Ladies Sangeet: Of Dhak Dhaks and Dilemmas

‘Ladies Sangeet’ is a play that explores the unsaid in a traditional boisterous setting

In the midst of all the dholak and dhak dhak dance practice of a ladies sangeet, Megha attempts to give her daughter a few coy tips on sex after marriage. But Radha, the daughter, is no shy virgin and needs no lesson on the subject. Instead, she asks her mother, incredulously, “Is it true that your generation of women never enjoyed sex?”

Megha, a Miranda House topper, spiritedly, holds her ground and tells her daughter that merely peppering their vocabulary with the F word doesn’t make Radha’s generation a liberated one. Ladies Sangeet, a play directed by Purva Naresh, presents the clash of generations in a stimulating, entertaining manner, no holds barred.

At the other end of the stage, Megha’s mother-in-law asserts herself through classical music. She will have no filmy item numbers at Radha’s sangeet. Love, yearning, desire…all these emotions will be expressed through the rendition of appropriate ragas, feelingly sung. “There is no mohabbat ka irada in your voice,” she scolds another grandchild who would rather emulate Kylie Minogue. “Oh, so you want me to sound sexy!” replies Rukmini and breaks into a pop-style version of grandma’s shringar ras.

Meanwhile, despite daadima’s diktat, buas and bahus of the house are practicing bosom-heaving dance steps a la Madhuri Dixit, with a bar dancer-turned junior artiste, an outcaste daughter-in-law, urging them to break free of their complexes.

It is a crazy family, in the throes of a sangeet that brings out their repressed emotions in a variety of ways. But while most of this is comical, the inner battle that Radha’s father is waging is far from humorous. The gender identity, that he has struggled with since childhood, comes to the fore in the atmosphere of merry-making and he decides to come clean with his wife and mother, thereby creating a heart-rending dilemma for his wife.

His mother, who has known of her son’s predicament all along, tries at first to suppress him as she has done before; but when she realizes that this time her dictatorial ways won’t work, she turns to music to soothe her shattered nerves. ‘Rasiya ko naar banao ri’ she sings, full-throated.

It is a song that was suggested by Shubha Mudgal for the situation, and arranged by Harpreet, a singer and guitarist himself who, interestingly, juxtaposes daadima’s classical bandishein with contemporary music.

Using both, classical and contemporary music, director Purva Naresh depicts the universality and timelessness of emotions and relationships, sometimes lightly, sometimes movingly; ably supported by a cast, comprising veterans like Lovleen Mishra, Joy Sengupta, Gopal Datt and Ketaki Thatte, youngsters like Shikha Talsania and those with powerful singing voices like Nivedita Bhargava, Trisha Kale and Harpreet. The complex, changing moods on stage are significantly enhanced by Arghya Lahiri’s sensitive lighting while the Yanytra-designed set allows for a whole host of activities that reveal how dysfunctional the family is beneath the boisterous celebrations of an impending wedding.

This is one musical that has you laughing, thinking and feeling sad in turns.

Note: Purva Naresh’s Ladies Sangeet will be performed at JBT, NCPA, Mumbai on May14 and 15; and at Kamani Auditorium, Delhi on July 9 and 10.