Actor Manav Kaul’s Traasadi deals with loss and acceptance

Actor, playwright and director Manav Kaul who made his Hyderabad debut with Traasadi (tragedy in Hindi) at district150 recently says this play which is about the loss of a mother is not the outcome of a personal experience.

Manav said, “Sometimes people watch my play and come up to me to express their condolences. The truth is my mother has watched this play a couple of times. I am a writer, I don’t need a reason to write. Every piece I write is not the outcome of a personal loss or tragedy.” 

Traasadi, a 75-minute play, is a powerful solo performance exploring love, loss, memory, and grief with poetic intensity. The story explores the parent-child relationship, unresolved conflict and the struggle to accept the reality of loss.

Mumbai-based Manav who was in Hyderabad for the show said, “As a writer I can write about an ashtray or a cup of tea. I want people to understand this: a writer does not need a season or occasion to write. And when I don’t feel like writing, I don’t. There is no compulsion. Nothing in the world is a must.” 

Is he more excited to be a writer or an actor? “I also make good chai and poha, I travel. I give my best to any activity I am working on at that moment. I cannot say I am more of a writer or an actor. When I am acting, I give it my best, when I am writing I do the same. We should be able to use our abilities in the best possible way in everything we do.”

“The only thing I need to write is a blank sheet of paper or a laptop; the only thing that drives me to write is my mind.”