Event Info
- Language: Marathi
- City / State: Mumbai (Maharashtra)
- Directed By: Prajakt Deshmukh
- Produced By: Bhadrakali Productions
Karunashtake
Karunashtake
Set in late 19th-century Nashik, Karunashtake is a poetic meditation on womanhood, widowhood, and the silences imposed upon both. Within a world governed by ritual and restraint, grief becomes a language, and mourning turns into a subtle act of defiance. Through rhythm, memory, and music, the play explores how collective sorrow can transform into awakening.
Set in late 19th-century Nashik, Karunashtake is a poetic meditation on womanhood, widowhood, and the silences imposed upon both.
Within a world governed by ritual and restraint, grief becomes a language, and mourning turns into a subtle act of defiance. Through rhythm, memory, and music, the play explores how collective sorrow can transform into awakening. Neither historical nor mythical, Karunashtake stands as an elegy and an uprising. A hymn to the unseen strength of women who dared to feel, remember, and endure.
Directed By Prajakt Deshmukh
Produced By Bhadrakali Productions
Cast-
Vinayak Chavan as Madhav (& Multiple roles)
Pratiksha Khasnis as Yami
Ketki Saraf as Godakka
Madhuri Bharti as Shanta
Kiran Khoje as Sindhu
Kalyani Mule as Devaki
Parna Pethe as Durga
Geetanjali Kulkarni as Baibai
Crew-
Music : Anand Oak
Lighting Design : Prafull Dixit
Set Design : Sachin Gaokar
Costumes : Ashish Deshpande
Movements and Music : Sanjukta Wagh (Goda Gautami Song)
Makeup : Sachin Warik
Assistant Director : Pranav Sapkale
Shlokas : Shri Samarth Ramdas Swami
Production Managers : Ajit Sarambalkar and Shrikar Kulkarni
Dance Direction Assistance : Prachi Sati
Music Coordination : Saurabh Kulkarni
Musicians : Sandeep Kadam, Dinesh Mojad, Rasik Kulkarni, Yogesh More, Kiran Virkar
Chorus : Parinita, Darshana, Mansi, Dnyaneshwari, Sanskriti, Vishakha, Amoghi, Suraj, Swanand, Abhijit
Sound Recording : Shubham Joshi - Feather Touch Studio; Jagdish, Kunal - Apostrophe Studio; Vivek Kambli; Anand - Harmony Studio
Sound Mixing : Abhishek Dandekar
Sound Operations : Ruchir Chavan, Atul Padave
Background Cues : Rupesh Dudam, Akshay Gaikwad
Set Assistance : Dinesh Mestri, Santosh Patekar
Set Construction : Prakash Parab and team
Lighting Assistance : Devidas Shivgan, Nikhil Satopte
Karunashtake is set in the late nineteenth century; yet it refuses to stay in the past. Inside a settlement ruled by ritual, fear, and inherited authority, the play stages an uneasy dialogue between radicalised religion and the language of the present. At its centre stands Baibai - not a villain, but a custodian of a system that mistakes order for morality and discipline for devotion. Power arrives as custom, as duty, as “what must be done.” The women: Durga, Shanta, Devaki, Godakka, Yami, and Sindhu, negotiate survival within this machinery. Hair, ritual, and prayer become tools of control. The play asks: have we changed, or only softened the vocabulary of exclusion?