Engulfing the ambience with live music and fire, Absolute Dramatics Addiction (ADA) in association with BeTaal staged ‘Rashomon’ directed by Abhinav Grover, a theatre artist and an alumnus of MIT. Performed at the TMA Pai Park Amphitheatre on April 8, the play was a Yakshagana styled drama with the tagline, ‘three men, three lies’.Based on a classic Japanese crime drama film, this theatrical adaptation was directed with both philosophical as well as psychological overtones. The one hour-fifteen minute play drew a student-dominated crowd of around 250 people including Dr G K Prabhu, director, MIT and several other dignitaries.
The play opened with a woodcutter, a bhikshuk (sage) and a teesra aadmi (a commoner) discussing a murder that happened in the jungle. A notorious bandit, Tajomaro was accused to have murdered a soldier and raped his wife. The story revolved around four versions of one story and the ultimate revelation of the truth.
Members of the audience seemed bewildered with four flashbacks of the murder; Tajomaro, the soldier and his wife narrated three different stories of the incident and then the woodcutter revealed the actual story. Although the commoner announced all the stories to be false, the woodcutter’s story was relatively convincing. Focusing on the essentials of human nature the play explored the facets of truth and how it is altered according to one’s interest. Characters decked up in elaborate attire and make-up, dancing to the tunes of Yakshagana coupled with the Yakshagana Rakshasa backdrop managed to awe the audience.Aptly portraying the human instincts by highlighting the woodcutter’s theft from the crime scene and his false testimony in the court, the commoner says, “Insaan ki fitrat mein hai jhooth bolna. Insaan agar khud se sach nahin bolta toh doosron se kya bolega!” (It is human to lie. A man lies even to himself, let alone others.)
Towards the end of the play, the priest seems to lose his faith in humanity after listening to the stories. Quoting him, “Mar kar bhi jhooth bole, insaan itna bura nahin ho sakta.” (A human can’t be bad enough to lie even after death). The cries of an abandoned infant lead to a fight between the woodcutter and the commoner as the latter tries to steal the child’s shawl. The woodcutter later adopts the infant to expiate, hence restoring the priest’s belief in humanity.he event ended on a hopeful note for the student populace as the MIT Director disclosed his intention to include Theatre as an elective subject in the MIT curriculum.