Women’s Day: I had no expectations from myself, nor the theatre world from me, says Neelam Mansingh

She remembers the time when women were only actors, and never in the decision-making machinery like the director's chair. She smiles that she had no expectations from herself, neither the theatre world from her.

Theatre director Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry, recipient of the Padma Shri and Sangeet Natak Akademi honours, who studied at the National School of Drama (NSD) under the legendary Ebrahim Alkazi, recalls, "One started working, slowly and built up her skill set. As women directors, we had a unique space to us, considering we had nothing to lose as no one expected anything. We could break all norms, approach the play in different ways, and experiment as much as we wanted to."

She recalls that while there were few women directors initially, a certain silent revolution happened and directors like Anuradha Kapur, Maya Krishna Rao, Usha Ganguli, Anamika Haksar, Kirti Jain and Tripurari Sharma emerged.

"And all of us worked in our own spaces and unique styles. A new language started emerging. Of course, we had a familiar family of ideas." While the proverbial glass ceiling was broken by women like Norah Richards, Sheila Bhatia and Shanta Gandhi, Chowdhry observes that the ones 'created' by men were the women's versions of how men looked at the gender.

“While Sheila Bhatia and Vijaya Mehta did excellent work, however, they could not break the structures that had long been embedded," points this Professor Emeritus at Punjab University, whose well-known plays include 'Kitchen Katha', 'The Suit', 'Yerma', 'Nagamandala', 'The Mad Woman of Chaillot', 'Little Eyolf', 'Bitter Fruit', 'Naked Voices', 'Stree Patra', 'Gumm Hai' and 'Black Box'