All of 12, child actor Trushnika Shinde takes on the role of deaf-blind political activist Helen Keller. The work she's put in, however, suggests maturity beyond her years
Trushnika Desai has already moved to her next project, a TV serial. Pic/Nimesh Dave
The story of Helen Keller’s tumultuous life is not an easy one to tell, which is why Sampada Joglekar-Kulkarni was clear that she wouldn’t embark on it until she found the right person to portray the character. Sampada, a theatre director, ended her search when she spotted child actor Trushnika Shinde on stage, in a play titled Tumhi Amhi, a couple of years ago. “That’s when I decided to go ahead with it,” says the director, who had worked on the script of the Marathi play Kimagayar, an adaptation of William Gibson’s 1959 play, The Miracle Worker, based on Keller’s autobiography The Story of My Life.
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The Marathi version, which was penned by the late Sadashiv Amrapurkar and litterateur V V Shirwadkar in ’93, was first staged that year and later in 2014. At that time it was a mammoth 225 minute play. But, keeping in mind the dwindling attention spans, Sampada crunched it to 2 hours and 10 minutes. The play features her in the role of Helen’s strict teacher Annie Sullivan and Trushnika as the eight-year old Helen.
The 12-year-old actor did her homework well. As we catch up with her, now busy on the sets of a serial she’s shooting for, we are told that she read Shanta Shelke’s works on Keller, in addition to the original autobiography. The greater learnings, however, came from observing people. “Sampada ma’am introduced me to her friend’s daughter, who’s visually impaired. I met her, spent some time and observed how she responded to things, how she moved, spoke and so on,” Trushnika says, adding, “I also observed blind people on trains and streets, how they navigated in crowds. I learnt sign language and watched many videos of Keller to see how she reacted to things. However, the greatest challenge was to act without uttering a single word.”
The play focuses on the 14-day challenge that Annie took upon herself to calm Helen down. “Those were the most crucial days in Helen’s life. Annie’s seemingly inhuman behaviour to train Helen and how the latter responds forms the crux of the play,” Sampada says. According to her director, Trushnika’s best quality is “her ability to switch off.” “In a play like this, often the preps take a toll on you because the character is so intense. It’s incredible how she switches from reel to real in a minute. That’s most vital for an actor,” she says. The director recalls how Trushnika came back to her after reading the books and explained the character to her. “I was impressed with the way she grasped the character and its nuances.” The real life mentor-protégé equation between Sampada and Trushnika only bettered the on-stage portrayal of Annie and Helen. “Both of us even share a dance background which came in handy in one of the scenes. Me knowing Trushnika is the most beautiful stroke of destiny, which made this play possible.”
Where: Gadkari Ragayatan, Thane
When: October 20, 4.30 pm
Entry: '150, '300
Call: 25362165
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