Taking Indian Theatre By Storm: Behind The Curtains Of 'Humare Ram'

The curtains go up and one can see Ram, seated with his mothers and brothers at the yagnashala, where the ashwamedha sacrifice is on. Suddenly, two young actors emerge from the audience and sing the glory of Rama. These are Lava and Kusha, students of Valmiki, performing the Ramayana before the very hero of the epic.

Felicity Theatre's Humare Ram begins its story pretty much where Valmiki does in the Balakanda. But then, the scene shifts to Sita's bhumipravesh and the angry outburst of the children who have tough questions for their father, before they can let him accept them.

The play, Humare Ram, is an attempt to answer some of the questions around the Ramayana that have run in the minds of sceptics for ages. These questions have been given utterances through the characters of Lava and Kusha. The silent witness of creation, Surya, himself appears to tell the story of Ram and explains his actions. After all, Ram offered a great benediction to Surya by being born in his dynasty.

The play has been written by Rahull Bhuchar, who has also played the role of Ram in it.

The play marks a ‘first’ in that it’s the first Hindi theatrical presentation based on the epic (not a Ramlila) that has made the urban audience sit up and take notice of it.

The press reviews have been positive. Some reviewers have called it a magnum opus and a grand theatrical spectacle, while some have pointed out that the play has become a super-hit while a big budget movie on the same theme has bombed (with obvious references to Adipurush).

Several celebrities have quietly gone to watch the play over the months and heaped praises on it. Online forums like Reddit are buzzing with positive word-of-mouth.

All of this led me to watch this play in Chennai (where it had sold a full house). Impressed by the scale and emotional depth of the production, I found myself curious about its journey, how it all came together, and where it began. Over the next few days and weeks, I got the chance to interact with many cast and crew members and hear their stories.

The genesis

Rahull Bhuchar has been in the theatre scene for almost a decade and a half. Many years back, he had accompanied his friend and producer Bobby Malik to a press conference and was taken by surprise when he was chosen to play the role of Ram in Ayodhya’s Ramleela.

"I was always fascinated by the Ramayana. But it also disturbed me that people questioned the conduct of Ram all the time, especially with respect to the exile of Sita. I wanted to present answers to those questions. I spent two years studying over five versions of the epic, written by Valmiki, Tulsidas, Kambar and others, including the Adbhuta Ramayana and other Puranas. The idea was to show people something that they could think about. So around 60 per cent of the play (Humare Ram) had known elements, and in the rest, we have tried to show some lesser-known stories," says Rahull, who got the script written in a poetic style by Naresh Katyayan.

But Rahull did not cast himself initially in the role of Ram. His initial choice was Sonu Sood. Later, he went to Saurabh Raj Jain, who had played Krishna in the Star Plus Mahabharat. But things did not work out.

"I then thought, why not do it myself? I had done this for Ramleela over five times and I was devoted to Ram. But my portrayal of Ram was the same then and now. It doesn't matter if the person is a common man coming to watch a Ramleela or someone spending thousands on a ticket for Humare Ram. I believe they both should get the same experience of knowing Ram."

The challenge of memory

Any dramatic retelling of the Ramayana has to keep in mind that it is retelling what is arguably the most retold story in India. Granted, many members of an urban audience might not have a personal memory of witnessing a Ramleela staging, or witnessing one in recent times, but the audience as a whole has a cultural memory of it. A play based on the Ramayana thus has to respect the fact that watching the Ramayana on stage is not a new experience for an average Indian.

In the Hindi-speaking parts of the country, Ramleelas are still a ubiquitous phenomenon in the months of September and October. While many attribute the origins of the Ramleela to Tulsidas in the sixteenth century, there is a view, not uncommon, that this theatre form predates even him.

In the twentieth century, by the 1980s, when television became the new thing in town, Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan created a storm not only in the drawing rooms but also in India's political landscape. The great poet and academician Shivmangal Singh Suman once profusely praised Sagar at a public function, where he said that when the nation was being torn apart by secessionist forces with separatist demands, Sagar's Ramayan unified the country like never before. He even went on to announce that four centuries after Tulsidas, it was Ramanand Sagar who ensured that Ramayan reached the common man in his home, making him a modern day legend.

For the masses, the actors who convincingly play the roles of Rama, Sita, Lakshman, Hanuman and Ravan become nothing less than demigods and for this very reason, every film-maker or theatre director takes the casting of their Ramayana very seriously.

