Ashutosh Rana’s Raavan avatar in ‘Humare Ram’ will give you goosebumps, every dialogue of the play is powerful

“The campaign to worship my lord will not stop, Ravan will offer his head in exchange for a coconut…” When Ashutosh Rana in the role of Ravan offers his head to Lord Shiva while saying this dialogue in the play ‘Humare Ram’, the audience present in the theatre gets thrilled. Ashutosh brought Ravan’s devotion to Shiva to life with his brilliant acting and a slight twist in the context. In the same scene, he also sang the Shiv Tandava Stotra in his own voice in Hindi instead of Sanskrit, which is also becoming very popular on social platforms. The words of this Hindi stotra are very effective –

“…always the supreme deity of Sarvamangala art,
He is the time of destruction, he is the parent, the parent always…
In gratitude, chant this name: Sada Shiva: Shivam
Liquid, fire, sky, wind, earth, earth Shiva: Shivam…”

Although the play ‘Humare Ram’ started from Ram’s court, but as it is said in the play that if you want to understand Ram’s greatness and dignity, then it can be understood only through Ravan. Even classically, the hero’s powers are visible only when he fights with a very powerful and superior antagonist in every way. In this sense, Ashutosh Rana in the role of Ravan can be called the life force of the play. For this reason, Ravan’s dialogue also needs to be mentioned first.

‘Our Ram’ in Delhi
The play seems to be successful in impressing the audience from the very first scene. When the curtain of the first scene is raised in Delhi’s Kamani Auditorium, a grand Ram Darbar is seen decorated on the stage in front. After the success of Rajsuya Yagya, Rishi Vashishth is telling that Valmiki ji has agreed to come. Two children are also coming with him, who sing the Ram Katha very beautifully. Then the sound of Ram Katha songs comes from the background. Luv and Kush enter from among the audience in spot lights. The audience’s joy increases a lot. Sita also comes in the same way. In the next scene, Ravana also reaches the stage from among the audience. Then the audience starts feeling that they are also a part of the play. A film star like Ashutosh in the role of Ravana not only comes from among them, but also speaks some dialogues which directly address the audience. Rahul Bhuchar, playing the role of Ram, while talking to Sita in the forest, directly asked the audience – ‘You tell me, has anyone been able to win over his wife’… and the theatre erupts in applause from the audience.

The play ‘Humare Ram’, based on the Ram Katha, was presented last Sunday. This was the 67th staging of the play. This also shows its popularity. Making Ram Katha the subject of a play is indeed a big challenge. Everyone has their own thoughts, their own perceptions about this story. If something different is shown or told without breaking it, there is a risk of it being rejected immediately, but the team of ‘Humare Ram’ took this risk and it can be said that people have accepted their story. In the first scene, Luv and Kush ask questions to their father. What questions do they ask, they start raising questions on Shri Ram being the most dignified man. Angered by this, Laxman ji invokes the Sun God to explain the whole situation. Ram and Raghukul are descendants of the Sun.

Story in flashback
Surya comes and narrates the entire story. Most Hindu epics are in flashback. Stories have been narrated to someone on some special occasion or the other. Vaishampayana narrated the story of Mahabharata to Janamejaya. In Ramcharit Manas, the story of Ram has been narrated by three people. In this, Lord Shivji narrated the story to Parvatiji, Yagyavalkya narrated the story to Rishi Bharadwaj and Kagbhusundi narrated the story to Garuda. In ‘Humare Ram’, the playwrights called Lord Surya to narrate the story of Ram. Rahul Bhuchar, the producer of the play and the one who plays the character of Ram, says – “We wanted to keep it in flashback. So who could be better than Suryadev to narrate it. After all, he has seen everything happening and is still seeing it.”

Excellent Technology
Very modern technology has been used in the play. The audience does not feel at all that they are watching a traditional play. Due to the presence of VFX, the set is adapted to the scenes very quickly. The three-hour play is successful in keeping the audience engaged. The lighting arrangement on the stage is commendable, but the sound system does not seem to compete with the other side of technology due to its limitations.

Dialogue and language
The most interesting thing is the language of dialogue. Despite moving away from Sanskrit while staging ancient Hindu epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata, there has been a tradition of using Hindi dialogues similar to Sanskrit. Even in TV serials, the language spoken by the characters was not the language spoken in homes. But in ‘Humare Ram’ this taboo was completely abolished. The dialogues in it were exactly like the ones used by two Hindi speakers.

Dr. Rahul Bhuchar has done a wonderful job in the role of Ram. His expressions and dialogue delivery are in no way inferior to the actors who have played Ram before, rather his voice is very suitable for his character. Rahul has also written the dialogues of the play along with Dr. Naresh Katyayan. It is also interesting that all the dialogues are in verse instead of prose. The impact of the dialogues increases with simple language and verses. For example, one of Ram’s dialogues seems very good and deeply impactful-

“Woman is Adi Shakti, hence the first name of woman will be,
There will be Siya after Ram, from now on there will be only SiyaRam.”

Talking about other characters, Tarun Khanna has played the role of Shiva. Bhanu Pratap Singh has played the role of Laxman, Sanjay Makhija has played Dashrath, wrestler Danish Akhtar Saini has played Hanuman, model Karan Sharma has played Suryadev, Harleen Kaur Rekhi has played Sita, Deepti Kumar has played Shurpanakha, Jyotika Singhal has played Kaikeyi and Mandodari, Pramod Kumar has played Jamwant, Diya Malhotra has played Rambha, Harish Kotwani has played Jatayu, Bharat Sharma has played Nalkubra, Akashdeep has played Kush, Ashish Sharma has played Luv. Even the actors who came on stage for a short time impressed the audience. Young director Gaurav Bhatia has only 6 years of experience, but he looks completely successful in direction. Rajiv Dinkar has done the work of assistant director and showrunner. Alok Srivastava, Ramkumar Singh have written songs for the play. Felicity Theatre, the company producing the play, has also produced Mahabharata, Jab We Separate and Selfie before this. Famous artists like Shankar Mahadevan, Sonu Nigam and Kailash Kher have given their voices for the play, which makes it even more spectacular.

Tags: Ashutosh rana