The latest theatrical production on justice by Anmol Vellani premieres in Bengaluru this weekend

Martin Luther King once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” So, when Anmol Vellani started working on his upcoming play, Innocence, which is based on Franz Kafka’s novel The Trial, he only had one idea in mind — bringing the ideas of the original novel to what is happening in 21st century India. Supported by the Goethe-Institut and Max Mueller Bhavan Bangalore, the play tells the story of a man who is accused of committing a crime, although he is never told about the nature of his offence. His fight against the system to prove that he is not guilty makes up the crux of the play. Before the play opens in Bengaluru this weekend, we got chatty with Anmol to bring you all the details you need to know.

When asked to summarise the plot of the play, Anmol reveals, “It’s about a man who is charged with a crime but has never been told why he has been arrested or what the charges are. He spends the next decade of his life fighting this case, which gets him nowhere. Everybody around him asks him to plead guilty but he refuses to do so. Neither the state is able to bring any evidence against him nor is he able to prove his innocence.”

The play has been conceptualised in the Indian context but according to Anmol, even if he didn’t do that, making changes from the original script would have been inevitable. “The demands of drama make it inevitable that the play would be cut short. Because of that, certain things would have to be removed. Some characters would have to be taken out. However, the basic sequence of events in the novel is retained in the play”, he adds. “After this show, I plan to take the production to other venues within Bengaluru itself,” he tells us before signing off.

INR 400. May 10 to 12, 7 pm. At Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, Indiranagar.

Email: alwin@newindianexpress.com

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