Gauging mental health with the aid of comedy and music

Breaking away from the notion that mental health and comedy are separate realms, Swetanshu Bora’s new play, Anthill combines the two, offering a thought-provoking experience to the audience. At a time when one’s mental health has become almost synonymous is mostly based on one’s engagement with the corporate world, Bora’s play is a message that the corporate needs to pay attention to the mental health condition of their employees and a journey to exploring the root cause of one’s mental health issues.

Breaking away from the notion that mental health and comedy are separate realms, Swetanshu Bora’s new play, Anthill combines the two, offering a thought-provoking experience to the audience. At a time when one’s mental health is mostly based on one’s engagement with the corporate world, Bora’s play is a journey to exploring the root cause of one’s mental health issues.

“As mental health is a vast concept, we wanted to stay away from medical conditions and bring out something through a fable with a simple thought. We had a mental health practitioner as part of the play, who helped me throughout the crafting of the piece,” says Bora.

The play navigates the complexities of the human psyche and how we start shrinking. feeling inefficient and inadequate while undergoing mental stress. “After a lot of brainstorming, we came up with this idea of setting up a place where the protagonist is suffering at the hands of his boss; a chance reading of the poet Kabir’s works helps him realise that he is shrinking due to other reasons, and in order to grow back, he needs to take a journey tracing the root of his troubles.”

Songs and writings by Kabir, the Indian mystic poet and saint, used throughout Anthill, “has imparted a healing element to the play,” says Bora.

“A lot of Kabir’s writing was to build harmony and peace, his dohas (couplets) have always imparted us with life lessons, which if we think deeply also speak about mental health, so it seemed right to bring in Kabir’s influence into the play,” says Bora.

Bora also imparts how the lyrics of Kabir’s songs are synonymous with the protagonist of the play, lines from one of the songs, “‘Bura jo dekhan main chala… bua na mileya koi. Jo dil khoja apna...mujhse bura na koye’ ,” quotes Bora, translating, “When I tried to find fault in others, I found little, but when I looked into myself, I found none worse than me.”

The play is also an exploration of mental health in today’s age of social media where people are constantly comparing their lives with others. “The words in the lyrics also align with the idea of ‘self-improvement’ in today’s age, spending more time on working on oneself instead of finding fault in others.”