Deepa Gahlot: For Chanakya, a thousand times over

Mohan Joshi as Chanakya towers over the stage in his white garb and fierce oratory On Sunday he performed the role for the 998th time to a packed houseFor a play to reach the 1000show milestone is rare Manoj Joshirsquos Chanakya is two shows away from getting there The 998th show on Sunday was packed which is quite an achievement too It is not an easy play to follow particularly now when most peoplersquos proficiency in Hindi has dipped alarmingly at a time when most speak a strange hybrid of HindiEnglishregional languages characters in Chanakya speak a Sanskritised Hindi that sounds like music to the ear constantly assailed by gibberishConsidering his many achievements Chanakya is not as wellknown as he should be mdash his name is attached to that of Chandragupta Maurya mdash but the mighty ruler was just one of his creations Joshi working from Mihir Bhutarsquos excellent script paints Chanakya as a patriot who dreamt of a united India and did whatever it took to achieve it even if his methods seemed deviousVishnugupt or Kautilya was a philosopher economist he wrote the Arthashastra and political strategist who picked Chandragupta illegitimate son of the king Mahananda and a lowercaste woman Mora steered him to the throne and the establishment of the Maurya dynastyIn the play Chanakya leaves Takshila and comes to Magadh at the time when Alexander the Great is on his conquering spree His information gathering through his network of students and spies is impeccable his instinct and foresight unerring Manoj Joshi plays him with an air of authority tinged with cruelty as well as humour He has been playing the role for 26 years now travelling all over India and abroad with this production without any signs of flagging energyChankya finds Dhanananda the king of Magadh a dissolute drunk who had married Chandraguptarsquos beloved and found an excuse to sentence him to death Chanakya finds in Chandragupta Rajeev Bharadwaj the qualities of a ruler and starts engineering his rise to power He makes a vow not to tie the knot in his Brahminrsquos shikha till he has accomplished his goal He encourages Chandragupta to kill Dhanananda with the help of his disgruntled wife and then so as to keep Chandragupta focussed on his goal has her murdered The only one to oppose Chanakya is Magadhrsquos loyal guru Acharya Rakshas Ashok BanthiaThe greedy Dhanananda had weapons made for Alexanderrsquos army Chanakya predicted the exit of the Greek conqueror and had the arms diverted to a group of forest dwelling tribes He got them trained in warfare and made them the backbone of Chandraguptarsquos army He also manoeuvred to attack Magadhrsquos neighbouring kingdoms with the help of the king of Nepal promising him the kingdom of Kalinga in return The king is smart enough to know that Chanakya is quite capable of breaking the treaty and tries to ally with Rakshas only to be outwitted by ChanakyaIt is a fascinating study of a man whose political acumen is admirable and ambition unshakeable mdash not for himself but for the country Joshi slips in comments about what an ideal ruler should be like and also the aheadofitstime idea that if lsquodharmarsquo comes in the way of doing the right thing it should be abandoned In a rigidly castebased society he gives tribals a high status by making them warriors and even trains a tribal woman to become a lsquovishkanyarsquo Women who were fed small doses of poison till contact with them could killThe play with its simple sets and rich costumes runs for nearly three hours but is so gripping that the length does not pall neither does the heavy language which the actors speak with remarkable ease mdash it must have taken hours of rehearsal and the many shows to utter those tonguetwisting words with such ease It is structured almost like a thriller so that every time Chanakya notches up a victory the audience applaudsJoshi towers over the stage in his white garb and fierce oratory He has been playing Chanakya on stage for so long taking breaks to do films and TV and returning to this immortal character out of historyChanakya has made an appearance in the 1991 TV serial directed by Chandraprakash Dwivedi in which he also played the title role but somehow the play has outlived the serial The writings and ideas of Chanakya of course will outlive them allDeepa Gahlot is an awardwinning film and theatre critic and an arts administrator She tweets deepagahlot Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycom