A 700-year-old tradition from Maharashtra finds a new voice in Datta Patil’s Kalgitura, which is now translated for a cosmopolitan audience at its next showcase
Scenes from the play. PICS COURTESY/DATTA PATIL
The feud is as old as time itself. It merely acquires different terms. This weekend, the audience at a SoBo venue will spend an evening with songs that trace their origins back to traditions that saw philosophy, literature, religion and social awareness discussed in song. Having opened at the National Centre for Performing Arts in 2023, Datta Patil’s award-winning play, directed by Sachin Shinde, returns to the venue on September 28, this time armed with English subtitles for a new audience.
A traditional Marathi speaker would recognise the word as a term often used for conflicts or spat. “It actually is the combination of two words. Kalgi refers to the Goddess Parvati, and Tura refers to the God, Shiva. It is a folk tradition prevalent in the little hamlets around Vidarbha, Konkan, Marathwada, and Khandesh regions. It is performed across the many dialects of the Marathi language,” explains Patil, who would witness these performances growing up in the village of Umrane, 80 kms from Nashik.
The performance would involve farmers, ironsmiths, bakers, and all the villagers divided into two groups of Kalgi or Tura — worshippers of Shakti (the feminine, soul) or Shiva (the masculine, time). “They would recite songs and playfully raise questions that were not just religious, but social in context,” the playwright explains. Tracing back to the era of the Bhakti poets and saints like Jnaneshwar, Sant Tukaram and others, the tradition also flows into the lok shahiri tradition of the state. It is not limited to religion either. The playwright points to the shahir duo of Nathu-Mohammed who would write shahirs or poems for many such kalgituras. “Even for funerals, people would sing these songs, almost as a therapy for the grieving family,” he explains.
Datta Patil
“It changed with globalisation. The villages changed. The generation that sung and composed these rhythms, was slowly fading away,” he adds. When the villagers bonded to rediscover, and restart the tradition in 2010, Patil turned to it as the seed for his play. For the playwright credited for productions like Handabhar Chandanya and To Rajhans Ek, this was a moment of cultural revival. “Its revival, though small, was a spark that interested me.”
It took Patil 13 almost years to research, and craft a play that raised questions where the personal and social intermingled into a unified experience. “We have included 19 songs, from a single line to dohas [couplets] to long stanzas. Some were traditional and sourced, while I wrote a few in the same meters, to capture the tradition,” he adds.
Having swept multiple awards, and travelled extensively, the play returns to Mumbai. This time, it is armed with language. “The dialects in the play are many, and often different even to the native Marathi speaker in Mumbai. There are nuances in a language that can only be conveyed in some dialects,” laughs Patil. Hence, audiences at the show will be able to witness and read along a translated English version on the teleprompter.
“It is necessary since curiosity about the play, its cultural context, and relevance has to be conveyed. It is not just about a tradition, but the nature of art and its involvement in social life, past and present,” Patil concludes.
ON September 28; 7 pm
AT NCPA, Nariman Point.
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COST Rs 450 onwards
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