Vinaya Walavalkar Mantri

Panaji, Goa: Drama occupies special importance in the field of entertainment. Why so? Because in movies and serials, everything is pre-planned. A scene is shot and retakes are done again and again till the desired impact is achieved. But drama is different. The viewers are sitting right there as the artists present their skills live. There is no scope for re-shooting or retake. Any mistake on the part of the artistes cannot remain concealed from the audience.
The relationship between the viewers and the drama is a special one. The more skillful the actors, the stronger the effect of the drama being enacted on stage. Equally crucial is a gracious and understanding audience for any drama. If not so, the drama will not achieve its desired effect. It is just because of such an understanding and mature audience that theatre is still alive.
The play being staged was ‘Shante Che Kart Chaalu Aahe’ at Kala Academy, Goa on 9th March 2017 at noon. The theatre was almost houseful. This itself was a sign of love for art and drama. The drama started on time after the third bell. Right from the beginning, the viewers were enjoying the drama and the laughter it was creating.
The drama was at its peak when suddenly a strange thing happened. The scene on stage had three characters – Kakasaheb (Sunil Tawade), Vyankatesh (Bhau Kadam) and Shyam (Priyadarshan Jadhav). In this scene, Kakasaheb, while reading a newspaper, sits on a wooden cot placed on the right side of the stage. As scheduled in the scene, Kakasaheb went and sat on the cot, but as he sat, the cot just broke. Fortunately by God’s grace, Kakasaheb (Sunil Tawade) was unhurt, but the audience noticed that something had gone wrong and the laughter was replaced by an uneasy silence in the auditorium.
Everybody had a question – what will happen now? An artiste’s skill and patience are always at stake in such situations. Such incidents are sort of provocative and challenging for an artist, but a skilled artist navigates smoothly even through such tricky situations. Here too, just the same thing occurred. The moment Sunil Tawade and his co-artistes realised what had gone wrong, they became more alert and adjusted marvelously among themselves. They deserve a special applause for this. Sunil Tawade ensured that the ongoing vein of the drama was not spoiled and promptly uttered a few impromptu ‘additions’ in such a style that the backstage workers also realised that something had gone wrong.
They were so alert that they entered the stage, and for a moment I thought that now they would drop the curtain or there would be a sort of sudden halt, and the rhythm or the mood of the drama would be spoiled or something like that. But thankfully nothing of that sort happened. The setting boys, without dropping the curtain, tried their best to repair the cot, but when they realised that it would not be possible to repair it, they simply lifted it and took it backstage.
Since the important prop on the stage was removed the question followed – ‘now what’? How would they continue the show? Moreover, I was equally watchful about the impact of this negative incident on the viewers, but to my pleasant surprise, the next moment, I got answers to all my questions. Near the broken cot, there was a ‘moda’ (sort of a settee). The Kakasaheb character just pushed that moda in the place of the cot, started reading the newspaper by sitting on it and maintained the continuity of the scene. In a split minute, he continued the scene in the same mood and with the same vigour, as if nothing had happened in between.
The audience, even though stunned for a moment, started viewing with the same enthusiasm. I was really impressed by the viewers’ understanding, but the story doesn’t end here.
After the interval, the cot was repaired and replaced in the same position as it was before. As it was removed from the stage with great presence of mind and by maintaining the continuity of the scene, in the same way it was brought back to the stage while the drama was going on. In a scene – as Sunil Tawade entered the stage – the backstage crew brought the cot back and placed it where it was before. At that time, Shyam says to Kakasaheb “Oh! Have you brought it back?” And Kakasaheb replied “Why should I leave it? It’s with me since my childhood, I won’t leave it like that, so I got it repaired.”
Everybody in the audience knew that this dialogue was not from the original script, yet the artists handled the whole episode so skillfully that viewers enjoyed it as a part of the drama.
The presence of mind of all the artistes was no doubt important in this peculiar episode, but more important was the patience shown by the viewers. Perhaps, this episode could have broken the link and the viewers might have taken more time to get involved in the drama again, but fortunately nothing like that happened.
Drama will continue to be alive as long as it is embraced by such vibrant and matured audiences.