Humare Ram – The Brilliant and Must-See Musical ft Rahull Bhuchar & Ashutosh Rana

I had planned to write on another topic, but a recent experience proved far more compelling.

Personal Context

Yesterday, the wife, her parents, and I had gone for a musical theatrical play – Humare Ram ft Ashutosh Rana and Rahull Bhuchar (link to BookMyShow listing of it; may expire in future). The wife and I had booked the tickets mostly hoping that the parents would enjoy it. And, generally expecting a great performance from Ashutosh Rana, who was playing Ravan.

Myths, Biases, and a Misunderstood Ram

Few disclaimers are in order – I’ve been an agnostic + atheist since mid-teens and between Mahabharat and Ramayan, I’ve always been a bigger admirer of Mahabharat. And so it goes between Shri Krishna and Shri Ram. I have not read the reputed translations of these epics but mostly relying on pop-culture and TV adaptations, I’ve found the Ramayan’s narrative fairly straight-forward as against the layered narrative of Mahabharat. The use of grey characters with different (and changing) motivations in the latter was always more interesting for me than the traditional good-versus-bad narrative I observed in the Ramayan. Obeying an order just because it was given by an elder also doesn’t sit particularly well with me to my rebellious self.

It didn’t help that I also had this misconception of Shri Ram as a relatively passive character who let things happen to him.

And, boy was I wrong!

Brief Synopsis and Setup

The play starts with Luv and Kush discovering that Shri Ram is their father and follows with Goddess Sita’s bhoomi-dehan (voluntary acceptance into the womb of the Earth). Luv and Kush ask a few uncomfortable questions to Shri Ram, regarding his choices – around exiling their mother while she was pregnant and being exiled in the forests during the first years of their marriage. As a response, we are taken through the journey of the couple – from their meeting, marriage, the first exile, the war, and the different allies and enemies along the way, through selective set of incidents from their lives. That’s the basic structure.

Ravan’s Antagonist: A Narrative Masterstroke & A Fine Balance

In Humare Ram, the playwriters (Rahull Bhuchar and Naresh Katyayan) use the storytelling concept of how you need a strong antagonist to show the heroism of protagonist. They also blend it very well even within the context of the lore – with Ravan also actively explaining this. This is also the common conceit that we’ve seen through the Joker in The Dark Knight, Thanos in Avengers Infinity Wars/Endgame, or Silva in Skyfall, to name a few recent examples. And this conceit is used to great effect in Humare Ram.

They elevate the stature and aura of Ravan – by showcasing his knowledge of the shastras, his devotion to Lord Shiva, his might in conquering the different realms. At the same time, they don’t whitewash his faults – his ego, his violent nature, including killing his brother-in-law (sister Shurpanakha’s husband and assaulting the apsara Rambha – either.

But neither is used to justify or diminish the other. Both exist, as different traits within the same person.

There are also hints at a couple of instances when one may interpret Ravan’s actions as his role in the divine ‘lila’ (sidenote about lila: the Hindu concept of viewing things as a ‘divine game’ of the Gods. wiki link). Ravan is shown to have the insight at a critical moment before the war, where he can either choose to return Goddess Sita or die in the battle and guarantee Moksha for his family and himself by dying at the hands of Shri Ram. He also mentions that as his primary antagonist, he was thinking of Shri Ram much more than many of the allies of Shri Ram would have thought of him.

They don’t attempt to tell the full detailed Ramayan, covering everything. They chose certain specific scenes that best highlight what they want to convey, and they make a brilliant choice in balancing between known anecdotes and some relatively lesser known anecdotes highlighting the different facets of the various characters, their dilemmas, motivations, and respective choices.

Shri Ram’s Persona and Portrayal: Virtue, Embodied, and Attainable

And, Shri Ram is described in the epics and otherwise as the maryadapurshottam (embodiment of virtue and righteousness). This otherwise makes it sound unattainable and ‘textbook’ good.

