Charshe Koti Visarbhole
Directed by: Mohit Takalkar, Language: Marathi
The play opens with Narada – the mythological sage, who is famous for his closeness to the God as well as his habit of playing mischief, Maruti and Ashwatthama, two characters from Indian epics who are immortals. However there is a major difference in their respective immortality – Maruti has got it as a boon while Ashwatthama has got it as a curse. We come to know that they have a custom of meeting after two hundred years and they are meeting now after such a period.
They are in an office of a businessman – Sudhir. They look on at the proceedings with bored detachment. Suddenly there is an accident outside in which a young boy gets injured, but nobody from the office shows any concern. Maruti and Ashwatthama get disturbed at this callousness. Narada informs them that there is no need to get disturbed. He tells them that in 3985 medical science is so developed that there is no natural, accidental or illness death any more. Now the Central Computer allots every newborn child a specific amount of life. Then the child is given free education. The mode of exchange – currency – now is life span. Every adult is supposed to work after education and in return gets more life (in stead of money). All the exchanges happen using the life span instead of money. It is an extreme condition of capitalism. What they see is ruthless competition all round as if one does not earn enough one simply dies – when his/her spending is more than their earning. There is no other death as all the diseases have a cure, all the body parts have replacements – thereby eliminating aging as well.
The duo initially are not interested. But when they see Sudhir, the capitalist behaving very badly and exploitatively they get angry. Narada instigates them into activity by challenging their honour. He makes them realize that now Maruti and Ashwatthama happen to be the richest people. They have never-ending supply of life i.e. money. He also tells them that this is a good chance for them to get over their eternal boredom. The result is that they get interested and start taking part in the business activities. They start a company – Maruti Ashwatthama and Associates. To start with they are just reckless and do it as a game but slowly they get more and more involved. As they have a never ending supply of life it is very difficult for anybody else to compete with them. What ensues is a ruthless struggle for existence. Sudhir tries to manipulate the central controlling computer, as that is the only way to fight Maruti and Ashwatthama.
The play ends as bizarrely as it starts by the entire human race thrown back by 2000 years – into 1985. Nobody even realizes that they have suddenly been shifted in time and have a new set of memory. The relationship between time and memory, and the limitations of human understanding are revealed to Maruti and Ashwatthama who are dumbfounded at seeing the people around them playing this game of life with as much zeal as ever even under this changed conditions. They are back to where they were but for them everything has changed in this absurd existence – at least for the time being!
