BHARATI PAWASKAR
TGLife: What is ‘Sakshi’ all about? What are the three characters that you play in it?
Akhila Ramnarayan: Sakshi - Her Story traces the experience of three women characters who live through and bear witness to the atrocities of war. One, Jaratkaru, a Naga character from the Mahabharata, recounts the torching of the Khandava forest by Arjuna and Krishna, relives the massacre of her family and tribe. Jaratkaru’s narrative is adapted by playwright-director Dr Gowri Ramnarayan from Marathi poet Arun Kolatkar’s 2004 Sarpa Sutra, abrilliant free-verse retelling of Vyasa’s epic from the perspectives of both oppressor and oppressed, which inspired Dr Ramnarayan’s own music-dance-theatre production Sarpa Sutra in 2010.
The second character, Sivakami, is a fictional dancer-courtesan, a so-called devadasi from sixth-century south India during the reign of Mahendra and Narasimha Pallava, who is abducted by the Chalukya king Pulakesin II during the Pallava-Chalukya wars. The novel inspired Dr Gowri Ramnarayan’s retelling in the English play Flame of the Forest in 2007.
The third character, Chandni, is a Mogiya tribal from Rajasthan in the present time caught in complex webs of patriarchy, the law, criminal tiger poaching gangs, and the state. Her story comes from Gowri Ramnarayan’s 2012 play Night’s End.
Sakshi-Her Story was re-crafted as a one-hour monologue for a single actor from the three productions above. I have performed different roles in all three productions over the years.
In that sense, Sakshi represents my entire theatre arc from 2007 till the present.
Could you recall the first time when you performed ‘Sakshi’ and the journey since then?
AR: A journey to remember! The pressure was obviously on, for this was a performance connected to the acceptance of a national award for theatre and in the category of acting! Fortunately, I had worked on all three productions from which the three characters are derived in different capacities, and had already internalised the script. We managed with borrowed properties and accessories in the last minute. Dancer-choreographer Sheejith Krishna, who agreed to be the lighting designer, was also intimately familiar with all three productions, so was able to manage without rehearsal!
How many shows of Sakshi have been staged and where?
AR: We’ve staged Sakshi in Agartala (2015), Chennai (twice in 2017), and Hyderabad (2018).
What I am particularly looking forward to with the August 11 performance in Goa, at Gallery Gitanjali, is the opportunity to engage with clinical psychologist and writer Dr Amrita Narayanan, whose expertise as a researcher, practitioner, and author will help us see Sakshi in an entirely different way.
What is the feedback from the audience? Do they relate with these stories?
AR: Audience reactions have been thoughtful and thought-provoking, especially from women. Audiences recognise the themes of survival and strength that emerge in contexts of gendered violence, the violence of patriarchy and the state. People have marvelled at how Dr Gowri Ramnarayan paints characters and retells their stories to bring these larger themes home. One woman in the audience found the play ‘profound and perpetually relevant. A few egos
get bruised, a massive war follows, and the egomaniacs toss into the war all the lives they should, in fact, protect.’
One viewer called it a theatre presentation with true insights on human nature, and on the relationship between humans and the natural world. Another reflected on the agony of displacement. A perceptive sixteen-year-old said that though there’s a common thread of war and suffering, each character is unique, has her own struggles in the face of violence. Some have commented on the interplay of music, movement, and dialogue. Some were moved to tears.
Gowri Ramnarayan plays two different connecting roles in your life - one, as your mother and as a professional playwright. What have you learnt from her?
AR: My mother has always been my teacher. She has taught me to be a careful reader, an attentive listener and sensitive respondent to the world around me. As her actor, I trust her direction and vision. The mother-daughter equation does not exist for us when we work together professionally. And yet, it forms the foundation of that trust.
Do you live the character when you play it on the stage?
AR: There is no need for abstract philosophy, really. The truth about acting is quite simple. Unless I feel--feel for--the characters I play, you will not be able to feel their presence or predicaments.
With the script for counsel and director as my witness, all the characters I inhabit become my friends. I care about them intensely, in their most likable and unlikable moments. Internalising, absorbing by osmosis, intuiting their needs is a key component of my process. Connectedness is a given.
