Actress Ruks Khandagale And Shakespeare Part 21 May 2026

Part 21 , which premiered last week at the Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai before a sold-out crowd, is the grand finale of this cycle. It is a 90-minute one-woman show that weaves together the ghosts of Lady Macbeth, the fury of Queen Margaret, the madness of Ophelia, and the wisdom of Prospero. Ruks Khandagale (38), who rose to fame with her National Award-nominated performance in the indie film Fado: The Echo of Dying Walls , has always been a "theatre animal." Critics often describe her as "the weaponized introvert"—someone who uses silence as a sword.

Equally impressive is Khandagale’s physical transformation. She learned the Kalaripayattu martial art form for two years to execute a single 30-second sequence where she fights a shadow. “The shadow is Shakespeare,” she jokes. “And I’m winning.” The response to Part 21 has been nothing short of ecstatic. Social media is flooded with hashtags like #RuksThe21st and #ShakespeareIsShook. However, not everyone is pleased. A small contingent of purists have called the piece "sanctimonious" and "ahistorical." One London-based critic tweeted: “Khandagale doesn’t need Shakespeare. She needs her own plays.” actress ruks khandagale and shakespeare part 21

“Ruks isn’t rewriting Shakespeare for a modern audience,” wrote theatre critic Anupama Chopra in The Indian Express . “She is rewriting the modern audience’s relationship with Shakespeare. Part 21 is not a performance; it is an exorcism.” Beyond the acting, Part 21 is a technical marvel. Sound designer Alokananda Dasgupta has created a score that blends Elizabethan lute music with the harsh drone of a tanpura and the industrial clang of Mumbai’s local trains. Lighting designer Arghya Lahiri uses only four lights—red, white, blue, and a shifting amber—to create 21 distinct emotional landscapes. Part 21 , which premiered last week at

“I am not trying to ‘do’ Shakespeare,” Khandagale said in a recent post-show interview. “I am trying to argue with him. Part 21 is my final letter to a dead white man. It is an apology, a lawsuit, and a love letter, all at once.” The performance is divided into three distinct movements: Movement 1: The Prophecy of the Forgotten Women Khandagale opens with a text that does not exist in the original folios. She has written a fictional soliloquy for Lady Macduff’s daughter , the child murdered off-stage in Macbeth . Speaking directly to the audience, Khandagale transforms the child into a prophet. “You call my death a ‘scene,’” she whispers, tears streaming down her face but her voice steady as a blade. “But I am the prophecy you ignored. Every child killed in the wings of power becomes the ghost at your banquet.” Equally impressive is Khandagale’s physical transformation

“Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets,” she says. “I have 21 arguments. The math doesn’t lie. We have 21 more rounds to go.” If you have never seen Ruks Khandagale on stage, Part 21 is the entry point you have been waiting for. It is raw, intellectual, unbearably sad, and unexpectedly hilarious. It is the sound of a woman tearing down the fourth wall only to find the fifth wall—the wall of history—and then kicking that down too.

The audience, including veteran theatre director Alyque Padamsee’s grandson, was reported to have sat in stunned silence for a full minute after this monologue. In a daring meta-theatrical twist, Khandagale picks up a heavy red marker and literally crosses out lines from a projected copy of The Taming of the Shrew . She improvises a conversation with a holographic projection of Petruchio (voiced by her frequent collaborator, actor Girish Kulkarni). Here, Khandagale’s character—named simply "K."—refuses to comply. She argues that consent is not a historical footnote but a structural necessity. The scene ends with K. breaking the fourth wall and asking the audience: “Do you still applaud this man? Or have you finally learned to boo?” Movement 3: The Tempest of the Self The final movement is the most personal. Khandagale plays Prospero—but not as a man. She plays Prospero as a woman who has abandoned her art for revenge and then abandoned revenge for forgiveness. In a stunning 15-minute monologue, she delivers the "Our revels now are ended" speech, but replaces "insubstantial pageant" with "insubstantial identity." She is speaking about her own career, her own sacrifices as a female actor in a male-dominated industry.