Potnis27 LNo of migrants from Uttar Pradesh in Mumbai according to the Census of India 2011