Blink issue 105 february06 2016

THE DIVINE DIVIDE The denial of equal rights for women to enter places of worship essentially boils down to patriarchal elitism p3 saturday, february 6, 2016

Actor Mohan Maharishi plays Dhritarashtra in this production of Dharamvir Bharati’s iconic play Andha Yug in 2011 shiv kumar pushpakar

State of play If theatre is an expression of the times, then Indian theatre remains spirited. Actors are poking at taboos, directors are delving deeper into the local and groups are keeping alive the fire to fight, protest, subvert and adapt p 7-23

CHIVALRY SAYS NO When being gentlemanly was essential to everything, including protest p5

SMALL AND SOUND The eighth edition of the India Art Fair gave up drama to focus on quality works p6

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Heritage at work (Left to right) Environmental activist Vandana Shiva and her sister Meera inaugurate a new ghani (traditional oil press) at Magan Sangrahalaya in Wardha, Maharashtra; Vibha Gupta, director of the centre, looks on

Small oil crisis

Darkest of them all Macbeth is the name of a disease spreading out with the greatest speed in the contemporary world — Ratan Thiyam k murali kumar

Ghanis, village-level extraction units, have long been a fount of cold-pressed edible oil. Now they find themselves on the wrong side of modern-day food safety regulations

On the crossroads of time

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he ghani (oil extraction plant) set up wholesalers,” explains Nalin Kant, a grassroots market the benefits of cold-pressed, virgin oil.

by Mahatma Gandhi at Sewashram activist from Jharkhand.

This form of extraction retains the oil’s flain Wardha, Maharashtra, has been a Refined oil manufacturers have been blend- vours and nutrients, which are otherwise devisible and working symbol of a self- ing vegetable oils with cottonseed oil. Accord- stroyed in high-temperature refining reliant community since 1934. This living lega- ing to the International Service for the processes. “Rural consumers have been suspicy is now in danger of shutting down.

Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications cious of oil that does not taste and smell like Ghanis have been around since ancient (ISAAA), a lobby for biotech crops, cottonseed oilseeds; the world is learning of its benefits times. Food historian KT Achaya dates the use oil makes up 13.7 per cent of edible oil in India. now,” says Gupta. egendary Fo of of sesame oilseedsactor-playwright to the HarappanDario civilisaappropriated the proAs India more had thanpromptly 90 per cent of the cotton grown In 1993, Achaya discovered that from a 96 once2000 said,BC. “A theatre, a entails literature, an duction tion around The ghani a symfor theisgolden jubilee of Independin the country genetically modified Bt cot- per cent share at the beginning of this centuartistic expression does who not ence biotic relationship betweenthat farmers and it used to London.

Thus, the ton, the oil sent is being in violation of laws. ry, ghanis accounted for only four per cent of speak for own time has no relegrow oilseeds anditsconsumers looking for metaphor imagery of has Macbeth wasclearripe Geneticallyand modified food not been the oil sold in India. This figure is even lower vance.”

On February 1, 2016, oil. the This essence of and fresh, healthy, cold-pressed rustic, apropos Thiyam to comment ed for humanfor consumption in India.upon the today. This has also meant a drastic fall in the these wordsenterprise reverberated infinds a packed grassroots today itselfauditoon the contemporary socio-political dispensation.

The FSSAI regulations do not make any dis- supply of nutritious oil cakes (residue after exrium inside NewofDelhi, when the curtain went up wrong modern food safety regulations.

Thiyam’sbetween first notable Chakratinction the production, coldtraction) for cattle feed. India toonUnder the 18th edition Bharat Mahotsav: the Food of Safety andRang Standards Act, vyuha (1984), brings a similar analysis of powpressed oil from a ghani and the day imports more than 60 per International Theatre Festival of India, 2006, all oil producers, regardless of size,orgahave er, greedextraction and violence. been performed solvent usedItbyhas larger cent of its edible oil and oil cakes nised by the National Schooland of Drama (NSD). to maintain a laboratory employ two several times around“A theghani globe,isfetchingOaccooil manufacturers. for cattle feed, losing precious il producers, The openingtoperformance technicians test samples was — a requirement not a very profitable lades andoperation, global recognition for foreign exchange in the process. regardless of size, Macbeth, directed by the internathat the small, village-level units can ill-afford, it is more likehim and his Chorus Repertory a service provider, Hexane, used to extract oil have to set up a lab tionally acclaimed Thi- closure hang- that helps rural leaving the threat of Ratan imminent Theatre.

Heexplains established the Repfolk,” from soya bean and even oiland employ two yam, who hails from Manipur. ing over them.

1976 after Gupta. In a ertory ghani, in oilseeds are completing seeds, is toxic to humans. Subsitechnicians to test notableto extract This classic considered the Thiyam’s “Ghanis willisstay if the government acts, if itfirstcrushed his training National Schoolsamples of the oil,atwhich dies enjoyed by the soy and palm darkest of to allapply Shakespearean decides not industrial norms to aproduction, cot- is markedly Drama andfrom soonthe began incorpodifferent industries in Malaysia and Indo(1984), solvent tragedies — a argues rumination tage industry,” Vibha on Gupta,Chakravyuha Director chemical rating elements like Nata Sankirextraction nesia make it impossible for ghabrings similarmethod analysisusedtana greed, violence and evilatengulfof Magan Sangrahalaya Sewashram. (a Vaishnavite by most commer- folk dance nis to compete with them. of power, cial greed ingInindividual andmustard society. Thi1998, after oil adulteration form) and Thang-ta oil manufacturers.

