Theatre Review: Humare Ram - A fresh take on the epic Ramayana
Humare Ram Genre: ( Mythological drama ) Rating: 3.5 Cast: Ashutosh Rana, Rahull R Bhuchar , Danish Akhtar, Tarun Khanna, Amrita Parihar, Karan Sharma, Deepti Kumar Director: Gaurav Bhardwaj Duration: 3 hours 15 minutes Language: HindiThe Ramayana has been staged, narrated, filmed and reinvented so many times that any new theatrical interpretation has to work hard to justify its existence. Humare Ram attempts to do so by finding a fresh entry point into the ancient epic. Instead of simply retelling the familiar tale, Rahull R Bhuchar and Naresh Katyayan, uses the questions of Ram’s sons, Lav and Kush, about their father as a narrative device, while bringing in the perspective of Suryadev. It is an interesting approach, offering the audience a chance to look at a story they know intimately from a slightly different vantage point.
Where Humare Ram scores most convincingly, however, is in its sheer visual ambition. This is theatre on a grand scale, packed with elaborate costumes, dramatic lighting, music, choreography, projections and features exclusive, pre-recorded songs by Shankar Mahadevan, Sonu Nigam and Kailash Kher, among others.
At its best, the spectacle is genuinely arresting; at times, though, there is so much happening on stage that the visual excess threatens to overshadow the emotional core of the story. There are, nevertheless, moments when the spectacle serves the storytelling well. One such sequence sees Ram walk through the audience at a particularly poignant juncture and suddenly, the larger-than-life production becomes intimate, and the auditorium is filled with an unmistakable sense of emotion.
The biggest draw is undoubtedly Ashutosh Rana as Ravan. A formidable Bollywood actor, Rana brings considerable authority to the role and, importantly, refuses to play Ravan as a one-dimensional villain. His performance draws attention to the paradoxes within the character; Ravan as a learned man, a powerful ruler and an ardent devotee of Shiva, even as his arrogance and choices ultimately become his undoing.
It is this aspect of the play that is arguably more intriguing than another rendition of the battle between good and evil. By allowing us to consider Ravan's intellect, scholarship and devotion alongside his darker impulses, Hamare Ram nudges the audience towards a more nuanced understanding of a character who has been reduced, over centuries, to the convenient shorthand of ‘villain’. Rana has the theatrical heft to make those contradictions compelling.
The actors playing Hanuman, Shiva and Sita also make their presence felt, bringing sincerity and energy to their respective roles. The Lav-Kush framing gives Humare Ram its distinctive narrative quality, but it could have been explored with greater depth and not resort to grandeur and spectacle. The three-hour long drama packages a familiar story in a visually extravagant theatrical experience and occasionally succeeds in making us look at its characters differently.
Should you watch it?Yes. If you are seeking mythology as a grand visual experience, there is plenty to savour
The play is being staged at NMACC until October 18
Where Humare Ram scores most convincingly, however, is in its sheer visual ambition. This is theatre on a grand scale, packed with elaborate costumes, dramatic lighting, music, choreography, projections and features exclusive, pre-recorded songs by Shankar Mahadevan, Sonu Nigam and Kailash Kher, among others.
At its best, the spectacle is genuinely arresting; at times, though, there is so much happening on stage that the visual excess threatens to overshadow the emotional core of the story. There are, nevertheless, moments when the spectacle serves the storytelling well. One such sequence sees Ram walk through the audience at a particularly poignant juncture and suddenly, the larger-than-life production becomes intimate, and the auditorium is filled with an unmistakable sense of emotion.
The biggest draw is undoubtedly Ashutosh Rana as Ravan. A formidable Bollywood actor, Rana brings considerable authority to the role and, importantly, refuses to play Ravan as a one-dimensional villain. His performance draws attention to the paradoxes within the character; Ravan as a learned man, a powerful ruler and an ardent devotee of Shiva, even as his arrogance and choices ultimately become his undoing.
It is this aspect of the play that is arguably more intriguing than another rendition of the battle between good and evil. By allowing us to consider Ravan's intellect, scholarship and devotion alongside his darker impulses, Hamare Ram nudges the audience towards a more nuanced understanding of a character who has been reduced, over centuries, to the convenient shorthand of ‘villain’. Rana has the theatrical heft to make those contradictions compelling.
The actors playing Hanuman, Shiva and Sita also make their presence felt, bringing sincerity and energy to their respective roles. The Lav-Kush framing gives Humare Ram its distinctive narrative quality, but it could have been explored with greater depth and not resort to grandeur and spectacle. The three-hour long drama packages a familiar story in a visually extravagant theatrical experience and occasionally succeeds in making us look at its characters differently.
Should you watch it?Yes. If you are seeking mythology as a grand visual experience, there is plenty to savour
The play is being staged at NMACC until October 18
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