Above: “Vrindavan,” photo courtesy Naatak.  

America’s largest Indian theater company – Naatak – took on a culturally sensitive issue in a recent production: widowhood in India.

Naatak, a Bay Area-based theater company formed in 1995, presented its 50th play last September – “Vrindavan,” a modern play about 12 widows living in the Indian town of Vrindavan. Thousands of Indian widows have traditionally gone to live in this town, located between Delhi and Agra in northern India, after being kicked out of their homes. In some sects of traditional Indian communities, women can be blamed for their husband’s death and forced to shave their heads.

The play was inspired by a real-life event: In 2014, Bollywood-actress-turned-politician Hema Malini made controversial remarks about the town of Vrindavan, saying it was overcrowded and that more widows shouldn’t move there. These remarks sparked some public outcry, which “Vrindavan” playwright and director Sujit Saraf said inspired the play.

Knight Foundation provided $30,000 in funding for “Vrindavan” – which was full of classical music and dance – as well as for another production that premieres this fall. The funding helped with hiring professional musicians and dancers for the production.

In Hindu literature, Vrindavan is known as the town where Lord Krishna spent his teenage years. Widows have been known to spend time there singing songs in praise of this Hindu deity. The play echoes the 2014 real-life incident: It was set in a home for widows and centered around a dozen widows who learned to live among squalid, cramped conditions and end up dealing with a Bollywood star who arrives and tells them to return to their original homes.

“Vrindavan,” which was performed in nine shows in September at a local theater in Palo Alto, Calif., was “extremely well received,” according to Saraf. The play, like a majority of Naatak’s productions, was performed in Hindi with English supertitles.

In 2014 Knight funded “Amavasya,” which discussed issues about skin color in Indian culture, and the current grant will help fund a September 2016 musical, “Mister India,” a love poem based on a political novel Saraf published in 2007. The plot is about the improbable ascent of a tea-seller in India who becomes prime minister. Saraf said the play is actually “not heartwarming, but rather a very cynical story of the manipulations of other people,” adding that the play will be a “cynical comment on democracy.”

“Mister India” will likely include an ensemble cast, as well as a team of Indian classical dancers and a live Indian classical music company, Saraf said. The whole play rhymes and will be spoken and sung in Hindi, with English supertitles.

Naatak, which typically performs four plays a year, has a warehouse in Santa Clara, Calif., where auditions take place, rehearsals occur and sets are built. The actual performances are in venues around the Bay Area. Naatak has built up a core group of theater artists over the years: Most members are techies who live and work in the Bay Area, Saraf said.

“Over 21 years, we have played before tens of thousands of people, made performers out of hundreds and brought a whole new culture of ‘going to the theater’ among Indians in the Bay Area,” Saraf added.

Vignesh Ramachandran is a Bay Area-based freelance journalist. He can be reached via email at [email protected].