A ghani (a Manipuri Navdanya, a non-profit that and violence yam “Macbeth is the name the govern- may use electricity killedsays: 60 and poisoned thousands, martialforart) into hisalthough works. the crushing, promotes biodiversity, has launched a nationof a disease spreading with ment responded with out a nationwide ban on many units still Through subversion and reveruse bullocks to turn a manual wide satyagraha on January 30 to save the ghaman,a many voices Ratan Thiyam at an NSD the greatest speed in the conthe sale of unpackaged edible oils. New regu- crushing contraption, sion, these whose indigenous forms get One simple design ni from certain death. kamal narang in Delhi temporary world and across so-and Standards has remainedassimilated lations made by the Food Safety his own distinct event unchangedinto over centuries.

Across villages, grassroots activists are raiscalled advanced civilisation.

It is are being enAuthority of India (FSSAI) in 2011 form. hisgrown notable proCold-pressed oil Among has lately in poping awareness on the many benefits of locally aforced dangerous epidemic.” now, dealing the latest blow to the al- ductions Ibsen’s of neo-colonial servitude.

Though ularity forare its Uttar-Priyadarshi perceived health(1996), benefits, so it type produced oil. “The support that ghanissome need For aailing state under ready ghani. the For Armed the teliForces or oil(Special presser When We Dead Awaken (2008) Tagore’s the ancient past of Manipur in commands a premium price and globally.

TheThe vil- scholars from thelocate government is recognition, that this Powers) Act (AFSPA), noted theatre finda King community across the country, thiscritics also has Dark Chamber ofskilled the Mahabharata, at is a less exotic lage of ghanis, however,(2012). have The not performances gained in any the is a time highly work, and this the purest in Thiyam’s Macbeth strong resonances of condirect bearing on their livelihood.

Prime Min- are by the scenic brilliance and design Manipur part of the Indian way.marked Environmental activist Vandana Shiva level, oil that you canbecame get,” saysa Shiva. temporary resistance. must be reister Narendra Modi isHowever, probablyitthe most fa- aesthetics Thiyam; thematically also Union 1949.

Over the last two decades, blames thisofon the ignorance of the they new mid“Wein have suffered the village oilman ittohas be membered that Manipur’s Aryan Theatre mous member of the ghanchi (oilseed engender a concern for life and givewith voicethe to attracted attention dueeat to insurgency, dle-class and its blind infatuation driven tomedia extinction and we adulterated translated and produced Shakespeare’s origi- the crushers) community. marginalised protestshad against AFSPAat and Naga leader West.

“If someoneeverywhere. sells cold-pressed oil from drugs, oils,” Gandhi lamented a gathering in nal“Traditionally, in 1965. Then in 1997, Lokendra Arambam villages across the country Italy, they will flock to it. They come looking Thuingaleng plans to visit his birthIndore in MayMuivah’s 1935. drama directed — Stageof of oil Blood as environhave hadMacbeth communities pressers, who Constant in decades Manipur. images, partially for quinoa when we have amaranth, buck- place Eight on,Allhisthese words still ring true. mental theatre to upon a lakeoil in on Manipur.

Aramcrush oilseeds provide demand and Within freeragi,” India,she there are compartments of true, partially coloured, have created a myth wheat and says. saurabh yadav bam observed that the Government also recently buy produce from farmers to sell to colonial where peoplewere are trapped a of Manipur that needs to be dispelled. The coOlive decree oil manufacturers the firstinto

Manipur’s experimental theatre, nurtured by doyens like Ratan Thiyam, H Kanhailal and Lokendra Arambam, awaits a wave of fresh energy and ideas

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Quick-freeze misogyny Deplorable patriarchal elitism continues to stymie gender equality at religious places rational argumentation and there may be good reason to consider it valuable. However, no matter how passionately one wants to recover popular counter-logics to rationalistic logic, it is impossible to defend the exclusion of women on the grounds of defending them.

First of all, rituals and practices believed to preserve devachaitanya are not timeless. There is evidence that these are altered in consultation with the tantri, the highest priest authority, and/or through the practice of devaprasna, an astrological consultation with the divine.

The ‘responses’ have not been even. In 1991, the Kerala High Court ruled that the practice of allowing women in Sabarimala outside the main pilgrimage seasons should be ended in deference to devaprasnams that indicated Ayyappa’s displeasure at it. Women had been allowed to enter (but not climb the sacred steps) for more than 10 years by the Travancore Devaswom Board, a sanction impossible without the tantri’s nod. But there are other temples which once excluded women, yet subsequently opened their doors, such as the ancient Thiruvalla Sreevallabha Temple, in the same district as Sabarimala. It is inconceivable that this happened without a devaprasna and the consent of the tantri. Also, the ritual requirements for the pilgrimage have changed significantly, in my memory, since the ’70s.

Secondly, market logic suffuses much religion today, in which ‘quick-frozen’ local logics and practices are important instruments. Divine forces are most often fully and finally deGround control The sacred steps leading to the Ayyappa Temple at Sabarimala leju kamal scribable, manageable, and marketable now.

