An Artistic Journey

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

Diary of an Impish Kid

Born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother, Nigerian Inua Ellams had to move out from his conservative hometown in Jos to the capital city Lagos and finally settle down in London. The inter-familial rifts and refusal to accept cross-communal marriage became the contributing factor to the family to leave their home country.

At the age of 12, a young boy was thrust into a new life in a strange new place and has now expressed that wondrous and adventurous experience to the world. The 14th Tale, written and performed by Inua himself, chronicles the hilarious exploits of a mischievous problem child in a narrative that marks his journey from the clay streets of Nigeria to the roof tops in Dublin and finally to London.

Inua recalls his initial days in London when he was introduced to certain concepts that were alien to him -- racism being one of them. "The perspective about Nigeria was different. Nigerians are stereotyped as people who'd like to go to any limits to earn some money. Unfortunately, it is true for some of them, but not all," says Inua. "I didn't know the colour of my skin was a problem to the people and at first I didn't mind it at all. Some of my friends were angered and explained to me how I was supposed to feel offended at racist remarks," he adds. In an innocent attempt to blend into the new environment, Inua tried the regular techniques but was advised, quite resolutely, to "stop acting white". He, on the other hand, had no idea what this meant until he left for Dublin for further education.

Being the only person of African origin in the batch, Inua found it hard to blend with the crowd. "I couldn't escape it. That was the time I had to choose whom to be. Was I going to be the black guy who loves hip-hop, or was I going to be the black guy who plays basketball. Quite frankly, I hated hip-hop. The local Irish people made me listen and develop a taste, which is funny," he states laughingly. But that was the point in his life where his identity had come under scrutiny. "That is when I decided that to be what I am, I should not be bothered by what people think of me. I had to do the things I love and do them my way," Inua states.

A certain sense of consciousness about the political and social scenario had made Inua a completely new person. "I knew if I needed to make a mark here, I had to carry an arrogant swagger about myself. I had to be proud of what I was and I had to tell the people to communicate with me on my terms," he says. After that, life changed for Inua who began to participate in the art and culture activities at his college and slowly made a name for himself. He candidly remarks that, "It is funny that my search for identity led me to writing poetry through which I express myself and my freedom. But I do it in a language that is not mine but was imposed upon me by the British (who also colonised Nigeria)."

Inua was in the city to conduct a workshop on his style of performance and also stage the play for the city's audience. 14th Tale, which, as Inua says, is 80% factual and 20% magic sprinkled on top. It is not simply a hilarious account of a mischief monger but is also a coming of age story. It is about a boy who, as he grows up and learns that the world has an order. The monologue is poetic and rhythmic and humour is the main ingredient of the narrative. Inua believes that although the setting may be different, Indians will still connect to the plot on two levels. "Firstly, with a character that stands up to authority and is in search of his identity, it is a universal concept. And secondly, the issue of immigration is pretty alive and current in India too," says Inua.

Every person has a story, very few stories get told and fewer still are told delightfully. Inua Ellams’ 14th Tale is one such account of a journey from innocence to experience which hands out a few lessons amidst a lot of smiles.

Published in DNA After Hrs (Pune) on November 6, 2012

Twelfth on Thirteenth: An Interview with Atul Kumar

Known as the greatest playwright and poet of the English language, William Shakespeare's works have been a muse to every author, playwright, filmmaker and actor to walk the planet. His plays form the spine of the texts that constitute the syllabus of English literature in school and most of his works are performed over and over again, in some form or the other. Shakespeare adaptations and renditions are a cluttered space, but breaking the clutter is a Hindi play based on The Bard's renowned comedy -- The Twelfth Night.

Directed by Atul Kumar, Piya Behrupiya is a translation of Shakespeare's twisted love story. Having tried his hand at Hamlet and King Lear, this is Atul's first Shakespearean comedy. "We have done a lot of Shakespeare's works in the past. Our adaptation of King Lear, titled Nothing Like Lear, has had tremendous response. We wanted to try our hand at comedy so we picked Twelfth Night," Atul says. According to him, "Its plot is like a classical bollywood drama where A loves B, B loves C, and unrequited love makes people resort to extreme measures."

Atul believes that the essence of Shakespeare lies in its adaptations that are done by various people at various times. "Shakespeare's themes are universal. Therefore, the essence and emphasis differs from who is adapting the work and in what context," he says. He also adds, "Every time someone performs a Shakespearean play, something new comes up in it. That is the brilliance of his work and that's what makes it timeless -- the fact that it keeps churning out newer dimensions to look at it."

 

Unlike most plays based on the work of the literary genius, Piya Behrupiya is only a literal translation of the original play. There are no additions or alterations and even the names of the characters have been retained from the original script. "Amitosh Nagpal, who translated the play, has done an excellent job in maintaining the message from the original play. But at the same time, he has Indianised the plot in such a way that one will not say it was written by a British author."

The play will be staged in the city tonight and Atul is confident that the play will be well received by the Pune audience. He says, "Audience in Pune is not new to our work. We have performed here before, and people have loved us." The theatre tradition of the city is rich, no doubt, but Atul and his troupe want to take this play to the smaller towns of Maharashtra too. The stories written nearly half a millennium ago continue to spread widely transcending the boundaries of language and culture.

Published in DNA After Hrs (Pune) on October 13, 2012