Men are innocent, or so they say, while playing victim card inevitably alleging that women are guilty as charged.Sakal Jaani He Naath is a folk musical comical satire, adapted from Vasant Deo’s Sudama Ke Chawal. It revisits the famed mythological fable about Lord Krishna and his childhood friend Sudama and explores the narrative of the contemporary human situation, man’s double standards and his convoluted mind.The play runs parallel with Narottam Das’s Sudamacharit and their verses are sung in folk tunes of Doha, Alha and Behr-e-Tavil.
Director
Srinivas is a theatre practitioner and has been performing as an actor, writer, and director for over 17 years now. Skilled in playback theatre and with immense affinity towards folk theatre, he has performed and received accolades nationally at theatre festivals and competitions conducted by IPTA and other entities.His directorial plays such as Panchhi, Do Kaudi ka Khel and Namak have garnered over 30 awards. Founder of Kahe Vidushak Foundation, Srinivas has showcased his productions inprestigious festivals like the META 2023, Rangashankara Theatre Festival, Jaipur Theatre Festival to name a few.
Director’s Note
This is one of those plays, whose meaning kept on evolving for me each time I read, saw, or performed it. From a mockery of mythological characters to showcasing a man’s double standards to abusing masculinity and thrusting supremacy on women to the extent of habituation, I have travelled a lot with this play. It became even more interesting when I drew a parallel of Vasant Deo’s Sudama Ke Chawal with that of Narottam Das’s Sudamacharit, which is inspired from Surdas’s poem. It gave me more variety in designing the play structure.The play is partly devised and developed sequentially with actors, during a series of residential workshops. In terms of design, I plan to design the play with the element of Haryana’s folk theatre Swang or Saang as they say. The main purpose to showcase the story in Swang is to introduce our audience with a folk style and its tunes that has never attempted before.
Writer
Vasant Deo (1929–1996) was an Indian writer, lyricist, and screenplay writer, and a teacher of Hindi at Parle College, Mumbai. He worked forthe Hindiparallel cinema during the 1980s and collaborated with renowned directors such as Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, and Mahesh Bhatt.He was best known for the two songs written for the 1984 Girish Karnad directed film, Utsav, “Saanjh Dhale Gagan Tale,” sung by singer Suresh Wadkar, and the duet “Man Kyun Behka,” sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle.Vasant Deo wrote plays and poetry in Marathi language and contributedto the field of literature as a translator from Marathi to Hindi.
Group
Kahe Vidushak Foundation is a Bangalore based theatre group co-founded by Srinivas and Ankita Jain. The group’s productions explore varied genres, and subjects with an element of folk theatre interspersed in its plays. The group take up the role of the Vidushak and use theatre to draw attention of the audience and those inauthority, towards the follies of the society. With nine productions being produced by the group in the last 4 years, Sakala Jaani He Naathis the 10th production as they step in their 5thworking year and the play has garnered wide acclaim and accolades in numerous theatre festivals.