Maintaining that they honour ‘timeless rituhe question of equal rights for wom- Clearly, the pleasures of fluid gender in Hin- als’, is a major marketing stunt in all temples. en in religions seems to have am- duism are reserved for gods and celestial be- Certainly, the ascendant Hindutva project bushed us with the eruption of ings; humans must remain trapped in gender does not fancy local counter-logics of faith. Inactivism and debate around Shani binaries. Nowhere is this more starkly illus- terestingly, the VHP leader evoked here fears Shingnapur and Sabarimala, temples where trated than at Sabarimala. not about devachaitanya, but a ‘rational’, modwomen are not allowed to enter, and the Haji This means that mere entry of women will ern-protectionist concern — women’s safety.

Ali shrine, where women worshippers are not not fully resolve the patriarchal arrangement However, the Hindu right-wingers rarely wish allowed into the saint’s mausoleum since 2011. that shapes worship there. But to rub temple managers and reliFor many, the widespread media interest in there has been much support gious conservatives the wrong these issues is frustrating: indeed, there are for the SC’s questioning. Sabariway. The Kerala government may hundreds of other desperately urgent issues mala is unique in that men of all not be committed to saving local Our presence will pertaining to gender justice they have raised, castes and creeds, ages, married counter-logics either, but would make Sabarimala a which the media has largely ignored. Never- and unmarried, rich and poor, pretend to do so. Even if the opsafer place for all theless, we should not despair — this is an un- are equally welcome there. All position to women’s entry from expected opportunity to question the the more reason for women to the Kerala government is the re‘timelessness’ of rituals and customs, which is demand space in that relatively sult of a cost-benefit analysis that inevitably raised by the patriarchal elite that inclusive community of believreckons the gains from the move controls most religious institutions. ers. Also, the concern that more policing and to be less than losses from added responsibiliThe forest-shrine of Sabarimala has been in other arrangements to ensure women’s pro- ties, besides being a ‘safe bet’ politically. the news ever since the Supreme Court (SC) tection will become necessary should only It is lamentable that the severe ecological questioned the logic in its practice of exclud- make women all the more insistent on gain- degradation of the forest-abode invites weak ing women of procreative age, in response to a ing entry. Our presence will make Sabarimala response. Access should be restricted to a petition from the Indian Young Lawyers’ Asso- a safer place for all. And it is common knowl- fixed, manageable number of pilgrims of all ciation. There can be no mistake that gender edge that the 41-day-long vow that men are ex- genders. And it is sad that even myth and legsegregation is at the heart of the Ayyappa pected to keep before proceeding to the end have been cut to size, burying the non-humyth: Ayyappa is the son of two divinities temple is often honoured in the breach. Is it man. Few bother about animals — the tiger, so most often associated with masculine attri- not a shame that the interest in keeping such central to the Ayyappa legend. In sum, the butes, Shiva and Vishnu. His companions were impious men away is negligible, compared to question which humans should be let in there exclusively male; legend says that Ayyappa the anxiety about keeping away many possi- is not a trivial one, but it certainly will not save may marry — and young women may enter bly pious women? the poonkavanam, Ayyappa’s beloved Bloomthe shrine — only when Kanni-Ayyappanmar But many conservatives, both men and ing Grove. This, indeed, is the counter-logic of (literally, ‘virgin-male devotees’, but actually women, seem to have a different logic in their faith that we need, one that cannot be quickrefers to male worshippers on their first visits) objection. They fear that the entry of women frozen for ease of marketing. stop coming. Yet the female body remains an into Sabarimala will diminish devachaitanya — irritant in the myth: Vishnu, in the legend, had the inherent divine force of the deity. Definite- j devika is a historian and critic based in to take the form of a beautiful enchantress. ly, this logic is one that is sidelined by modern Thiruvananthapuram

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The perfect practice

With the last of the six intruders out of the way, a war of words broke out between the official security and intelligence agencies. As the questions swirled around the conduct of just about every individual — including the Punjab Police officer who had escaped the intruders — agreement crystallised around the singular point that Pakistan was to blame. For reasons yet unclear, the specific group identified was the Jaish-e-Mohammad and a démarche served on Pakistan called for the arrest of its founder and chief, Maulana Masood Azhar.

Azhar has an old history with India, having been arrested in 1995 in Kashmir while drumming up support for the Pakistan cause. In retaliation, militants controlled by Pakistan’s intelligence directorate had kidnapped six foreign tourists in the Valley to bargain for his release. The Indian side held firm, wore down the kidnappers and perhaps secured the transfer of the hostages to one of several militant groups it had domesticated.

Nothing more was heard of the hostages.

Azhar, finally, was sprung from prison in 1999 as part of a deal involving an Indian Airlines plane hijacked from Kathmandu. According to a deeply researched and documented account of the Kashmir kidnap, the portly and loquacious Azhar was operationally inept, having picked up a lasting physical disability Life after Pathankot A curious affair by all accounts, the terrorist strike at the airbase in Punjab has cast a long shadow over Indo-Pak diplomacy ap/channi anand from a friendly fire incident while attending an Afghan training camp.