Something only within the capability of a God but not for us.

But, here the playwriters elevate it to something more concrete and attainable even!

Shri Ram is shown through the active choices he makes – in choosing the more patient but the right approach, playing the long-game instead of going for short-term wins, in separating the positive and the negative traits of the opponent from the opponent itself, in respecting his enemy’s knowledge. He actively invites Ravan to the pranpratishta pooja establishing the holy Shivling at Rameshwaram. He breaks from the earlier tradition of polygamy to take a vow to be monogamous to Goddess Sita.

I mentioned that I went in expecting Ashutosh Rana’s stellar monologues as Ravan. That was a given. And of course it came good!

But, boy Rahull Bhuchar (also the co-writer and producer) plays Shri Ram so brilliantly! He brings the poise, the aura, the patience, the inherent peace, the wisdom, and so many other traits to his presence and body-language, right down to also how he stands at all times – feet both together, almost to an unnatural level. Exactly how it’s shown in the different murtis of Shri Ram. I went in for Ashutosh Rana and came back blown away by Rahull Bhuchar.

Each and every other actor is stellar. Lord Hanuman, played by Danish Akhtar, is especially pitch-perfect, getting both the physicality and the naughtiness just right. Shurpanakha, by Deepti Kumar, too as the high-pitched shrill sister egging Ravan on, and also got the most laughs!

The Stand-Outs from a Stellar Set of Stand-Outs

However, apart from the writing and acting, three other things elevate this to absolute stellar levels.

1. The music. With songs being sung by the likes of Shankar Mahadevan, Sonu Nigam, Kailash Kher, and Ashutosh Rana himself, the songs as well as the background score elevate every scene. While writing this post, I’ve been playing the Humare Ram title song (sung by Shankar Mahadevan) on loop. This one and the Kailash Kher sung Ravan theme song are particularly good.

2. The Dialogues. All the dialogues are in verse form, and in a certain rhythmic meter. The choice of words is especially apt, particularly during the many monologues of different characters. Of special note is the section when Shri Ram instructs Lakshman to go to Ravan, as a student and a seeker, and seek his knowledge of statecraft, scripture, and life’s lessons.

3. Production Quality, Especially Lighting. I have been to one West End musical in London (Hamilton) but the wife has been to about half-a-dozen there. Both felt the production quality was almost, if not actually, at par with some of the productions there. At the start, they mentioned of Havells being the lighting sponsor. It initially sounded a bit much, but 10 minutes into the show, I realised why they had a separate lighting sponsor, and how much value that too added. The sound was also great, with intentional usage of echo-effects throughout.

And So?

In our age of easy cynicism, it’s tempting to dismiss virtue as naïve or passive. Humare Ram doesn’t just retell an epic. I think its greatest success lies in the fact that it reclaims virtue not as blind obedience or moral posturing, but as a set of conscious, difficult, and attainable choices – and not just as a domain of Gods, but a possibility for humans too.

Shri Ram isn’t ideal because he was born a god. He’s ideal because, time and again, he chose dharma over ego, patience over impulse, and wisdom over force.

 

I went in expecting a good show. I got that but also, a lot more.

I only had one minor grouse – at a little over 3 hours, I still ended up feeling wanting more! They could’ve added a few more incidents or events. Or covered ground on some additional aspect.

The one I attended was their 257th show in the past 14 months – and it showed! If you’re on the fence about attending it because (i) you already know the story or (ii) you aren’t in for random moral posturing or lectures on righteousness or (iii) you aren’t a big fan of plays (iv) it appears to be too expensive – I would strongly recommend that you still make the effort and go for it. If you’ve got parents or younger folks at home, I would suggest even more strongly to attend it with them. It is well-worth it for the family.

P.S.: The images are from my visit. In case you represent the folks from Felicity Theatre behind putting up this spectacular production and have copyright concerns around the images – happy to remove them.