Arjun- in his Image & Likeness
Do you blur the line between an idolized character and an actor portraying him?
Vanaprastham - The Last Dance is a Malayalam film where Mohanlal, a Kathakali artist finds solace in theatre.
Once, his audience includes Subhadra (Suhasini) of an aristocratic family. In love with the valiant warrior Arjun of Mahabharata, she personifies Mohanlal as her dream hero. The eventual affair leads to the birth of a son. However, Subhadra content to be pregnant with the seed of Arjun – her idolized version, rejects the flesh & blood Mohanlal.
The storyline struck a resonance within me.
I remember going to a late-night Marathi musical Saubhadra, based on Krishn’s orchestration of Arjun-Subhadra elopement. I went solo, but purchased 3 tickets (to free myself of annoying coughs or jutting elbows) on either side of ‘my space.’
The play was low-budget, Subhadra was played by a man (the play was an echo of bygone era when only male artistes dared to be onstage!), who was atleast 12 inches broader than Arjun. The artist playing Arjun was a mediocre TV actor, and not in my league of ‘favorite gentlemen’.
And yet, in the darkened theater, I sat transfixed and entranced by the magic of Arjun (click here for Arjun's influence on my life). Pulses quickened, my palpitations audible, a delicious tense knot coiling within me, I reveled in Arjun’s charisma , intact and vibrantly alive across a span of 6000 years.
I was not merely audience at a theatre. I was the passionate Draupadi, the enamoured Subhadra, the lusty Uloopi, the rebuffed Urvashi.
Does this happen to you? Transfer of emotions from an unattainable idol to an actor?
Read full article on https://sweetyshinde.wordpress.com/20...
Vanaprastham - The Last Dance is a Malayalam film where Mohanlal, a Kathakali artist finds solace in theatre.
Once, his audience includes Subhadra (Suhasini) of an aristocratic family. In love with the valiant warrior Arjun of Mahabharata, she personifies Mohanlal as her dream hero. The eventual affair leads to the birth of a son. However, Subhadra content to be pregnant with the seed of Arjun – her idolized version, rejects the flesh & blood Mohanlal.
The storyline struck a resonance within me.
I remember going to a late-night Marathi musical Saubhadra, based on Krishn’s orchestration of Arjun-Subhadra elopement. I went solo, but purchased 3 tickets (to free myself of annoying coughs or jutting elbows) on either side of ‘my space.’
The play was low-budget, Subhadra was played by a man (the play was an echo of bygone era when only male artistes dared to be onstage!), who was atleast 12 inches broader than Arjun. The artist playing Arjun was a mediocre TV actor, and not in my league of ‘favorite gentlemen’.
And yet, in the darkened theater, I sat transfixed and entranced by the magic of Arjun (click here for Arjun's influence on my life). Pulses quickened, my palpitations audible, a delicious tense knot coiling within me, I reveled in Arjun’s charisma , intact and vibrantly alive across a span of 6000 years.
I was not merely audience at a theatre. I was the passionate Draupadi, the enamoured Subhadra, the lusty Uloopi, the rebuffed Urvashi.
Does this happen to you? Transfer of emotions from an unattainable idol to an actor?
Read full article on https://sweetyshinde.wordpress.com/20...
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