Marathi actor gets threats for playing Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse

Sharad Ponkshe and Vivek Joshi in Hey Ram NathuramOn January 11 some time after Marathi actor Sharad Ponkshe took to stage to perform his most infamous role at a theatre hall in Sindhurhurg the audience broke into collective frenzy The seasoned actor who until then had seized everybodyrsquos attention with his dramatisation of Mahatma Gandhirsquos assassin Nathuram Vinayak Godse remembers being distracted by two women who stood up and hurled two bottles of ink at him ldquoThe ink was all over my costumerdquo he recallsJust then somebody in the audience screamed out ldquoBapu hum sharminda hain tumhara kaatil zinda hain Bapu we are embarrassed your murderer is still aliverdquoAmused that the audience actually saw him as Godse Ponkshe continued with the scene even as security hauled this willful unwanted cast out of the hall ldquoHow could I have killed Gandhi Gandhiji died in 1948 I was born in 1966 Why say things that have you look stupidrdquo he saysPonkshe though isnrsquot new to the politics of hate Having played Indian historyrsquos most disliked antagonist Godse for nearly 19 years mdash first in the controversial Marathi drama Me Nathuram Godse Boltoy later in the 2000 period film Hey Ram and most recently in a play that he scripted mdash the actor has faced repeated threats to the point that he has become indifferent ldquoIt hasnrsquot stopped me from playing Godse It never willrdquo he says Only last week Nationalist Congress Party workers clashed with Shiv Sainiks over the staging of the play in NagpurPic Nimesh DaveCurrently in Mumbai to prepare for the 50th show of his new play Hey Ram Nathuram Ponkshe tells us why Godse is still evolving as Indiarsquos antihero The fact that January 30 marks the 69th year since Godse pulled the trigger isnrsquot lost to the actorldquoHistory text books reduced his life to one sentence The man who assassinated Gandhi But he has such a fascinating storyrdquoItrsquos this obsession with Godsersquos story that pushed him to write a new play Two years ago after running to packed houses for 17 years and completing 817 shows when Me Nathuram Godse Boltoyrsquos successful stint was brought to an abrupt end by its producer Ponkshe was the unhappiest ldquoI thought I had at least four more years to play Godserdquo says Ponkshe 51 who first played the character when he was 32 ldquoBut the producer was donehelliphe didnrsquot want to stage it ever againrdquo the actor adds So Ponkshe decided to write it himselfWith Hey Ram Nathuram he says he got the opportunity to revisit Godse Ponkshe prefers describing the play as a sequel Like the previous one the plot is set right after Gandhi was killed with Godse laying bare his reasons for committing the crime ldquoI have opted for a more realistic approach and made him look less herolikerdquo says Ponkshe One interesting addition is a scene where Ramdas Gandhi and Godse meet just eight days before the latter is hanged ldquoRamdas had pleaded for commutation of the death penalty But the two never met in their lifetime They were always in touch through letters I brought those letters to life with this imagined scenerdquo he saysPonkshe who is a Shiv Sainik like the character he plays is unabashedly proHindutva Itrsquos not tough to imagine him as Godse when he speaks of Gandhi ldquoYes Gandhiji was a great man But we forget he was human Donrsquot human beings make mistakes And mistakes made by great human beings have devastating repercussionsrdquo he saysldquoGandhiji wanted to unite Hindus and Muslims And he would repeatedly go on hunger strikes to ensure that it happened But history is proof that these two groups were dissimilar in ideology They wanted different things and this resulted in a lot of bloodshedrdquo says the playwright While not supporting Godsersquos line of action he insists that history needs to investigate why Gandhirsquos assassin did what he didldquoBecause I have been involved with Godsersquos character for such a long time I felt the need to read up on his motivation I read the Bible Quran and several books on Gandhi and Godse It gave me a 360degree view of the person I had to playrdquo he says ldquoGodse was himself a Gandhi bhakt But somewhere down the line things got ugly after Partition Gandhijirsquos open support for Muslims didnrsquot go down well with himrdquoWhen Godse died his only request was that he be allowed to hold the Bhagwad Gita and the saffron flag representing undivided India This last haunting scene is also revisited in Ponkshersquos new play Without delving deeper into the politics of Godse Ponkshe ends by saying that the antagonist wasnrsquot a rebel without a cause