Once India identified Azhar as the person of STATES OF MATTER Show and tell The crucial aspect of applied drama as defined by Heathcote and peers is that it can be practised by a regular academic teacher exploringhis a regular interest, reports suggesting arrestacademic led to a subject, or an NGO worker working with victims of domestic abuse brief flicker of hope that engagement would continue. But the normality of a sullen standhen I joined the Shiv Nadar to be made mandatory until grade 10 (Position derstanding diversity — Azhar a topicjust that chiloff was soon of restored, and lapsed University’s TEST (Theatre for Paper on Arts, Music, Dance and Theatre, 2006). dren had initially decried as ‘boring with a into complete and well-deserved irrelevance.

Education and Social Trans- However, it also recognised one major prob- capital B’, Indian for theHigh wayCommissioner in which it is Former in apPaformation) programme in lem with getting this implemented: drama proached in the social science syllabus.talking By the kistan G Parthasarathy, an influential June 2015, I had already been teaching at a teachers in schools are trained in their own end four sessions, thequick module was his over, but headofon TV shows, was to offer counschool for three years, and had several years of disciplines, but not as educators. For several their thirst fornoexploration not. During sel. There was real hurry, was he argued, in reconducting drama workshops behind me. Yet, years now, experts in the field have been call- the school’s the suming talks.integrated The greaterlearning priority through was to “raise this was the first time I was entering a struc- ing for training for teachers of drama for chil- arts week,for The of Indigo alive for the costs theStory Pakistan Armycame internally tured training course in the field. What could dren, and several states across India have middle-schoolers it was explored entirely its support to ascross-border terrorism”. it have to teach me, I wondered. Plenty, as it recognised the importance of drama in con- through musicofand Stretchedtheatre thin in(teacher-in-role), operations in three its turned out. tributing towards the holistic development of art. and drama teacher Maya Rao defourActor provinces, the Pakistan Army should be Drama, for most people, is about having a students, and its therapeutic value for those signed TESTan course (the first such course in forced the to pay “infinitely” higher price “in fun experience, playing games and letting out with developmental challenges. Even in the aterms university), train teacher/actors of men, aiming materialtoand finances”. their energies in a fantasy space. A number of area of TiE, despite the fact that there are now who would be able to take applied drama into There is little new in the hawkish former parents are keen to have their children join a quite a few TiE repertories in India, there is different social scenarios.In She alsodifferent worked diplomat’s prescription. a has rather drama class because they believe it will en- just a single school where one can train to be a on the design the B El Ed course Delhi who Unireaction, the of retired general HS at Panag, pontaneity takes intense hance the child’s confidence.

But preparation. this is a very practitioner. asked about the forces thatTiE drove it. An NSD’s Tripura Wing has,Indian since versity and the new,positions revampedat BEd has held command the course. second sukumar However, the hard work choreolimited picture of all drama.

At the veryin outset, al- 2012, businessman’s hand was identified possioffered a one-year diploma in TiEasonly to However, she deplores the lackhad of much trained tier of the Indian Army hierarchy, to muralidharan a diplomatic event often low me graphing to distinguish between two often in- students bly influential, stood to gain material- vent about what fromsince the he North-East, teachers to as implement he saw a botched these opergoes unrecognised. have stepped terchangeably used Fewterms — and ly from trade Pakistan. claims to bewith the only schoolLarger global ation at Pathankot. courses.Preparedness “We have drama practiwas woefulup to claim credit for (TiE) setting upDrama-in-Edua media spec- in Theatre-in-Education and agendas Asia towere offer also suchadvanced a course. as a factor since ly absent, although tioners,”ample she says, “but not peoreason existed for tacle on Christmas when Minister cation (DiE).

I use TiEday, to refer to Prime the field of dra- theThe UScrucial has long beenofpromoting aspect applied reconciliaple trained in pedagogy.

Many precautions.

Indeed, India had been “singularDrama in the nonNarendra Modi took aand very theatre casual detour to La- drama matic performances workshops tion in the cause ofby pacifying Afghanistan. as defined Heathcote practitioners lack an had underly space lucky” that Pakistan intelligence not performative hore on his wayfor back from Kabul.

It happened by adults and children.

DiE, on the other and Even the Pathankot shadherifpeers is that it raid can cast be a long standing applied drama, betargeted nearofthe border, “despite works through ‘being’airbases to be the birthday of histhat Pakistani hand, is about drama finds counterpart its way into practised ow over diplomacy, it academic was a curious rather affair by by a regular cause they are unfamiliar with Mehran and Kamra”. than ‘doing’ Nawaz Sharif, and wereinunderthe classroom, on preparations the sports field, staff teacher all accounts.

A 24-hour warning exploring a regular aca-went ignored, the literature in the These are curious references.

Thefield.” naval TEST base way forand a grand-daughter’s wedding. bet- demic rooms board rooms and prisons;Nooften allowing armed to subject, or marauders an NGO workaims to bridge this was gap attacked by comMehran in Karachi ter occasion to bond and withsometimes the family. invisibly, er used as a technique, enter a highlywith secured perimeworking victims of bining rigour with in 2011 academic and the air-force basethe in both sides swallowed cus- domestic to Bureaucracies enable deeperon engagement with the topic ter. A senior Punjab offiabuse.

It is aPolice technique discipline performance.

