Marathi plays on ex marital relationship, are not new to Marathi drama lovers. In the recent past, we saw a play ‘Aamhi Sou Kumud Prabhakar Apte’ with Pratiksha Lonkar and Aishwarya Narkar playing the first and second wife respectively, of  Late Prabhakar Apte.  It presented  each other’s point of view, for their identity as Ms. Kumud Prabhakar Apte.

Now, director Rajan  Tamhane presents the same subject,  once again, in a different way, through his latest play ‘Graceful’. Written by  Mahesh Ghatpande and produced by Anuradha Wagh,  this latest Marathi play portrays  two women, in the life of a celebrity script writer.  First one is his middle aged  married wife ( Asha Shelar) and the other is a young graceful  TV actress( Aditi Sarandhar) , with whom he is in  ‘live in relationship’.   ‘Graceful’ presents these  two women characters, throughout the play,  who try to prove their love and affection towards  the writer.  While his wife tries to argue, stating that she being  his official wife, commands  all the respect, while his actress girlfriend, also claims that she is also  the wife of the writer, and receives all the love and affection from him.

The play not only presents  the argument between  the two women; but, also has few moments, to surprise the audience.  In this play,  the character of writer exists only through his voice in the background. As the story had limited content, there  was enough scope for the director to use  audio visual display, to show  some flashback moments, as noticed now days in many popular plays. But, that was not noticed  in this play.

There was enough scope  to show the character of celebrity writer to appear in the last scene;  but once again, that did not happen. Therefore, in the entire play you only find these two women, proving their point, to defend  themselves   . Nevertheless, both Aditi Sarangdhar and Asha Shelar ( Janhavi’s mother in popular TV serial ‘Honar Suun Mi Hya Gharchi) have displayed their potential as versatile actresses, through their impulsiveness,  in different scenes, throughout the play.

Wonderful set design by Pradeep Muley , costumes designed by Geeta Godbole add  luster,  to this emotion filled play. It is a sincere effort by both the actresses, to make this women oriented play , presentable.