The theatre doyen explains the process of creating a play with examples of her renowned play Hamidabaichi Kothi. Some excerpts --
Great theatre directors
are moulded by their experience as seen in the case of playwright,
director and theatre doyen Vijayabai Mehta. In an interview at the
programme Samhita Te Natyaprayog - Ek Kalapravaas (Script to
staging - an artistic journey) on Saturday, Vijayabai revealed the
art and science of the theatre. At the start, she made it clear that
all her observations were her opinions formed out of experience and
not universal philosophies.
She said, "The
journey began when I was 21 and is still going on. This journey
requires a sense of companionship and also collaboration. I was lucky
to get to work with people with similar sensibilities. Pitching your
art to the right audience is also important."
Vijayabai then explained
the process of creation in a step by step manner.
Concept and Filters
"All art forms are
like morning tea. You take tea leaves; you add water, milk, sugar and
boil it. What you have now is life and once you filter it to weed out
unnecessary things, what you have left is art. In art forms these
filters come at several levels. The first is the director, who
interprets the script. Then, the rehearsals start and every actor
adds his own filter. Then the music, set, properties, light -- every
department adds a filter. Finally, the audience views the play with
their own filters. That is when it becomes an art form -- when the
creator takes an element from society, refines it and gives it back."
Citing Hamidabaichi
Kothi, Vijayabai said, "Anil Barve (the writer) came to me
with the concept. He had met a girl, Shabbo, on a train. Her mother
was a traditional kothi singer who had refused to teach her the dying
art. Anil went to Mumbai in search of such a woman. Although he
didn't find one, he came across interesting characters that became
part of the play."
Vijayabai said, "I
asked my mother-in-law, Durga Khote, about the era when the business
of the kothis began to dwindle thanks to film music and records. She
told me about a lady, Neelambai (a kothi singer), whom she knew as
the person who brought Nargis' mother into the film industry. To my
surprise, this Neelambai turned out to be the same lady whose
daughter Anil had met on the train. Anil named the lady Hamidabai and
I decided to call the play Hamidabaichi Kothi. In the lead
role would be the music, second lead the kothi, third character would
be Hamidabai and then all the wacky characters from Anil's journey."
Collaboration and
growth
"Now I had to decide
m what form the play should be presented. Every playwright had a
particular style -- Vijay Tendulkar had a journalistic approach,
Dalvi an involved way of expressing in his work. For me, Hamidabaichi
Kothi had to be a melodrama. Melodrama means something beyond
real, overwhelming, but not fake. It meant taking a particular moment
and lingering over it to contain the emotions."
"For the music, I
discussed with Bhaskar Chandavarkar. He procured the earliest
recorded ghazals, showed them to me and told me, "The ball is in
your court." DG Godse worked on the set and costumes. Ten days
later, he came to me with fabric samples for every character and a
plan for the set. He said, "Deviji, the walls of the kothi will
be greenish and 60 years old." Yes, the place too had a
character. He found one of those large thaals used in
community dining, which helped me write a scene including it. Now the
concept had started to shape up and the characters were set. That is
where the role of the director becomes crucial."
Acting and the
director
Vijayabai's direction
style is suggestive: Instead of telling actors what to do, she aids
them in arriving at the right place. She gives the example of
Sattar's character played by Nana Patekar. "We all know how Nana
is naturally. He couldn't find Sattar's morose, vulnerable, pitiful
body language. So I made him improvise on a scene wherein he had to
run some errands for Hamidabai while in constant fear of her finding
out about his other business. While he was into that, he found
Sattar's neck. Then he found Sattar's shoulders and slowly, he found
Sattar's voice. What happened next, we all know," she added.
"For an actor, it is
important to keep searching for the character. An actor has four
identities -- one of himself, the second is the character written by
the writer, the third the identity which observes how the first is
adapting to the second and the fourth identity supervises the other
three. The fourth identity is the art in you. And one thing every
actor should remember, something Stanislavski said - "Always
respect the art in you, not you in the art." Because once you
are proud of yourself, that curiosity and the will to search
subside."
Theatre: as it is
today
"I belong to the
renaissance period in theatre and today, the situation is not the
same. There are theories that revolutions are a cycle and skip a
generation or two. I hope there is another renaissance soon. Today,
there are a lot of training institutes that teach the craft, but
those can only take you so far. The trick is not in knowing what to
do; but knowing when to apply a particular skill. Practice and
perseverance are two virtues young artists should cherish. They
should strive to bring something new to the table and try to stretch
the limits," she added.
Vijayabai concluded the
programme with a quote by Picasso: "All art, including theatre
is the greatest lie ever. But it is this great lie which can take you
closest to the eternal truth."
Published in DNA (Pune) on July 8, 2013
