A score and a year ago thespian Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal brought to this country a new play, The Vagina Monologues (TVM), conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all women have the right to speak about their bodies. The script of the play by American playwright V (formerly known as Eve Ensler) was based on 200 interviews she did with women all over the world. Since 2003 Mody-Kotwal, actor, director and producer, along with her son, co-producer and co-director Dr Kaizaad Kotwal, has staged 1,000+ performances in about 15 cities of the award-winning play in English and Hindi. "It is mainly about stopping violence against women and the different forms of violence women are subjected to… physical, mental, emotional, body shaming…So all this is a major step towards women’s empowerment,” Mahabanoo told Parsiana on February 5, 2024.
To coincide with International Women’s Day, March 8, the duo’s theater company, Poor-Box Productions, will stage TVM in Gujarati for the first time at a special show for a select audience, with another show at Tejpal auditorium on March 9 followed by a three-day tour of Gujarat in mid-March. "We will be the only country to have performed the play in three different languages and where the play has been running the longest,” Kaizaad told Parsiana.
Top, from l: Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal, V (the former Eve Ensler), Dr Kaizaad Kotwal;
above, from l: Girija Oak, Kruttika Desai, Ashdeen Lilaowala,
Swati Das, Mahabanoo: saying victory over violence; R. J. Devaki
From l: Jane Fonda, Marisa Tomei, Loveleen Tandan,
supporters in raising awareness and funds;
below: an earlier poster
Why Gujarati? we queried Mahabanoo. "Because there’s a huge community and, besides, it’s our language… I’ve studied Gujarati till the 11th standard at the J. B. Petit High School for Girls… Plus Gujaratis are avid theater goers and very savvy about the theatrical arts… It is one of the most successful theater languages in the country.” She had earlier informed us that no changes are permitted in the script after it is approved by Ensler. "These are true stories and we have to stay as true to the playwright’s intentions,” said Mahabanoo. "The language is the everyday Gujarati that Gujaratis speak with one segment in Parsi-Gujarati.” The dramatist said she worked for "many, many, many months” with Chirantana Bhatt, editor of Gujarati mid-day, digital, "to see that we stayed true to Ensler’s intentions… Deviating from that would have not served the purpose of the play.”
Ensler allows anywhere from three to five actors in any staging. "Only one actor and I remain constant (in the Gujarati version) from the English and Hindi versions,” said Mahabanoo, referring to "brilliant actor” Swati Das, recent Filmfare nominee for Best Supporting Actress, Comedy for her role as the garrulous housemaid in over-the-top show Happy Family Conditions Apply. Mahabanoo and Das will share the stage with veteran stage and television actor Kruttika Desai, radio star and actor R. J. Devaki, and stage and screen actor Girija Oak.
Couturier Ashdeen Lilaowala, who is working on the stage-wear for the show, told Parsiana on February 6, "When they asked me to design the costumes for this show, I agreed… We are developing outfits for all the actresses… It is like developing designs for characters.”
"The play has, in the 28 years since it was written, become a global phenomenon… It shines a light on gender based violence,” stated Kaizaad. One initiative is V-Day, the movement started by Ensler to raise funding and awareness of violence towards women. Yet another is One Billion Rising, which is in its 10th year. It will highlight the intensification of violence, ongoing rape, hate, exclusion, killing, discrimination and exploitation, among other social malaises. "Mahabanoo and I have carried forward both of these in India… We have created awareness and information-disseminating campaigns to reach women and men in all strata of society from the urban shanties to elite high schools… Through our fundraising we have helped individual women who are survivors of violence and also aided organizations in their work in the same arena,” noted Kaizaad.
Prior to the pandemic, Mahabanoo ran an informal group called "Share, Support, Survive” for women who wanted to share their experiences of violence. She noted Parsis are no exception to violence against women. She had told us in a prior interview that according to the United Nations, one in every three women worldwide has been a victim of rape, molestation or abuse. "Parsis are no different… And then there are our archaic marriage and navjote rules … to keep out our inter-married women and the children of mixed marriages… That is emotional and psychological violence.”