Kamra (in of Pakistan’s AttockHavdistomary invective and foreign secretaries at hand. Unlike theatre-in-education, drama- that cial whose car wasand hijacked as of drama uses the tools methods to ing was felt the life-changing andBoth lasting impact Isof trict) in 2012. involved Preparedness stepped up toiscarry forward the dialogue. The enrich in-education not aimed at performance. the raiders set course to towards the exploration, enable mining into drama-in-education, Rao moved away from lamic militants and inflicted a woefully absent, good cheer just long enough dramatic for a pre- the gamut of lasted non-production-based Pathankot, managed his topic and to findtoantalk emotional connect the NSD TiE heavy Company, with which she had cost in men and material. although ample dictable cast to force itselftogether back onstage.

On with practices is often clubbed under apway out trouble. A taxi driver it. Itof is strongly oriented towards reason analysisexisted worked its formation in 1986.should “It washave like these incidents for sinceWhy New Year’s plied drama.Day, an Indian airbase in Punjab, and they reflection, encountered, notHeathcote quite so sees asprecautions which “the a drop in the aroused ocean,” sheasays.

“There is toorage litretaliatory just a few miles fromnon-performative the international border, Drama in the space only lucky,thing had his throat slit. that, in the long run, changes any- tle being done in theIndia field is ofunclear. applied drama.” against came under attack.

That situation was‘being’, tidied body”. works through explorations, through As the attackers their that allows Kuldeep Singh Parthasarathy’s Drama is the began only medium Sengar, who has strategic worked with adup afterthan a few premature declarations of victo- the rather ‘doing’; and its aim, as underlined rampage, security intelliexplorer to step and in and out of the created NSD’s TiE Company for many that vice may haveyears, beenshares intended ry, Dorothy only for Heathcote, a group ofisarmed marauders to fantasy by “to expand [the pargence agencies scratching world atwere will and to retain both emo- people not just in cities, butBut even remotprospectively. it in is the important raid India’sawareness, consulate in northern Afghan ticipants’] to the enable them to look tional their heads to and figure out if theattwo connect detachment theevents same est of if villages, value part drama because it preto ask it is already of the operational city of Mazar-e-Sharif. at reality through fantasy, to see below the sur- time. flagged

by Punjab Police this: had a“Iterror Heathcote explains am thedimentree. I serves local culturalneighbourhood forms while giving them doctrine of India’s strategy.

If Apoplectic anchors declared and see face of actionsnews to their meaning” (BJ war Wagner, sion.the The Prime National Security the tree.

I amMinister’s inside the tree.” (Dorothy scope explore need new areas learning. so, the twotocountries to stepofback from Indian intelligence dossier estabDorothy Heathcote: produced Drama as aa Learning Medi- Heathcote, Advisor, AjitPieces Doval, took charge, entrust- Clearly, of then Dorothy) a strong demandhow for drama aswant a learnthe abyss and consider far they to lishingThe the complicity of Pakistan’sFramework state agen- ingInthe um).

National Curricular operation a poorly trained myholding own practice, thistohas translated to ing medium country.

The quescontinue the exists policyin of this inflicting mutual pain cies. Yet again, a new bumped into drama (NCF) recognised the beginning value of having an inteand lightly armed force, while flying in classes where we have explored thecomhis- tion we doing enough to respond to it? withis, noare concern for gain. a dead-end. grated drama programme in its position pa- tory mandos from the National Guard for of communication andSecurity sustainable transis a playwright and drama sukumar chatterjee muralidharan is an independent writer thearts, predictable outcome of yet anothperGiven on the and clearly emphasised that port the mopping up. upper Vast army garrisons in the design with primary classes.

We manjima at Shiv Nadar Noida and researcher based School, in Gurgaon and Shimla er effort in to the resume were have training arts, dialogue, includingquestions theatre, ought neighbourhood used forumremained theatre tospectators. reflect on our un- teacher

The teaching of applied drama in India leaves a lot to be desired, but a few recent bright spots raise hopes for a pedagogic renaissance

One step forward, W two steps back India and Pakistan are stubbornly persisting with a policy of mutual pain, with no thought for the human cost involved

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UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

My uncle and Eleanor Roosevelt Once upon a time in India, questions of gentlemanly honour (as opposed to shallow posturing) used to vex politically conscious young men

The good ol’ days Pandit Nehru and Eleanor Roosevelt (right) during a dinner in October 1949 the hindu archives

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Omair Ahmad is the South Asia Editor for the Third Pole, reporting on water issues in the Himalayas

couple of months ago, I was in my hometown, Gorakhpur, in eastern Uttar Pradesh. As is usual during my visits back to a town where I have lived only during my college days and vacations, I catch up with uncles and older cousins to understand the town that I never knew. Habib Ahmad, my father’s elder brother, is usually a fount of information. It is not just that he is now hitting 90, but through his long legal practice, he has seen a world that has now disappeared over the horizon, as time and the helter-skelter development of India have wiped out much of what the old world was — while leaving little traces of it in good writing.

We hear the stories of Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras, but rarely of the smaller towns of Kozhikode, Jhansi, Aizawl or Gorakhpur.

This time, I do not know why, we ventured to his student days. He had studied at Allahabad University at a time when it was still called the Harvard of the East. The Indian Republic had just been created, and there were high expectations of what we could achieve — and with those expectations came the inevitable disappointments. In 1952, the Allahabad University Students’ Union was dominated by Communists, and they were more than a little angry at the state of the world, and India. The Korean War was in its second year of brutal, bloody stalemate, and then Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the American President, arrived for a month-long visit to India in March.

