Sisterhood of the bickering wives
Updated On: 28 July, 2019 05:50 AM IST | Mumbai | sumedha raikar mhatre
A two-act musical that has travelled the length and breadth of Maharashtra, brings to stage the mythical but scintillating dialogue between the spurned spouses of Lord Vitthal and Saint Tukaram

Pradeep Mulye's set locates the action in neat mimes, with bhakris made in real time
Lord Vitthal sends his wife Rukmini to take care of Saint Tukaram's pregnant wife Aavali whose foot has been pricked by a thorn. Nursing Aavali is no easy task, because she is the same irritable self that she has always been—using cuss words to blame her husband (and his Lord Vitthal) for her penury. Goddess Rukmini, initially unwilling to take on the avatar of a maid (Lakhumai), agrees to stay under a common (leaky) roof and eventually shares a strange love-hate bond with Aavali. Neither women are happy, and neither of their husbands has the time or bandwidth to suggest solutions. As the two men are present only in spirit, women rule the stage. They squabble, shout, argue, laugh, complain, talk and sing together. For two hours, two bickering women—played by Shubhangi Sadavarte and Manasi Joshi—take charge of the show in Bhadrakali Production's two-act musical play, Sangeet Devbabhli.
The play has completed 275-odd shows in a span of two years. The musical, written-directed by Nashik-based Prajakt Deshmukh, has won 39 awards. It has also been included in the First Year graduate arts course of an autonomous college in Ratnagri, and earned a mention in the Forbes magazine's list of discussed plays. Very rarely do one-acts—this one was scripted for Theatre Academy's Rangasangeet 2017 one-act competition—transition into successful professional plays, running uninterruptedly in the monsoon and mayhem alike, across Maharashtra, Goa and Madhya Pradesh. The play, as part of the 8th Theatre Olympics, was also recently performed in Delhi to a global audience.
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