Manaswini Murder Case (Marathi Play)

Director – Kshitish Date

Cast – Om Bhutkar, Anuja Vartak, Kshitish Date

            What happens when a terrific opening scene is followed by two hours of mental harassment? And how do you react when the audience laughs at some of the most stupid and exaggerated scenes that are to be deemed as funny? I decided to return home and then convey my ‘heartfelt gratitude’ to the makers of the play Manaswini Murder Case. 

            Shahir (Om Bhutkar) ‘murders’ Manaswini (Anuja Vartak). She lands in heaven and begs the angels to get Shahir there as well. When her wish is granted a trial of the couple begins that unravels the ‘mystical’ secrets of human expectations.

You should not be mistaken by the name (as I did expecting it to be a suspense thriller). This is the murder of a person’s ‘creativity’ (or that’s what I could make of it) when he is in pursuit of ‘intelligence’ or other human desires. It involves too much of ‘artistic thinking’ making it difficult to interpret for unintelligent commoners like me. Thus, if you could understand Qaushik Mukherjee’s ‘Gandu – The Loser’ and ‘Tasher Desh’ then this play is made for you.  

            Manaswini keeps on telling her ‘love’ to be lost in her and forget about money and prestige. In reality what happens when you are ‘extremely creative’? Observe the some of these theatre and film artists closely. Men have no money to shave (and pay the barber) and women are willing to go to any extent to grab a role. Plus, I would have been impressed if the producer applied this very logic and staged the play for free. 

            In between two serious scenes you have senseless humour that that was probably inserted to give it a commercial touch. (Or prevent it from being boring) The girl is unnecessarily assaulted on numerous occasions and the psychotic protagonist gets on your nerves every time he decides to go out in space. 

Now this artistic thinking rarely lets you look at technical aspects. However use of lights is very good. That’s some positive to take out from an otherwise horrendous experience. 

            To sum it up if you are served ‘shit’ the director will explain it like this – “It is the application of degradable botanic waste made with combustible bio-organic nutrients with a tinge of micro phobic granules of antibiotic bacteria” (Dont worry.. Even I don’t know what I have written. This is the effect of watching the play)
       

I really cannot rate this play. Beloved Samar Nakhate can. (The guy was seen scratching his beard at the end of it. No wonder what it meant!!)