Autobiography

'Autobiography' is a brilliant play by the highly acclaimed Marathi playwright Mahesh Elkunchwar. Directed by the well-known and talented Lillete Dubey.

An ageing, much admired, charismatic writer, Anantrao Rajadhyaksha, dictates his autobiography to Pradnya, an irreverent, bright, sassy PhD researcher, and in the process, talks about the controversial book on his love life, which he had published earlier, where he spoke about his contemporaries, his troubled 30-year-old relationship with his wife Uttara, and his brief affair with Vasanti (his sister-in-law) and more. All the characters share incidents and anecdotes in the present and from the past (many are flashback sequences), each giving their own version of the truth, so the audience is never quite sure where the truth really lies. The play unfolds in layers, going backwards and forward in time, as different versions of the truth emerge, revealing characters who are trapped in their own truths.

The parallel lives of the real-life characters and the fictional ones in Rajadhyaksha's novel also cross and intersect, making the truth even harder to understand.

Taut, gripping, dramatic, and humorous, it's a rich and layered story.