A trained microbiologist and geologist ("and ended up as neither”), Mahabanoo veered towards the arts in adulthood. With over 65 credits to her name, she has produced, directed and starred in acclaimed stage shows like Shirley Valentine, Art, (W)Hole In The Head!, Once I Was Young Now I’m Wonderful, (Too) Hot To Handle, Victoria & Abdul, Sajjid & Stella, Love Is In The Air, in addition to TVM. Her film work includes Black, The Sixth Happiness, Buddha Mar Gaya, Afterglow and Vintage Rusi. With a PhD in film and theater, Kaizaad is a stage, television film producer, actor, director, writer, and designer (sets, costumes, lighting, sound, graphic design) with over 160 credits to his name. Among the well-known films he has done work for are the multiple Oscar-winner Traffic, Simpatico, The Letters, Khoobsurat, Inkaar, Airlift, Jazbaa, Raees, Udta Punjab, Basmati Blues, and Robot 2.0.
Crusading woman
In December 2020 Mahabanoo, Kaizaad and Poor-Box Productions were presented the National Laadli Media Award for their work in combating violence against women and girls. The previous year, they received the Karmaveer Puraskar Maharatna award (see "Doubly rewarded,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, December 21, 2019-January 6, 2020). She was honored with the inaugural W.O.W. (Women of Wonder) Award for exemplary women achievers in various fields in 2018, notes her curriculum vitae. Other accolades include being selected by Femina magazine as one of the 50 most powerful women in India in 2007. Human rights activist and author Zerbanoo Gifford has featured Mahabanoo as one of the 200 most inspirational women from around the world in her book Secrets of the World’s Inspirational Women.
The mother-and-son duo co-founded The Make-A-Difference Foundation which raises funds to create awareness for their cause. "It is very difficult to raise money to stop violence against women and girls, so we decided to start our own Foundation. Every year I go out with a begging bowl and raise money and then disburse it,” stated the septuagenarian Mahabanoo.
Currently, the Foundation is working on projects with schools and college students to create awareness about how gender-based violence can come in various forms, not just physical or sexual. "We are working hard for the last several years to bring men into the discourse and to use them as advocates of ending violence against women,” states a detailed note on the Foundation.
Previous efforts include staging of TVM in Hindi "for women from the bastis (shanties) followed by resource sessions to help them avoid/combat violence in their localities.” Many of these testimonials have been recorded, with permission, for a future documentary film project, states the note on the Foundation sent to Parsiana. Their 2004 V-Day saw Ensler and Hollywood actresses Jane Fonda and Marisa Tomei perform with Mahabanoo in Delhi and Bombay to raise funds for battered women. In 2009 Poor-Box partnered with Bollywood luminaries Farhan Akhtar, Zoya Akhtar and others to raise monies to help acid attack survivor Haseena Hussain regain her economic independence, and for the NGO (nongovernmental organization) SNEHA (Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action). Loveleen Tandan, co-director of Slumdog Millionaire "participated by reading out a special piece by Eve. She has been a constant supporter in helping us raise awareness and funds,” said Mahabanoo. In 2012-13, in the aftermath of the notorious Nirbhaya rape case, they teamed with showbiz stalwarts Chitrangada Singh, Mansi Scott, Suchitra Pillai, Usha Uthup and others to raise awareness on the need to fight violence. Mahabanoo is proud of the Foundation’s collaboration with Women of the Elements Trust, an NGO that provides free legal aid to women fleeing abusive households. "Legal aid is provided to represent these women in court with competent, accomplished lawyers and associates, to help them leave their abusive environments and get them protection in their new lives as they work through rehabilitation and relocating.”
SNEHA’s Dr Nayreen Daruwalla, director for their programs for prevention of violence against women and children, told Parsiana on February 6 that funds from the staging of TVM have partially supported their NGO for 10 years. They worked with the Foundation in sensitization workshops.
So it is not all grease paint and glitz, states Mahabanoo. For her, the end of a show is not the only time and place she takes her bows.