Culturally shocked..!

I recently had the good fortune of seeing one of the most talked abt marathi theatrical productions around — “Marathi Bana”, literally meaning the Marathi tradition / culture/ way of life..

first, a little about the show.. tagged as a “70 mm marathi natak”, it is an “all-live” performance,  with a cast of around 125 performers.. who sing/ dance/ play musical instruments & spread awareness… yes, and all 125 do appear on stage simultaneously a number of times! :D  - dont ask how they fit on the stage!

masterminded by a certain Mr. ashok Hande, who has directed/ produced / compered and sung in the show, the show is an excellent compilation of the marathi traditions. And since music and dance form the intrinsic base of any tradition, this show essentially translates as a two and a half hr dance routine covering all possible marathi traditions — right from how the dance forms differ on the plateau, konkan and the hills … to a compilation of the most famous marathi festivals … to marriage celebrations …. to excerpts from the patriotric streak brought to the fore by the likes of Shivaji …

what strikes me most about the  show, in addition to the excellent way it captured all that happens around maharashtra, was the presentation … ther was not one dull moment in the whole of the duration of the show ….  the performers emoted effortlessly in all the myraid of situations … and the dances were live-wire to say the least.

the dancers must have changed costumes atleast 10 times  during the entire show — and no simple costumes too… most were the traditional nine-yard saris and dhotis… and not once during the entire time did the tempo of the song and dance routine reduce even fractionally… to give you an idea… consider dancing to foot tapping fast paced with matching choreographed moves… for about 50 songs.. almost back-to-back..!

and in the midst of this all, they even managed to put through to the audience social messages — right from discussing why tradition says married ladies should wear a bindi, and keep their hair long, to why women should breast-feed… and a fair bit of current affairs too … including the fact that anil kumble scored his test century (while the show was going on!)

at the end, the show did wat it promised… introduced the new generations to customs and traditions that have long been lost… buried somewhere under the liberalization and westernization of our world… not to mention the cross cultural influences from within India — it reminded people what being maharashtrian actually means.. and in not quite the way a certain political organisation has been doing for the past so many years… it reminded people to believe in what they are.. and be just that … and more importantly, bring to people the quintessential maharashtra.. the way it was long ago..

kudos mr.  Hande!