Red Theatre's Revolution 2020: Flawed, but Fruitful

Recently, Bangalore's Red Theatre Group, in a maiden effort, bravely staged Revolution 2020 at the heart of Bangalore's theater, Rangashankara.

Based on Chetan Bhagat's 2011 novel of the same name, R2020 is replete with Bhagat's usual dose of three protagonists, love, greed, ambition, against a small town backdrop and the all too predictable ending.


As a story, Revolution 2020 has nothing new to offer; it is typically like a masala movie with shades of Bhagat's earlier "Three Mistakes of My Life", and very blatant inspiration from Sudhir Mishra's brilliant 2003 classic "Hazaaron Khwaishen Aisi". What is interesting is that fact that Red Theatre tries to capture the milieu and the story in a dramatized version, and hasn't done too bad a thing out of it.

Set in Varanasi, this is the story of three childhood friends, who fall in the Gen X-Y zone. Gopal (Saurav Lokesh), Raghav (Pradeep Ache) and Aarti (Gowthami) set out to conquer their dreams, hopes and failures in a small town that represents the core of the good Vs evil debate. Life throws these conflicts in their direction in no small measure, in a matter of few years.

 Gopal's character is all about his earnest love for childhood friend Aarti, only to be rejected in the name of 'best friends forever', his disappointment and jealousy over her romantic inclination towards topper Raghav, his own academic debacles (mainly due to his romantic distraction), an attempt to salvage his drowning future at Kota, and then his ultimate turn towards easy lucre, to the cliched disastrous consequence routine -- all rolled into one package, Saurav Lokesh delivers a neat performance with not too much gaffes to note, a little more polish and we have an actor who will be the focal point of the play.

Raghav's character of the brilliant student turned idealistic crusader journalist, who wants to expose the murky land deals in the town --actor Pradeep Ache's expressions are excellent, though his dialogue delivery was extremely stilted and grammatically incorrect in the second half.

Gowthami as Aarti had a tough role to crack --affluent, pretty, laidback, charming, spoilt and silly at times, straddling the love of two friends, one who she claims is 'just a friend, with whom she shares something beautiful' and one whose love she accepts only to drift later into the arms of the very man  who ardor she scoffed at, and her volte-face, tiresome move back to her first love. The paradoxes (read as dillying and dallying) of Aarti are interesting and amusing to watch.  Gowthami is competent, albeit with a few practiced, repetitive gestures. In the second half, there seems to be a certain rush to deliver her lines, as a result she looks a little unconvincing. Else, a good effort in carrying the sole female role on her shoulders.



Nagaraj Krishnamurthy who essays Gopal's aged, ailing father and later MLA Shukla, is no doubt the surprise package here, especially in the second role. He slips into MLA Shukla with ease and builds the momentum for what lies ahead when he lures young, vulnerable Gopal into his world of corruption and shady deals. Krishnamurthy can do a little better in the role of the father who dies heartbroken over his son's academic non-starters, a little depth with a more convincing aged look can be infused --despite a tailor-made portliness, Krishnamurthy still came across as a little too young to play the role; a good artiste, one is confident he would surmount this challenge in forthcoming shows .

Well co-ordinated stage settings, lighting, a whole host of actors playing "butterflies" or the surrogate narrators of the story, and a small cameo of the punk student Vineet- who lends Gopal the quintessential 'shoulder and a bottle to drown the sorrows'- made the play took well thought out, and added to the energy, though one felt the length of their acts could have been reduced here and there. Music by Thejas and Rajguru was adequate in the first half and perhaps excelled in the second half, in the scenes that involve Gopal and MLA Shukla - there is a tension and menace that comes through well.

Director Prithvi Aradhya shows mettle and experience in his craft in the manner in which the play has been conceptualized and executed. What the play lacks at the moment is finesse, and the right length. The duration of the play can be a killer. One concedes packing an entire book into 21/2 hours must have been a Herculean task, but sitting through the length for a non-70mm version can be daunting and this was something the actors themselves must have been conscious of and perhaps, that explains the rush towards the last 15-20 minutes which looked orchestrated. And, this, after a decent spaced out build up.

A little more exploration into the title, the motives and motivations of Raghav and Aarti would help add meat to the proceedings. Why did Aarti accept Raghav into her life in the first place? Was it purely driven by love or other considerations? Why did Raghav, the topper give it all up for idealism? Why was Gopal such a loser -in life and love? Questions that need a better answer.

In all, one can safely enter the auditorium without reading the book and can derive the entire experience of Bhagat's bestseller. One doesn't end up disappointed. Given that this is a first production, that is a big plus for Red Theatre.