Gati (Kannada Play) - 'Not-Dead Yet' but 'Alive'

A conflict should emerge between two extreme sides. If there exists more than two sides, the conflict grows weaker. A plot has to see every aspect with duality. But! what if it is not physical or external, but radially introspective. “Man against Himself” a genre which stands par in excellence in-front of other genres of conflict.

Gati , a play scripted by director S.N.Sethuram appeals to the audience by depiction of “Karma” without taking up its name. A man must pay for his mistakes. An ignorant husband, condemned daughter, abandoned wife, self-reputed bureaucrat, an womanizer and an woman of easy virtue together constitute the characters of the Kannada play which eventually have only two actors.

“A man who believes in utilitarian life is shallow from inside.”

To summarize the plot will belittle the play's intention. It's strength solely lies in its dialogues and on the grip of handling the language. An old man and his grand-daughter. The difference between their age provokes them to witness the world with different perspectives and narrate them to audience. The characters mentioned above are pictured just by story-telling and will attain a relevance more than characters physically present on stage. A plot which has three or four interconnected sub-plots tries to prove that a man who believes in utilitarian life is shallow from inside. A dialogue telling - Doctors will not promise one as “Alive” but as “Not-Dead yet” shows the writer's intent on approaching things by disrupting convention.

It rises serious questions about Motherhood crisis in workaholic lifestyle when a mother does not try to understand the 13 year old daughter trying to tell the harassment she is facing, emotional killing about which the person who have done the same for his mother, an husband wishing the death of his disloyal wife for her ignoble pregnancy, woman victimization for societal beliefs etc.

Last Note : Gati does not pledge to entertain the audience but to educate them to the core. Failing to understand it will make the play an average story-telling without any variations. One needs a special concern to identify and judge themselves to self-assess the distance(or proximity) they maintain from those imaginary characters. If one needs an entertainment and just that, there are many things in 'Market'.