Power and Priviledge Explored in 'Sakharam Binder'- By Mukta Sharangpani(India-West)

Few pics from the first show!

Article on Sakharam Binder in India West

The Sakharam Sets team at Work !!!

Sakharam Binder lives in rural small town India in a "bachelor's" house. The challenge was to build two rooms including the kitchen where the all action takes place.

It involves building and painting "flats" which are wooden structures used to signify walls and doors and windows of a house. We also had to build authentic pieces like "chulha's" to signify rural small town India. Also the house needs to have the look of an unkempt place to a certain extent with the walls being dirty, the doors being old and give it a rustic and crass look to go along with the main character of the play- Sakharam.

Rehearsal Photos - September 11, 2010

Sakharam Binder - About the Play

Vijay Tendulkar (1928 - 2008) is one of India’s finest contemporary playwrights, and SAKHARAM BINDER, written originally in Marathi in 1972, is one of his best-known plays. Sakharam, a book-binder, picks up other men's discarded women - cast-off wives who would otherwise be rendered homeless and destitute, or be murdered with impunity - and takes them in as domestic servants and sex partners. Ruling his home like a tyrant, and telling each woman she is "free to leave" whenever she wants, he does not anticipate the moral and emotional complications of this arrangement, which prove heartbreakingly ruinous to everyone involved.

 

The play was banned in 1974 because it was considered too violent and vulgar. It has since been translated into many Indian languages and staged all over the world. Prominent artists such as Amrish Puri, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Sayaji Shinde, Nilu Phule, Sulbha Deshpande and Sonali Kulkarni have been associated with the play. 

 

Cast: Rajiv Nema, Monica Mehta Chitkara, Palak Joshi, Aditya Thakur & Abhay Paranjpe 

Director: Ravi Bhatnagar

Producer: Asheesh Divetia

Playwright: Vijay Tendulkar

Dreaming of playing Sakharam for a long time....

The best place, for last so many years, for me to play Sakharam Binder has been in my car. During my daily 45-60 minutes commute each way, I have visualised and behaved like Sakharam many-a-times. When someone cut me off, or when the boss was not too happy even after I put my heart and soul in that project (and my weekends) or when the subordinate stayed mis-aligned after the nth alignment meeting.

Sakharam is raw, honest, transparent .....which very few of us are. I assure you all that I will be raw, honest, transparent for next 33 days.................as Sakharam.