Before my blog stirs up any controversy about distorting history, here is my disclaimer which says this is just a semi fiction depiction of one of the million things that happened to me at school and not at all an attempt at maligning the image of Shivaji Maharaj.
It was time for the annual day event at my school and like most years teachers were out to showcase the talents of their pupils. My favourite teacher announced that this year she will help interested students make a skit on the ‘Shivaji Vs Afzal Khan standoff.’ I was intrigued by the idea and like most of the kids in class wanted to participate in the skit so almost instantly raised my hand to volunteer.
In those days we were yet to be taught about democracy so there were no auditions but the teacher immediately after announcing the skit selected Amit Marathe(the shortest boy in my class) as the guy who would play Shivaji. Amit was short, frail, spoke fluent Marathi and sat right under the teacher’s nose with Ravi on the 3rd row first bench. I thought he was a pathetic choice but what was to follow was even worse. The teacher pointed towards me (the tallest boy in class) and said you will be Afzal Khan. I think my teacher had done the selection for this skit many times before and knew the roles demand height disparity of extreme proportions.
Now in the actual scrip Shivaji was the obvious hero but Afzal Khan was the most pathetic villain. As portrayed in my History text book, Afzal Khan was a very oppressive general of a Mughal Muslim Emperor and was killed by the very smart Shivaji using artificial iron tiger claws.
As a kid of that age I did not like to play a villain. Plus this was Afzal Khan. Now either my history textbook had to do something with it or the way history was taught to us in school but the character of Afzal Khan was totally BLACK. Afzal Khan was absolutely and typically the Hindi picture villain we love to hate. Nothing was good about him at all.
My teacher then made the rest of the selections for the other characters in a similar fashion and announced that we will meet near the school stage after school for practice.
At practice my teacher came a little late and as usual shouted at us for not standing together as a group. She then narrated to us what I today understand to be a script.
It was terrible for me. I hardly had any meaningful dialogs. I was almost all the while supposed to laugh like Gabbar Singh and in the climax try to strangle Shivaji and as an anti climax die.
Not knowing how to protest I decided to give it a try...
When practice started the next day, people just realised that I was an actor that could be described as a director’s nightmare. By day three of practice they decided to replace me as Afzal Khan because Shivaji had complained against me.
Amit who was playing Shivaji had a genuine problem. In the climax I was very difficult to kill. Plus in one of the many rehearsals I had actually tried my level best to strangle him. This act was prompted by my frustration and had nothing to do with me trying to get into the character or any such attempt.
The Teacher also realised that it would make the episode that we were trying to depict a little more believable in the prevailing context if the ‘Huge’ Afzal Khan was replaced by a more killable (smaller) Mughal General. So history was distorted and a not so big Afzal Khan was chosen.
By now I was feeling a little insulted. First I was asked to portray a character I hated and now I was replaced. I think my teacher read my feelings and ensured I was still in the play...
I was now playing one of Afzal Khan’s guards. I had no dialogs at all but was supposed to get killed without putting up a fight after the anti climax.
The three other fellow sentries of Afzal Khan were almost like me – Big, huge and frustrated. The plot of us dying without putting up a fight was what was killing us even before our eventual end. In the various dress rehearsals that started 2 days before the actual show we were the laughing stock and butt of almost all the jokes. We could not put up with all who were laughing at us. Our Shivaji also left no stone unturned insulting us. He would very much unlike the real Shivaji act to stab each one of us multiple times before curtains. In many such acts he actually hurt us bad in the ribs and the stomach with his rented wooden sword.
This was provocation enough for us to do the unthinkable in the actual show.
After Shivaji had killed Afzal Khan we the proud protectors of our lord decided revenge. We refused to die. Our Shivaji and his 5 soldiers were suddenly surprised and so was the audience. They tried desperately with their weapons to put us to rest but size does matter and this is what they realised. The four of us right there on stage shooed away all of Shivaji’s men and gave Amit Marathe a beating of a lifetime. Even the dead Afzal Khan realised the gravity of the situation and begged us to spare Amit.
I think the audience enjoyed what they saw and laughed their guts out. What happened to us the Crazy 4 is something human rights activists will not let me put in my blog.