Rahull Bhuchar was no different.

The casting call

Rahull spent over two years convincing Ashutosh Rana for the role of Ravan.

The entry of Ashutosh Rana was a game changer for the team. The play's director, Gaurav Bharadwaj, calls him a sea of knowledge.

"You get actors who can do their roles well. And then you get actors like him who are also subject matter experts. Ashu ji (Ashutosh Rana) has written the Sahitya Akademi-award-winning book Ram Rajya and is currently working on a book on Krishna. During its making, our discussions would go till three in the morning. He became a guide for not just me but the entire crew. He returned to theatre after a gap of over 20 years with Humare Ram and he didn't charge a single rupee for his rehearsals and fully immersed himself in the process. After rehearsing for 8–10 hours, he would also then sit and watch others do their part and give valuable feedback. He sat down at the writing table with us, and the character of Ravan emerged differently thanks to his inputs. That's why this Ravan moved beyond the raucous laughter that we often associate with rakshasa characters."

Gaurav was known to Rahull for a long time. He came from an advertising background but was new to theatre. For that matter, Gaurav wasn’t even completely familiar with the epic, and spent a lot of time studying it before taking up this project.

"Rahul has been running a non-profit theatre organisation to promote Indian theatre and make it commercially viable. But this play has become a milestone for us," says Gaurav, who believes that devotion should involve surrender without any doubt about the one we worship.

"We wanted to take the questions head-on and hence began this (the play) with the ashwamedha yagna of Ram and the questions about Sita's exile. Very often, we heard that after Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan, nothing has done justice to the epic but we didn't let that weigh us down. In today's world, numbers speak volumes and our ticket sales have been tremendous. The front row tickets are charged at Rs 15,000 and there are people who have watched it over 10 times so far. We have done 235 shows by now. Our venues are booked till December 2026 and we are taking this to the US next year," says Gaurav.

Sita's role has been played by Harleen Rekhi, who is also currently essaying the character of Mandodari in the series Kakbhushundi Ramayan by Sagar Arts, that's being aired on DD National. Danish Akhtar as Hanuman and Tarun Khanna as Shiva have also proven their mettle in these roles on television in the past.

Rekhi feels she's been lucky to play Sita but does not feel the pressure that comes with it.

"There is a dignity about playing a character like Sita and you need to maintain that maryada even off screen. I have always been spiritual as a person and dreamt of playing Sita. I guess dreams do come true," says Rekhi, who has been active in the theatre scene for over 15 years.

The theatre background has helped her with Humare Ram as well and as she dons on the makeup and walks up to stage to live the role of Sita yet again, she feels she's getting closer to the character with each show.

"Both Ram and Sita lived their lives within the boundary of maryada and it requires a lot of discipline and patience to not let go of that. We need these qualities today more than ever before. I have played Mandodari on the TV show Shrimad Ramayan and now on Kakbhushundi Ramayan. Both these women have been venerated in our country. Mandodari is among the panch kanyas. Both Sita and Mandodari tried to drill sense into Ravan and had a clear conscience. Also, I share a few scenes with Ashutosh ji and that as well has been a learning experience. He is a much experienced actor but once on stage, we become the character. There he is Ravan and I am Sita."

Deep engagement

At a running time of 3 hours and 15 minutes, and without a break, the play might seem too long at a time when even a 15-second Instagram reel fails to hold the attention of people. But being from an advertising background, Gaurav knows the game of attention.

"Every scene has been timed accurately, and every step that an artist takes is rehearsed. In fact, despite its length, even kids are enjoying this thoroughly across cities. We even ensured that the language was poetic but not challenging for the contemporary audience. But a lot happens on stage spontaneously. After all, theatre is an actor's medium. Every time Ashu ji does the Lakshman samvaad in the end, he brings in something different. When Sita's bhumipravesh happens, I see Rahull undergo something inexplicable and in every show he breaks down. Those are moments that just happen on stage."

Rahull has left no stone unturned for the play, be it in set design, costumes or music. The whole play was rehearsed for over eight months before it was staged for the first time and Rahull was particular about the finer aspects, right up to the pause taken during the dialogue delivery.

The actors of Humare Ram use the stage and more through the play. Sometimes, they step down the stage and walk amid the audience during a long monologue, and sometimes, they dramatically emerge from the rear entrance of the hall.

