Visually challenged artistes from Pune recreate Pu La’s magic

Visually challenged artistes will perform ‘Teen Paishacha Tamasha’, a play written by Pu La Deshpande, Marathi literature icon, to mark his 100th birth anniversary today.

The inaugural show of the play will take place today, at Balgandharva Rangmandir at 12.30 pm. The play has 27 visually challenged artistes in its cast, directed by Swagat Thorat and produced by Vina Dhole and Rashmi Pandhare.

Of the 27 artistes, 11 are girls and 16 boys, all within the age group of 20 to 30 years.

“Working with visually challenged people is tough as we need to tell them everything, starting from the stage, size and angels, where the mikes are, wing directions, curtain and the direction where the audience is seated. We explained this to them through touch, as most of the artists are completely blind. Some can only see the light effect or blur images,” explained Thorat.

“The biggest challenge we faced during rehearsals was explaining gestures and hand movement while delivering dialogues. After the first show on April 17, we have plans to take this commercial play all over Maharashtra and every city or village in the country where there is Marathi speaking population,” added Thorat.

Talking about her experience during rehearsals, Tejaswini Bhalekar, who works as a computer instructor in Savitribai Phule Pune University, said, “It was challenging as I played the lead character called ‘Malan’. I am totally blind so it was difficult for me, as every artist in the play suffers from a different level of blindness. Getting the time of entry right, to coordinating with fellow actors, knowing where the audience is were important topics covered during practice.”