The Nagpur experience had made us aware that in a well-enacted play all the characters have to be good, it would not do have only one or two good actors as happened the case with our Solapur drama circles. Most of the other actors in our groups were aspirants with very little talent, and the this affected the overall impact of the play.
After we came back from Nagpur, we had a brainstorming session on this, and the one idea that came up was to combine three to four amateur groups together to make a team of only good actors, to get a good director and a good script to compete with the best the next state drama competitions. As I and Arwind had worked with about four groups in Solapur, we had contacts and could start working in this direction.
Not that it was all an easy task-it took a lot of effort to take care of egos involved in a joint venture, but we had an agreement. The next problem was of a suitable script. The new composition had four good actors (all heroes in their respective groups) and no sidekicks. There was not a single script that we could find which would do justice to this phenomenon. After a lot of deliberation, we decided to write a fresh script ourselves. We knew the agenda, so we started with a cast of four heroes and one heroine. As to the villain and a side-kick, we got an old friend to the villain's role, and Arwind graciously accepted to be the sidekick-he too, was a good actor.
Having settled the matters thus, we started the search of a heroine. As the competition rules allowed the team to borrow a professional actor for the purpose, we had no problems on that score. The only problem was the cost of importing an actress from Pune, and organising her stay at Solapur for the rehearsals. Prakash Yelgulwar (who later became an MLA from Solapur and is now active in Solapur politics) solved both these problems. He was also one of the heroes of the drama.
Writing 'Al Komero' was one of most enjoyable experiences in my life. Though based on the life of Patty Hearst, we had changed the location to South America, and did a lot of research into the happenings there. We did work on the people, economy, social life and many other issues. We inserted in the play authentic sounding place names like 'San Marco' and so on. On the whole, it was a rewarding experience. The play had to end a tragedy-there was no other logical end possible.
When we read the entire play in a sitting in the group, there were cheers all round. We staged it with enthusiasm, and I was very happy as a young writer would be-the director did not interfere with a single line of the script. The only thing I remember now, is that after a few days of rehearsal, we found out that the length of the play was slightly less than what the rules said-we needed to extend the play-either by adding a few scenes or revising the script. This was a problem as the script was very tight, and did not have any scope of extension.
We toyed with the idea of giving more insight into the life in Al Komero (the fictitious state) but found that it would need additional actors, and sets, both of which was not acceptable. After two days of heated discussions, Arwind hit upon the idea of writing a soliloquy for the heroine. I still remember the day. It was about 4.00 PM, and the discussion took place in the front part of first floor of our house, a place that was free from disturbance from the rest of the house. We talked about what would be the content and so on, and suddenly I hit upon the idea of writing it like a poem. Then I said, give me a day, and it will be done.
I spent a good part of that night in writing up the soliloquy, and it turned out to be the best part of the entire drama. I had written poetry earlier in my college days (I was actually known in JJ as 'The Poet", and I remember people trying to avoid me if I had as much as a piece of paper in my hand). The difference was I was writing this on a theme, and the theme here had to relate to the transformation of the heroine from the high society girl to a sympathizer of Al Komero activists.
Writing this brought me back to the question of politics. As I look back now, it seems that I was trying to put everything I saw as the new entrant to study circles-issues of unequal distribution of wealth, poverty & injustice and so on-and the vision of a new world order based on equality. It seems all a bit naive now, but the attempt was sincere.
I shifted to Aurangabad to start a different career, and all this suddenly came to an end. But my political career extended there in a way I had not foreseen.
After we came back from Nagpur, we had a brainstorming session on this, and the one idea that came up was to combine three to four amateur groups together to make a team of only good actors, to get a good director and a good script to compete with the best the next state drama competitions. As I and Arwind had worked with about four groups in Solapur, we had contacts and could start working in this direction.
Not that it was all an easy task-it took a lot of effort to take care of egos involved in a joint venture, but we had an agreement. The next problem was of a suitable script. The new composition had four good actors (all heroes in their respective groups) and no sidekicks. There was not a single script that we could find which would do justice to this phenomenon. After a lot of deliberation, we decided to write a fresh script ourselves. We knew the agenda, so we started with a cast of four heroes and one heroine. As to the villain and a side-kick, we got an old friend to the villain's role, and Arwind graciously accepted to be the sidekick-he too, was a good actor.
Having settled the matters thus, we started the search of a heroine. As the competition rules allowed the team to borrow a professional actor for the purpose, we had no problems on that score. The only problem was the cost of importing an actress from Pune, and organising her stay at Solapur for the rehearsals. Prakash Yelgulwar (who later became an MLA from Solapur and is now active in Solapur politics) solved both these problems. He was also one of the heroes of the drama.
Writing 'Al Komero' was one of most enjoyable experiences in my life. Though based on the life of Patty Hearst, we had changed the location to South America, and did a lot of research into the happenings there. We did work on the people, economy, social life and many other issues. We inserted in the play authentic sounding place names like 'San Marco' and so on. On the whole, it was a rewarding experience. The play had to end a tragedy-there was no other logical end possible.
When we read the entire play in a sitting in the group, there were cheers all round. We staged it with enthusiasm, and I was very happy as a young writer would be-the director did not interfere with a single line of the script. The only thing I remember now, is that after a few days of rehearsal, we found out that the length of the play was slightly less than what the rules said-we needed to extend the play-either by adding a few scenes or revising the script. This was a problem as the script was very tight, and did not have any scope of extension.
We toyed with the idea of giving more insight into the life in Al Komero (the fictitious state) but found that it would need additional actors, and sets, both of which was not acceptable. After two days of heated discussions, Arwind hit upon the idea of writing a soliloquy for the heroine. I still remember the day. It was about 4.00 PM, and the discussion took place in the front part of first floor of our house, a place that was free from disturbance from the rest of the house. We talked about what would be the content and so on, and suddenly I hit upon the idea of writing it like a poem. Then I said, give me a day, and it will be done.
I spent a good part of that night in writing up the soliloquy, and it turned out to be the best part of the entire drama. I had written poetry earlier in my college days (I was actually known in JJ as 'The Poet", and I remember people trying to avoid me if I had as much as a piece of paper in my hand). The difference was I was writing this on a theme, and the theme here had to relate to the transformation of the heroine from the high society girl to a sympathizer of Al Komero activists.
Writing this brought me back to the question of politics. As I look back now, it seems that I was trying to put everything I saw as the new entrant to study circles-issues of unequal distribution of wealth, poverty & injustice and so on-and the vision of a new world order based on equality. It seems all a bit naive now, but the attempt was sincere.
I shifted to Aurangabad to start a different career, and all this suddenly came to an end. But my political career extended there in a way I had not foreseen.
