Sterling adaptation
RANEE KUMAR
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Habib Tanvir offers contemporary treatment for his adaptation of Tagore’s works without marring its historical tenor.
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Timeless saga ‘Raj Rakt’ finds relevance today.
When visionaries like Rabindranath Tagore take to creative writing, its depth outreaches the work of art itself. Geographical placement, time and social implications cease to limit its universality. This is precisely how Raj Rakt,
adapted from the Nobel laureate’s Visarjan and Rajrishi (a Bengali play and novel-1987) by none other than the impeccable Habib Tanvir, is viewed decades after the originals were penned.
Habib Tanvir’s ingenuity was evident in the contemporary treatment he gave to the play without marring its historical tenor. The interspersing of tribal and folk song and dances served to add a local flavour to the storyline which has its base in the kingdom of Tripura. It is a simple story of a raja Govind Manikya of Tripura who has no heirs to the throne. Tantric worship of Devi Kali was widespread in the high eastern parts of India then and to a certain extent even now. Animal and human sacrifices to ‘appease’ the Goddess were an inevitable part of the ritualistic worship. The chief priest of the temple was a power centre and a mediator between the commoner and the king. The curtain unveils to the dark, reddened tongue-lolling mother goddess idol and two priests busy with sacrificial worship. People from varied walks of life visit the temple to pay obeisance. Among them are the bhikshu girl Aparna, the childless queen and a tribal folk. The use of narrative technique through a sutradar cuts the long story short –the king befriends two orphaned children- a sister and brother- who symbolically wipes out the flow of blood from sacrifices and one of them, the girl-child succumbs to shock of bloodshed. This brings about a total transformation in the king who issues a diktat banning all sacrifice at the temple with a severe penalty to disobedience of the law. The little survivor boy becomes the king’s living conscience, while the bhikshu girl is the collective conscience in the play. Certain home truths which transcend time and space make Raj Rakt so relevant even today. Ramachandra Singh as Raghunath gave a sterling performance- every inch a scheming, tantalizing, intelligent tantric. Close on hi
s heels comes Shalini Vats’ commanding histrionics as the treacherous, multi-minded queen. Nageen Tanvir as the bhikshu girl exhibited a restraint in speech, song and acting in keeping with her role. Udai Ram Srivas as the king looked a little aged for his character especially beside his queen. Directed by Habib Tanvir and produced under the aegis of Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Foundation to mark the 23rd anniversary of the doyen’s demise, Raj Rakt in Hindustani with a tinge of dialectical variation was a veritable Sunday special to the twin cities.
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