‘Mr Sapatnekar’s Child’ and ‘Four Billion Forgetfuls’

Only for sale in India

Makarand Sathe has established himself as a playwright to be reckoned with on the Marathi stage, with a unique brand of wit and humour that distinguishes his plays from those of other writers.

In Mr Sapatnekar’s Child, there is tension in the household of a childless couple as the husband encourages the wife to resort to artificial insemination, and yet is torn by insecurities at the thought of it; the wife initially resists, knowing that her husband is unsure about his own feelings. Sathe injects this potentially melodramatic narrative with large doses of fantastical elements— like invisible clowns who are messengers of God, and who reveal themselves to human beings at their own discretion—and lighthearted dialogic exchanges.

In Four Billion Forgetfuls, Sathe plays freely with time and space, tossing them up and down with the delight of a child playing with a ball. The play, which sweeps freely between 1985 and 3985 (BC? AD?) when human beings have started using time as currency, is also a clever exposé of the unscrupulous corporate world.