On her tour through Allahabad she received a degree from the University and subsequently, was supposed to address the students’ union. Before that could happen, a letter arrived from the students. It had the most scath-

ing condemnation of US policies, both within ment in another, more personal manner. the US — “discrimination, colour prejudice Jawaharlal Nehru was an honorary member of and Negro lynching” as well as the paranoid the Allahabad University’s students’ union, search of “Reds-under-beds” — and abroad, but protesting at the government’s action, the most prominently in the bloody Korean War. union cancelled his membership. A few weeks Roosevelt was advised by the Indian govern- later, when Nehru visited the University, he let ment not to go to the students’ union. The can- his anger show, and said, “Main jaanta tha ki cellation of the talk provoked the students yeh students’ union mein gadhe bhare hain, aur even more. tumne yeh sabit kar ke dikhaya…” (I knew this My uncle chuckled as he recalled how one students’ union was filled with donkeys, and students’ union member came to them and you proved it…)” In response, one of the union declaimed in fiery tones, “Gentlemen! We members demanded of Nehru why he had run have not been judged gentlemen enough!” to the same donkeys when he was being perseThe students, led by the union members, de- cuted by the British. cided to gherao Anand Bhawan, Writing about these events where Roosevelt was staying. In now brings with it a strong sense response, the mounted police of nostalgia, and a sense of what were called out. In a bid to make The students decided has been lost. It is impossible to sure that they were not tramimagine a Prime Minister adto gherao Anand pled, the students lay down on dressing a students’ union in any Bhawan, where the ground, so that the horses Roosevelt was staying university, especially one so would avoid them. My uncle against him. Recently, when Naended up next to an open drain, rendra Modi was heckled by Dalit and ruefully mourned his newly students at Bhimrao Ambedkar stitched shirt being soiled — University, they were arrested for even for so good a cause. their protests. They are now out on bail. AllaRoosevelt, who was taken by surprise by the habad University has fallen so low from grace demonstration, and despite being miffed at that when the senior journalist Siddharth Va“the vice president of the union who was one radarajan went to meet the vice chancellor afof the foolish boys who had signed the open ter a talk he had given nearby, the ABVP letter”, agreed to give a talk. The students dis- surrounded the VC’s office and threatened viopersed, and the next day gave her a nice scroll lence until the police could extricate him. I as a gift before the talk. Roosevelt would go on wonder what Nehru would have thought of to write about it — rather honestly and candid- these new donkeys. Also, where did that world ly, my uncle said approvingly, in her book India go, the one in which people could take offence and the Awakening East. at not being considered “gentlemen enough”?

In the hullaballoo, the students had ext@OmairTAhmad pressed their displeasure at the Indian govern-

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Control freak in reserved seats Act One, Scene One of censorship is set in 1870s India — colonial rulers doing battle with national uprising-disguised-as-performance mela

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The psychicultures. cartographer Pala Pothipithiya with his imaginary georgina maddox stagedmaps in 1970.

Tendulkar’s Ghashiram Kotwal is an official The vultures were Ramakant and Umakant, text. So is Jayant Pawar’s Adhantar. Likewise A family matter Anoli andby herPradeep studio portraits with their lasciviousness and viciousness, plus Mee Nathuram GodsePerera Boltoy Dalvi georgina maddox their sister Manik’s vulgar sensuality. Tendul- and Yada Kadachit by Santosh Pawar are playGidhadhe. kar made a link between vultures and the ve- ing to full houses now. All taboo plays.

Not nice, nor adorable. neer of morality that prevailed in middle class edSo? Maharashtra been gentrified? byHas Lakeeren Art Gallery (Mumbai), disSimply reprehensible.

Maharashtra.

No. a selection of her architecturally played Petty-minded beasts — squabbling and It’s a warped saga of domestic violence; and evocative Scratch fabric the surface and the old scars are visworks.

Gallery Continua from squawking at a stinking carcass. how Manik copes with her desirible.

A case in point is the show at Italy featured Michelangelo Pistoletto’s bowls Willing to attack each other over decompos- es and her family. the Bhagat Singh Maidan in Kala of pulses arranged in the shape of the infinity ing meat.

A bit like Sakharam Binder.

It intriguing, was October 2014. sign. These Chowkie. works were as 5, was CeVultures.

A play due to which Tendulkar The brightly Lok Shahir Amar Sheikh Janmsar Manrique’s painted BMW Art Car, Gidhadhe. became officially associated a special Samaroh enclosure Samiti outside was the There werewhich more had shatabdi Carrion eaters with beady twisted eyes. with sensationalism, sex and vikeen Segard’s to host works a performance in main hall. Julian spoke of the plainclothes Undernourished, greedy, crooked olence. Most of Maharashtra honour of the clashabetween nature andlegendary urbanity.people’s Iranian personnel than Pan-Asian roster Nepalese artists Hit Man Gurung (above) and Sheelasha Rajbjhandari (right) nepal artbeaks, council often covered in blood and gore and guts and was stunned by the wanton dispoet.

