Why Aruna Shanbaug's story still matters

From Shanbaug to the Kolkata rape... veteran actor Lushin Dubey speaks to TMS about her solo performance in the play Aruna's Story and the role of theatre in advocating for social change

- ADITHI REENA AJITH

LUSHIN Dubey, actress and theatre artist, gives voice to Aruna Shanbaug in Aruna's Story, performing 18 different characters, solo, for over an hour. The play narrates the story of Aruna Shanbaug, a nurse at Mumbai's KEM Hospital, and the tragic events of the assault on her. Directed by theatre director Arvind Gaur, the play is based on the book of the same name by Mumbai-based journalist and writer Pinki Virani, who had followed Shanbaug's case since 1982 and filed a plea for passive euthanasia for her.

The play portrays Shanbaug as a young girl from Haldipur, full of big dreams and aspirations that were tragically taken from her too soon. "Aruna's story was very gripping—the book—and I was determined not to show her as a crumpled victim. I wanted to show her as the sprightly, intelligent, very ambitious girl from Haldipur, a little village near Konkan in Karnataka," says Dubey. She describes Shanbaug as a hardworking, no-nonsense girl with big dreams of studying abroad, and love for Hindi music—until tragedy struck. "Deep in my bones, I felt there are people who want to see what is happening in the world. What humanity is doing to humanity? We have to have a mirror."