‘Kavan’: A modern Ambedkarite opera

One can see many decision makers in the rehearsal room, where Kavan is being practiced. Playwright-director Abhishek Majumdar, who is closely observing these interactions, calls himself no more than a conduit for the group’s explorations. “My job is to stitch it all together," he says. “The text was written by Sudesh Jadhav, the songs have been composed by Pallavi MD and Yalgaar together. My role has been to arrange the text, fill in the gaps and write parts of the libretto."

A collaboration between Mumbai-based Yalgaar Sanskrutik Manch and the Nalanda Arts Studio from Bengaluru, Kavan translates to poetry. It draws from Lok Shahiri, a form of protest poetry that the music and street theatre group, Yalgaar, practices through its jalsa. This forms the backbone of Majumdar’s second operatic outing after Desdemona Roopakam, which explored feminist thought in the backdrop of Shakespeare’s Othello.

The set is perhaps as crowded as the rehearsal room with an array of instruments, props, and a mounted screen, all laid out for public view. Most of the text is sung with minimal dialogue, and the narration is delivered with the background music. The music moves from shahiri to folk, classical to rock. The soundscape includes both live and recorded music.

Pallavi MD recalls the months of online discussions as the play came into being. “Once the script was ready and the songs were written, we started working online. We took four to five months to compose everything," she says. “To have these many songs (over 20) in a play is quite unusual and also to have the performers write most of them. There was a lot of discussion about poetic quality, rhythm, and the meter," she adds.

At the heart of it, Kavan is the story of young Bejul, whose shahir father has been killed during police action. Bejul does not want to be a shahir and wants to take up a different path in his life, and his mother wishes for the same. He is drawn to Manuvad, his lifeline is a beloved cow and only objective in life is to rise up from poverty. “I found this thread interesting. Most of the time people take up the politics of the house, but that is not always the case," explains Majumdar. “Bejul’s mother is religious and she wants him to follow the same path. And thus, he believes his predicament is a result of his actions. Bejul’s journey ends with the realisation that his experiences are an outcome of a systemic failure." he adds.

Dhammarakshit Randhive, performer and founding member of the Yalgaar Sanskrutik Manch, states that the choice to shift the gaze from generational trauma was intentional. “We are not in the mood to talk about our sadness or the injustices meted out to us. The ones who discriminate today are victims themselves. We want to have dialogue with both the oppressed and the oppressor," he says.

The play, with its 150-minute runtime, begins with a track that has the sounds of rock music, and ends with a reverberating clarion call. It has nearly 20 songs, features an ensemble cast of six; Siddharth Pratibhawant, Pravin Mukta, Priypal Dashantee, Dhammarakshit Randhive, Amruta Todarmal and Apurva Kadam. The dramaturgy is by Irawati Karnik and Jocelyn Clarke, with choreography by Diya Naidu.

Kavan is tech-heavy in a way that Majumdar’s plays haven’t been before. The video design by Gaurav Nijjer Singh, while providing an additional layer of immersion, is also an essential reminder of the theme of caste in Indian cities. At times, it is used to give the audiences an intimate look into the spaces the characters inhabit, at others it aids the narrative with a display of words, poetry, and stock footage.

The play is deeply political but chooses to tug at the emotional strands of the story. Bejul’s inward journey from that of an innocent young boy to a shahir is punctuated with moments of poignance aided by great performance. It elucidates the role of religious figures in maintaining the status quo of caste discrimination, and questions violent resistance with nuance. Its sound dramaturgy draws you in and keeps you riveted despite the long runtime. The third act, with its heightened climax has several heart wrenching moments and some of Kavan’s most profound poetry.

But, Kavan’s greatest strength is its inherent sense of the collaborative, from its bustling rehearsal room to a stage that lets you in not as a voyeur but as an intrinsic part of the narrative.

‘Kavan’ will be staged at Prithvi Theatre on 9 February, 5 pm and 9 pm. It will also have shows in March at Rangshila Theatre.