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Waadaa Chirebandee
[April 10, 2004, San Jose, California]
drama, music and films/teleplays, presented another boisterous
performance of Mahesh Elkunchwar’s “Waadaa Chirebandee” on April 10th
2004 at Cal State Hayward Theater.
The play, written in 1983 by Mahesh Elkunchwar captures vividly the
gradual decline of the Wada culture in Maharashtra, unable to stand the
test of time and the social changes in the world beyond. Wada, which
means an ancient ancestral country house, is the focal point of this play.
The play reveals the skeletons of a culture, stuck in time. The Wada
insularity is a product of the large joint-family with its hierarchic patriarchy
that holds the tensions in check under a facile pretence of authority. The
crises brought forth in this intense play are more than mere family crises -
they are crises of a more serious nature. The crisis at the center of the play
is one of traditional culture against commercial or consumer culture. As
playwright Elkunchwar says, "Wada is not a simple family drama, it is more
than that, a document of social and political changes.”
Waadaa Chirebandee’s Director Deepak Karanjikar commented that the
play is a “statement” rather than a “comment”. There are very few plays
that are written as a statement that are as powerful as Waadaa.., Deepak
added. He was fascinated by the simple and straightforward handling of the
subject and the traits of the characters. There is no black and white
differentiation between the characters, but various shades of gray. The
goodness and wickedness of the characters comes together in such a
manner, which makes the viewers bewildered.
© California Arts Association 2006