The costumes have been done by Vishnu Patil, who had also provided costumes for Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan and B. R. Chopra's Mahabharat. Singers like Sonu Nigam, Shankar Mahadevan and Kailash Kher were roped in, and Ashutosh Rana himself sang the Shiva Tandava Stotram in Hindi.

"It's important to surrender to the divine when you undertake such tasks. Think of Ravan, who offered his head and the ego that comes with it, to Shiva. The same quality of surrender is required when you approach subjects like these. The success or failure eventually depends on the audience, but we have done this with the best intention," says Rahull.

Another portrayal

Another aspect where Humare Ram stands strong is that it doesn't unnecessarily play to the gallery of modern sentiments and political correctness, a case in point being the portrayal of Soorpanakha.

In several modern retellings of the epic, Soorpanakha is projected as a ‘victim of misogyny’, while Ravan's act of abducting Sita is shown simply as an act of revenge by a brother. They even go on to commend him for not violating Sita. But Rahull has stuck to the works of the saint-poets like Valmiki and Kambar.

In fact, he uses an interesting story from the Kamba Ramayana to show the back story of Soorpanakha in the epic, which makes for an interesting insight and a galvanising act by Deepti Kumar. And you also get to know why Ravan chose not to violate Sita with the episode of Rambha and Nalkubera.

The sounds

Music can make or break a period drama. Belonging to a country where there is a rich musical tradition of Ram bhakti, Humare Ram invests a lot of effort into elevating the key moments of the play with songs and background music.

The songs composed by Udbhav Ojha and Saurabh Mehta sometimes enhance a given emotion and sometimes play a role in taking the script forward, as in a good musical.

While comparisons with the past masters might seem inevitable, Saurabh chose not to listen to works on this subject as he wanted to create his own trajectory.

"For me, music is bhakti and I believe the composer is only a tool. Music is nirakar brahman and it manifests through a musician," says Saurabh.

Saurabh grew up in Ujjain, and the reading of Ramcharitmanas was a daily practice in his home.

"While I don't have any formal training in music. I composed several jingles, where you have to express the whole content in 10 seconds. It has to catch on and be hummable. While working on this play, I had it in my mind that the songs had to be hummable. And I think we have succeeded with that."

Walking on a tightrope

Humare Ram breaks from the traditional stage depictions of the Ramayana by including the Uttara Kanda (the post-coronation story of Ram and Sita, which contains portions of her second exile) in the story.

It begins its journey with a resolve to answer some controversial questions on the epic, mainly derived from the Uttara Kanda. But many scholars in the past have deemed the chapter an appendix added at a later date.

Poets like Tulsidas and Kambar did not write about Sita's exile and narrations of the Ramayana found in the Mahabharata do not have any mention of the Uttara Kanda nor is it found in the summary of the story narrated by Narada to Valmiki.

Contemporary scholars like Dr Rangan have also dismissed the possibility of Uttara Kanda being a part of Valmiki's epic. Swami Ramabhadracharya of the Ramananda Sampradaya even wrote a book titled Sita Nirvasan Nahi, where he refutes the authenticity of Sita's banishment.

But questions around the Uttara Kanda persist mainly because there are scholars, acharyas, and many everyday Hindus who believe the Ramayana is complete only with the Uttara Kanda.

And it is in dealing with the Uttara Kanda that Humare Ram might seem stiff and awkward. This writer’s main issue comes not with the inclusion of this episode in the play but with not cleanly tying up the loose ends.

While Humare Ram establishes the greatness of Rama and Sita without doubt, it still skirts some of the main questions.

However, this does not take away from the brilliance of the epic for the viewer, and that is where the play scores high.

By the end of Humare Ram, you realise that the actions and decisions of characters like Ram and Sita cannot be judged from a limited, utilitarian viewpoint. The play also pushes back against the long-standing intellectual skulduggery of quoting the ‘controversial’ portions of the epic out of context, and in doing this, the show stands tall.

For each show, before the curtains go up, the team offers prayers to Ram backstage so that their collective endeavour is blessed.

Rahull has spent over five years with the character, having done Ayodhya’s Ramleela from the days of the pandemic and every weekend, as the curtains go up, he transforms into the paragon of ideals on stage.

"I feel I have changed as a person and have begun traversing a different path in life. I can see empathy grow in me as I have continued living with the character of Ram and emotions like anger and jealousy have died down. My dietary habits have changed, and I am fully a vegetarian now. Spirituality has become an important part of my life and as we have been doing this weekend after weekend, I feel connected to Ram all the time."