Savitri, a middle-aged woman, is dissatisfied with her circumstances. She has an unemployed son, a promiscuous teen daughter, and a husband who has failed to provide her emotional and financial security. She tries to find fulfillment in relationships outside her marriage, only to realize that all men are the same beneath different faces.
What makes Mohan Rakesh’s portrait of Savitri one of Hindi theatre’s first feminist icons so gripping is that one is never sure whether he admires her rage to get a grip on her life or whether he suggests that she is a woman caught in her destiny and circumstances in the manner of a tragic Greek heroine.
Writer & Director
Born in 1956, Tripurari Sharma did graduation in English literature from Delhi University and completed her diploma in Direction from NSD in 1979. She is a playwright, translator and director of repute and conducted theatre workshops in India and abroad. She wrote and Directed plays like, Bahu, Birsa Munda, Aks paheli, Banjh Ghati Sazaa, kath ki Gadi, Lal Lal Hathi, and Hello to myself for institutions like I.P. College, SRC repertory, Chhattisgarh Natya kala manch, women and media group, Delhi; Bharat Bhawan, Rangamandal Bhopal; NSD repertory and TIE Company. She also directed plays like Reshmi Rummal, Daire, Sumati and Lado Mausi for the group Alarippu; produced the solo pieces, Suryast Ke Baad and Badlaav, and directed Mohan rakesh’s Adhe Adure, Lourca’a Birjees Qadar Ka Kunba and Chekov’s Cherry Orchard for the NSD repertory. Azizun, Traitors, Roop Aroop, Shifa, Beech Shahar, Sampada, May Be This Summer, are her original works. She penned down scripts of critically acclaimed films like Mirch Masala and Hazar Chaurasi Ki Maa and has also co-directed a few short films on the theme of adolescent girl child and had been associated with the street theatre movement.
Tripurari Sharma travelled with her group to Norway, England and Pakistan and represented India in first Woman Playwrights’ Conference in the USA, 1988. She was honored with the Sanskrit Award, Delhi in 1986, and by Delhi Natya Sangh in 1990… She was Honored with Sangeet Natak Akamedy Award at the hands of the Hon’ble President of India.
Director’s Note
A very big feature of ‘Aadhe-Adhure’ is the playwright’s deep understanding of the language of theatre. Theatre is a medium of visual and audio elements, and in this field Mohan Rakesh breaks new ground. For dramatic achievements, leaving behind the fascination for literary conventions like abstract poetry, ‘Aadhe-Adhure’ presents the living reality of everyday life. This reality is complex in itself, which does not accept to be bound or defined in any formula, but at the same time it is exciting due to its constant changeability and mysterious characteristic. This undefined and complex reality seems to determine not only the theme of this play, but also the language used in it. In this way, theme and form merged and took the form of this play, on the basis of which it can be called a ‘classic’ in modern drama writing. Mohan Rakesh, through ‘Aadhe-Adhure’, gives many directions to play writing. For example, to create dramatic conflict, he has chosen a common, ordinary subject matter without resorting to over-dramatization. The power of this play is free from extreme literary and artificial language. This is the simple language that we speak in everyday life, but in which the restlessness of all our unspoken feelings is present and despite being apparently non-poetic, it has the unique beauty of poetry.
Along with communicability, language also includes the awareness of sounds, such as the sound of Ashok’s scissors, tin cutter, cup-plates or Mahendra shaking files, etc., create an environment in which the innerness of the characters becomes more vocal than speaking out loud. Apart from these sounds and some visual images, Mohan Rakesh, as per his stage directions, has used some other everyday gestures symbolically – like Savitri pulls the table cover and hides her face in it or she frantically searches her purse. In these gestures, the inner pain and lostness of the character is revealed with all its power and totality.
In ‘Aadhe-Adhure’, Mohan Rakesh’s use of Sutradhar for his folk tradition from the point of view of dramatic structure, who plays all the characters, is an important achievement in modern Hindi drama writing. This tradition has been followed in the fabric of the main subject matter of the entire play with such skill that it does not seem imposed but becomes an essential part of the story of the play. Similarly, in the structure of Aadhe-Adhure, a truly realistic language, subject matter, character sounds etc. have been skilfully harmonized and this complex form has been used in the presentation. Carrying forward the folk tradition, a six-member chorus has also been included in the presentation, which is an evolved form of Sutradhar. The chorus gives words to the inner language of the characters and sometimes also gives stage directions. In this way, it also gives its reaction to dramatic situations and a neutral view towards strong emotions. The use of unpleasant and harsh music is not only for the dramatic climax, but also to reveal the bitterness and harshness prevailing in the lives of the characters. Music is so connected to the sounds of the environment that it starts or ends with the voice of a character or the sound of a particular object. At many places, pure sounds have also been used to exaggerate realistic emotions. In this presentation, an attempt has been made to reconcile extreme realism and overdramatic elements through which the main theme of the play is revealed in its full intensity, which is related to the terrible condition of a middle class family, their false pretenses and their inability to face the truth of the failures of family relationships. ‘Aadhe-Adhure’ is a complete reflection of our reality and the audience is shaken from within by seeing themselves in the characters illuminated in the light of the uncompromising, candidness of the playwright.
Playwright
Mohan Rakesh was one of the pioneers of the literary movement in India in the 1950s. He wrote the first modern Hindi play, ‘Ashadh Ka Ek Din’ (One Day in Aashad1958), which won a competition organised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi. He made significant contributions to the novel, the short story, travelogue, criticism, memoir and drama. Mohan Rakesh’s Aadhe-Adhure is one of the most significant plays about urban middle class family and poignantly projects the transition of values in the changing urban scenario in India. He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1968.
His novels are Andhere Band Kamre (Closed Dark Rooms) and Na Aane Wala Kal (The Tomorrow That Never Comes).