Paakhi

Gauri Bakshi

Amphitheatre

Paakhi is a one-act solo performance directed by Gauri Bakshi.

A woman goes through a string of fragmented reminiscences that reconstruct the imagined and real ideals of motherhood. In a cathartic revelation of memories, motherhood and childhood are fused together, inseparable, the umbilical cord that remains forever uncut.

Conceived as an experiential drama, Paakhi uses light, sound and other technologies to recreate the imagined mindscape of grief where the accused is at once the innocent and the guilty. A mother who is forever at the centre of the societal gaze for each and every action she commits or does not.

The unusual narrative style of the play is achieved by combining elements of ‘Performance Art’ with ‘Theatre of Objects’. The actor at once becomes the character and the performing artist; the stage at once becomes objects and comes alive.

Together, the multi-media approach and fragmented narrative style attempt to take viewers on an emotional journey through time – both personal and social. Paakhi is a story of the consequences of success and failure. It is a rumination of an imagined future. It is a question to the larger human society: Are we inadvertently making our children carry the burden of our failed aspirations?