This being the historic maiartist Azadeh Akhlaghi’s stunning staged pholegit audience bloody eyeballs. play of illicit sex.

Shahir Amar tograph ‘By dan an Eyewhere Witness’Lok featured 13 women All so revolting.

After the box-office success of Sheikhthe sang powadascadaver during of thea trying to identify disfigured Vultures. the Marathi film Natsamrat Maharashtra moveslain civilianSamyukta man. Wim Delvoye’s shiny miniaGidhadhe. (based on the cult play by VV ment.

The aim:appreciative to create awareture cathedral drew many gazes Most people would prefer to keep a distance Shirwadkar), the buzz is that the Natsamrat ness labourwhile reforms during the Mill from about laypersons, artists and collectors from them. team will present Sakharam Binder in its cellu- Workers’ mutteredMovement. that it was too ‘decorative’.

But Vijay Tendulkar didn’t. loid avataar. Once again, with Nana Patekar in But Brihanmumbai Municipal CorporaThe the Delfina Foundation’s enclosure of He cared for the vultures. the lead. tion (BMC) saidplants no. According to the BMC nothorny, dried had people wondering He placed them on stage, in the living room.

This is truly the age of post-modernism. Ev- tice, playgrounds thatthem. were It traditionally why only no one was watering apparently The play was penned in 1961. It was finally erything and anything goes. used for religious functions publicHedge meetsymbolised the 1840-70 Salt and Sugar ings before March 2012barrier had the approval to that formed a customs to collect taxes host “similar for the Britishactivities”. colonial rulers of the time. UnThe showwhile transpired someintereststrings fortunately, the textafter was really here was no eye-popping public art do with the marketing strategies that my part- were pulled.

It failed was harmless The show ing, the visuals to conveystuff. the underlying and no performances to shock or ner Aparajita Jain has been personally under- was on. Meanwhile, geriatrics were ambling message. entertain viewers this time around. taking,” says the gallery’s founder Peter Nagy. around the from park’sthe periphery, cycling The team Museuminfants Of Modern Art However, the India Art Fair (IAF), in on three-wheelers, from the made several notesDJinmusic theirthudded little black book. its eighth edition, looked less cluttered with Pan-Asia vicinity.

Yesterday’s being gener“The highlight forradicals us waswere Ram Rahman’s bigger aisles, a better layout and certainly an Visitors flocked to booths that represented ally laidback. was a song or two about booth, which There showcased not just paintings improved quality of the artworks. With a few critical artwork from South Asia. From Nepal the of classinand By the time but conspiracy also architecture thecaste. city through his exceptions, of course. it was the Nepal Art Council, showcasing sev- the folk legends were ready to growl about life photo-montage works,” says Stuart Comer, It appears that the curatorial team compris- en young artists including Hit Man Gurung, in thecurator boondocks, it wasand time to pack up. art. chief of media performance ing Neha Kirpal, Zain Masud, Sandy Angus and Sheelasha Rajbhandari, Manish Harijan and The situation wasn’t very different theFair ViAngus, director of the Hong KongatArt the other nameless people working behind Asha Dangol. Sagar Rana, vice-president of the drohi literaryof function in Siddarth and partner IAF, washosted the first to scoopColup the scenes have all pulled up their socks, and Nepal Art Council, a public-prilege, in Wadala, under the eye of the Rohit Chawla’s image ofMumbai Chinese the results were there for all to see. The kitschy vate partnership, says, “It is our police. Thereartist was nothing starry-eyed about Ai Weiwei, for an undisimages of the Prime Minister freeing doves first time in India and we are exthe event. More plainclothes personnel than a closed sum. and the endless rows of decorative art that cited to present seven young legitless audience. The sleeping giant that is the The IAF looked marked the rather over-packed fair in 2015 contemporary artists from Nefew hundred who attended the two-day international art market might cluttered thisThe year, were gone. It was replaced by a fine collection pal. We are known for our tradi- with bigger aisles show and of songs, plays were be performances stirring againand and looking from across South Asia that brought the view- tional arts but this platform has keenly awarewith that kindly the political narrative had eyes on the Indian a better layout er up to speed with our shared histories and allowed us to display our growshifted. Utopia idealism are passé.

The art and market.

Anders Petterson contemporary conflicts. ing contemporary art scene bemost potent went literary the on words record touted to say, from “The Chifore a wide international dais pointed nese to thecontemporary sections of the market Indian Peis Sales pitch audience.” From Sri Lanka, the nal Code: coming off the boil and collecMissing this year were several blue chip galler- Colombo art collective Theertha showcased tors Section 143 — Being of an unlawful are looking for member new opportunities in ies like Chatterjee and Lal, Galerie Maskara playful imaginary maps by Pala Pothipithiya, assembly Asia.” Petterson is the front man for ArtTactic, and Zaveri Contemporary from Mumbai, and performance photographs by Jagath Weeras- a regular Section 147 — Rioting report on markets in performance District XII, Latitude 28 and many others from inghe and subversive studio portraits by Anoli Dubai, Section 149 —and If an offence isconsidered committedone by London elsewhere, Delhi. Fewer galleries meant there was more Perera. Pakistan’s Taseer Art Gallery had artists any member of an unlawful assembly, every of the most reliable indices used to measure room and viewership for the 70 that did par- like Lala Rukh, Saba Khan, Mohsin Shafi and other member of the assembly shall be guilty the global art scene. ticipate. “Logically, when there are fewer gal- Humaira Abid. The Bengal Art Lounge show- of Over the offence 80,000 attended the IAF this year. The leries, there are better sale opportunities for cased the evocative works of Dali Al Mamoon food Section — Voluntarily causing hurt stalls,323 films and talks added to the enjoyathose who have chosen to participate,” says from Bangladesh.

