Close to reality
On Tuesday as the Supreme Court pronounced its verdict on the legal recognition of same-sex marriage, a select motely group witnessed a moving play reading by actor Mona Ambegaonkar. Noted playwright late Chetan Datar’s play Ek Madhav Baug, written in the 80s, stays as relevant decades on.
As the same-sex couples braced up for another long wait to meet their dreams and rights, the evening held a poignant hue. Performed at the studio at veteran playwright’s Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry’s house, Ambegaonkar took those present through shock, denial, anger, sorrow, acceptance to myriad other emotions. A mother stumbling across her gay son’s sexuality and going through his diary, she ventures into his lonesome, lost world.
With powerful rendition in Hindi Ambegaonkar made the evening a poignant one.
Ambegaonkar has long delved in television and cinema, she’s Dr Chitra Sheshadri of the medical drama Dhadkan and Dr Anjalika Deshmukh, head of the Forensic Department, in CID. Seen in films Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa, Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani and Mrityudand, she’s recently been part of web series M.O.M. — Mission Over Mars.
Also, an activist Ambegaonkar has long performed the play Datar’s Ek Madhav Baug in English and Marathi, along with Hindi over the years at varied venues. “We spend so much time talking about what we hate, if only we could change the focus to what we love, it would be a different world all together.”
The evening also saw reading of Reema Moudgil’s book Perfect Eight. — Mona
