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Bhaskar Chandavarkar Music Director Bom in 1936. One of India’s premiere musicians, has performed, lectured and taught Indian music worldwide. An accomplished Sitar player, his concerts follow traditional and pure raga forms of Northern India. As a composer, he has been praised for his inventive musical scores for films, theatre and dance among them Mudrarakshasa, a Sanskrit play staged in East Germany, and Kalidasa’s Shakuntala. □

Krishnadev Mulgund Choreographer Bom in 1911 in Pune, he was never formally trained in dancing but was inspired by the dance performances of Ram Gopal, Uday Shankar, Natarajan and Inderdevji Dutta. He has directed a variety of group folk dances and dance dramas based on classical Sanskrit plays like Shankuntala and Swapnavasawdatta. A dance and drawing teacher at the Bhave High School, he was awarded the Bombay Art Society’s prize for ’Still Life’ painting. □

Mohan Agashe Actor The role of Nana Phadnavis, the elegantly sinister Chancellor of Pune, is brilliantly performed by the renowned Mohan Agashe. Bom in 1947, this talented actor holds an M. D. (in Psychiatry), and practices at Sassoon Hospital. Currently President of the Theatre Academy of Pune, he has also performed in many

films, including award-winning films of Satyajit Ray and Shyam Benegal. He was awarded the Horni Bhabha Fellowship in 1985. □

Ghashiram Kotwal Scenewise Synopsis Act 1 1. Traditional Invocation to the God Ganesha. He has the head of an elephant on a human body, in Hindu Mythology. 2. The Sutradhar, or Narrator, introduces the Brahmins of Poona, the intellectuals, the privileged class, supposedly pious and virtuous. 3. The Sutradhar confronts a Brahmin sneaking off to Bavankhani, the red light area. 4. The Sutradhar questions the nobles who are also heading for the Bavankhani, under the pretense of going to a religious discourse. The entire elite frequents this famous red light area. 5. Gulabi entertains the gathered nobility with romantic and erotic song and dance. Ghashiram is her servant. A typical Brahmin housewife anxiously awaits her lord and master, the hour being past midnight. 6. Enter Nana Phadnavis, the Chancellor, While dancing with Gulabi, he sprains his ankle. Ghashiram offers him aid, and declines any reward. 7. Ghashiram introduces himself to Nana. Gulabi, piqued at Nana’s interest, explains that she had hired him as an odd job man. Nana rewards him with a costly necklace. Dawn is breaking, the city awakens, the nobles wend their way home. 8. Gulabi claims the necklace. When Ghashiram resists, she has him beaten up and thrown out. 9. Ghashiram turns up at a feast in honour of Brahmins. Though a Brahmin, he is refused entry. At the same time, the greedy Brahmins vie with each other to usher in a British Officer, 10. A Brahmin discovers his pocket has been picked. The Police and the Brahmins, suspecting Ghashiram, promptly beat him up and throw him in a cell. 11. The Sutradhar comes upon Ghashiram, and advises him to leave Poona or else fall in line.

12. The embittered Ghashiram swears vengeance on the Poona Brahmins for his humiliation. 13. The Festival of Ganesh at Nana’s palace. The gentry have assembled. The music changes from devotional to erotic, as Nana feasts his eyes on the assembled ladies, a young girl in particular. 14. The girl escapes Nana’s clutches and instead she runs into Ghashiram, who has found service in Nana’s palace. 15. Ghashiram promises to bring Nana’s prey back to him. 16. The girl, Lalitagauri, is delivered to Nana, and Nana begins his seduction. 17. Ghashiram is exultant, knowing he has Nana hooked, for the girl is his own daughter. His triumph is mixed with self-loathing. Nana is completely besotted, neglects everything in his dalliance with Gauri. 18. Ghashiram now blackmails Nana, threatening to take Gauri away. Nana insists on having her for some more time. Ghashiram suggests the only way out - appointment as Kotwal, Chief of Police. 19. Nana agrees, reluctantly, and issues edicts appointing Ghashiram Chief of Police, and Ghashiram in turn keeps his bargain. Act II 1. Opens with the invocation to Lord Ganesh, but the invocation is now desultory, reflecting the mood of the populace. While Nana dallies with Gauri, Ghashiram issues frightening edicts. Permits are now required for even cremating corpses. Eating food cooked by a person of Lower caste, Butchering goats, Abortion, Pimping, Adultery, Theft, Polyandry, Suicide, all are prohibited - the list is endless. The prisons overflow, the populace is terror stricken Ghashiram’s writ runs large, while Nana is engrossed with Gauri. 2. The Kotwal stops the Narrator, who is out late at night. His explanation that he is off to summon a midwife since his wife is in labour, is deemed insufficient cause for breaking the Kotwal’s curfew. 3. Sounds of a Brahmin, in bed with his own wife infuriate the Kotwal, who browbeats the neighbours into testifying she is not his wife, and imprisons the unfortunate couple. Ghashirara’s tyranny grows, but he has Nana’s backing. 4. Holi, the festival of colour. Nana and Gauri, infatuated, enjoy Gulabi’s dance, while Kotwal ordains that barring one’s spouse, colour is not to be splashed on anyone.

This dampens the traditional joy of this Festival. 5. A distraught woman interrupts Nana in his dalliance, with a complaint against the Kotwal’s tyranny. Nana has her driven out, and bars anyone from approaching him. Time passes, and the Feast for the Brahmins comes again. 6. Again, a Brahmin whose pocket is picked, accuses another of theft, Ghashiram has him arrested, and when he professes innocence, forces him to undergo the dreaded Trial by Fire. The rituals of the ordeal are initiated - the man’s fingernails are extracted, his hands are washed with lime and soap. The hands are bathed in oil, and a white hot ball of iron is placed on them - the superstition being that if the man is innocent, the skin will not blister. 7. The tormented man confesses his ’crime’, and the jubilant Kotwal orders his hands chopped off. The Brahmin lays a curse on Ghashiram that he will become childless, and suffer a horrible death. The whole Pune trembles, people jailed without reason, executed without reason, Ghashiram’s tyranny grows, while Nana is unconcerned. 8. The Sutradhar encounters a Brahmin, who reveals he is on his way to solemnise Nana’s seventh wedding. The whole of Pune goes to Nana’s wedding. 9. Nana’s palace; the wedding ceremony takes place with great fanfare. The bride is a young girl, bought with a handsome dowry. 10. Ghashiram accosts Nana while he is with his terrified bride, and demands to know his daughter’s whereabouts. Nana informs him, under duress, that she is with a midwife. 11. Ghashiram discovers his daughter Gauri buried, dead in childbirth. At her grave Nana counsels forbearance pointing out to Ghashiram that life is but an illusion, humans are puppets in the hands of God, but while on the Earth, the dignity of both the office of Kotwal, and of his patrons, must at all costs be maintained. 12. Ghashiram, heartbroken, turns to go, but Nana forces him to bow before him, reiterating as it were, his supremacy. Ghashiram does so. 13. Nana orders Gauri’s corpse flung into the river, and goes, back to his new bride'. Gauri has gone, Nana remains, the old order continues. 14. The demented Kotwal turns sadist. For an imagined slight, he murders an unfortunate innocent. 15. The Sutradhar meets some poor Brahmins from South India, who