Begum Barve is considered one of the most unusual and complicated works in Marathi theatre. Scholars have made it the subject of PhDs, and books have been published on Pune-based Satish Alekar’s play. It is one of the reasons Alekar is counted among India’s top playwrights. Yet, Begum Barve has never been commercially successful. Since its first production in 1979, there have been fewer than 55 shows.

Actor Gaurav Kanekar, who has performed in Sony Marathi’s Bheti Lagi Jeva, Zee Yuva’s Aamhi Doghi, and Star Pravah’s Sahakutum Sahaparivar on television, encountered Begun Barve as a final year student of Lalit Kala Kendra Gurukul, Savitribai Phule Pune University.

As he fell under the spell of the abstract, tragicomedy, Kanekar decided to present this play during the final year of his post-graduation study. His hour-long student production, in which Kanekar covered only Act I of the play, has paved the way for a revival of Begum Barve on stage, giving theatre-goers in the city a chance to watch the classic. The play will be presented at the Bharat Natya Mandir at 6 pm on June 6.

Begum Barve revolves around four male characters. Barve used to be a famous female impersonator actor from the era of Sangeet Natak. But now, he makes a living by selling incense sticks. Shamrao is a tonga driver who used to have a mare named Begum. Now, Shamrao has lost the strength in his legs and limps through life, dependent on Barve. The two men live in the darkness beneath a staircase of a chawl. In small rooms nearby live the other two protagonists, Jawadekar and Bawadekar, who are clerks at a government office. Jawadekar nurtures feelings for a colleague while Bawadekar is attracted to the Collector’s daughter. But they do not have the courage to turn their private daydreams into reality. One night, Jawadekar and Bawadekar see Barve in his female guise and become entranced. As they readily enter into an illusory world of fantasy and hallucinations, the atmosphere becomes tense, sticky, and fraught.

“It took me more than a month to decode the scenes. Decoding the characters was another challenge,” says Kanekar. He has attempted to bring alive the confluence of fantasies, desires, sexuality, and the lingering contrast between art and mediocrity that surrounds the play.

“People laugh at the comic situations of the play, but the lasting impact of the writing is to provoke thought. We wonder at whom we laughed and why?” says Kanekar. Among the challenges was that Begum Barve has no female character, only the dynamics of the four men and their fantasies. “It is a mark of Alekar’s genius that he wrote this play with sensitivity long before the gender discourse had entered the popular vocabulary. This is one of the reasons Begum Barve is a great work of art,” says Kanekar.