Kasturba, the woman behind Mahatma Gandhi's success and therefore that of the success of India's Freedom struggle, is mostly a forgotten character in today's India.
Kasturba, the woman behind Mahatma Gandhi’s success and therefore that of the success of India's Freedom struggle, is mostly a forgotten character in today's India. Largely relegated to the footnotes of Mahatma’s life story.
Probably, that has been her real contribution – keeping limelight on her husband. Perhaps that's what a ‘Sanatani Hindu’ housewife from a Vaishnav family was expected to do, back then.
To most of the world, her identity has always been that of Mahatma's spouse. But this play attempts to give her the due credit and educate the contemporary India. The play clearly underlines that she was the first willing guinea pig in the Mahatma's lab for experiments with truth. India owes her a lot for doing what she did – enabling Gandhiji to perfect his art of living a transparent and truthful life.
Imposing and convincing her of a celibate life at the peak of her youth.
Giving up interest in expensive jewellery and a comfortable life. Also avoiding allopathic medicines when her husband desired so. Most importantly, she didn’t make Gandhiji feel guilty about what he was doing to her! This was the strength she gave to him, a worry and sorry free personal life when he needed to stay focused on Freedom struggle.
But it took over 60 years to see her exemplary character coming back to life in Aditi Desai’s play, Kalpana Gagdekar enacted Kasturba. The play leaves one with desire for more perspectives on her life. Insights into her thinking and tributes and interpretations by the peers of Gandhiji would have added a perspective for today's generation. A little more playfulness about her role, more comments on the family life and Freedom struggle can help the audiences appreciate her contribution more.
The play has made a very important contribution — bringing alive the memories of Gandhiji and his family life back into 21st century Ahmedabad. For most of the school-going Gujaratis, Gandhiji has ended up being a chapter of school books and his wife, merely a mention. Remembering their lives and acts has consequences worth couple of marks in their careers! And that's it. So in such a milieu, the contribution of this play is enormous.
Narayan Desai, has contributed a lot in terms of Gandhi-Katha, but the play simply outshines all his works. The simple brilliance of authentic story-telling, in action-packed sequence of small but fast moving scenes, keeps the audiences glued. There is not a single weak or un-necessary moment in the play. Maybe he can do with revising the play with some more action packed sequences of her life and some tributes by Gandhiji’s peers and their observations on Kasturba’s contribution to Gandhiji’s life and India’s Freedom struggle.
Along with Kalpana's role as Kasturba, role of Gandhiji's eldest son Haribhai and Devki's anchoring are memorable. All in all, city schools must let their students go to this play as the easiest way to understand Gandhiji, his life and most importantly - his message.
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