504 — Insultsome intended to were provoke bleSection experience, though visitors disgallery owner Rasika Kajaria of Exhibit 320. breach of peace appointed by the lack of cutting-edge art. The Showcasing artists like Vibha Galhotra and Su- Overseas interest The police heardowners’ the jeers, theas vacuity and smiles on gallery faces they took makshi Singh, 320 reported brisk sales. “This is The accent on the global was notable with a the high-minded theories.

They were home tidy earnings told another story.as apolactually the best sales that Nature Morte has subtle yet interesting international presence ogetic as the show onstage. Their presence Drama under surveillance Idealism is passé. The most potent touted from theadais to sections of the Indian Penal Code ivano georgina maddox a Delhi-based arts writer ever literary had atwords the IAF, although lot pointed of it has to this year.

German artistshutterstock/eugene Alke Rech, representcould be traced toisthe enactment of the Draramu ramanathan

Gidhadhe.

Horrid things.

Vultures.

Balancing act

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Man on a mission As Ebrahim Alkazi, theatre practitioner and director of the National School of Drama for 15 years, turns 90, a student pays tribute

neelam mansingh chowdhry

space behind the audience, I once found Alkazi pacing up and down. On seeing me he remarked, “You have also come to see my monumental blunder?” The iconic Alkazi became terribly human at moments like these.

At NSD, Alkazi made production work a part of training, ensuring that the actor was familiar with all aspects of a performance — acting, costumes, set-designing and even handling the box office. I recall him hinting that actors should not hang around the audience after a show, fishing for compliments. Curtain-calls were also not a part of the culture of Alkazi’s theatre. In a way, actors were not allowed to turn egoistic, or think of themselves as public figures.

His syllabus tried to “Establish links between traditional forms of Indian theatre and ‘modern’ expression; to encourage playwrights to respond to the challenges of contemporary Indian situations, and at the same time be aware of the developments in other parts of the world”. Rather than treat ancestral material as ‘holy cow’, he recommended viewing it as ‘an expression of its own time’.

Alkazi had no patience with intellectuals who created watertight categories of ‘tradition versus modernity’, arguing that academics advocating this had no experience of translating a text into a performance. For him, To be Ebrahim Alkazi as Hamlet in the play he directed for Theatre Group Mumbai in 1947 modern consciousness meant a rejection of the caste system, of dissolving religious and hat was the one moment that come immediately.” That was an invaluable class discrimination; being imaginative and altered my life, I ask myself. lesson on the ethics of community work. It al- open. Rejecting the guru-shishya parampara in Was it the people I met or the so had to do with Alkazi’s complete rejection favour of a formal training module, at NSD Alexperiences I had? The per- of self-indulgence. kazi consciously discouraged any display of son and the theatre director I am today is a It was during my NSD days that Alkazi di- sycophancy, no touching of feet prior to a mixture of what I have seen, heard, smelt, ex- rected the three plays that went on to become show, for instance. perienced, eaten, remembered and forgotten. his definitive work — Andha Yug by Dharamvir His students were exposed to a range of creBut the one moment that shaped and defined Bharati, Girish Karnad’s Tughlaq and Razia Sul- ative experiences, from traditional theatre to me was my first meeting with Ebrahim Alkazi, tan by Balwant Gargi. All three were staged in realism to the experimental. This, he felt, alor rather his work. He is the man who formu- 1974 at the Purana Qila, which was a coup by it- lowed the actor or director to dip into the vast lated the concept of modern Indian theatre. self for the institution. The stage was built pool of knowledge and make his/her choices.

In the early ’70s, I had come to Chandigarh above a chasm and had seven inter-connected His influence permeated even into the daily as a student of the History of Art at Panjab Uni- levels. The challenge was to organically con- lives of his students. In the hostel, Sunday versity. I can still recall the night I decided the- nect it with the tiered wooden seating for the would see most of us either sprawled on the atre was what I wished to do. Two NSD audience. Even the green lawns or lounging in our rooms. productions helmed by Alkazi were in town rooms, toilets and lighting Alkazi would arrive at six in the and I had volunteered to help backstage — or- booths had to blend in with morning and urge us to do some ganising ‘chai’, handling the dhobi and simi- the environment. exercises. Sometimes he would enIf you are not dead, lar quotidian tasks. What struck me that day Influenced by Noh and Kater our rooms quietly, look around come immediately more than the mirrors, spotlights and smell of buki theatre during his time in at the strewn clothes and dust-covgreasepaint, was the energy and bonhomie Japan, Alkazi wanted to create ered bookshelves, and walk out as among the actors. The ease with which they re- a resonance between Kabuki unobtrusively. The mess, so natulated to their bodies was a world I was unfa- principles and the characters ral to us, was suddenly seen miliar with. It contrasted sharply with my from the Mahabharata. Initially it was disori- through Alkazi’s eyes. His visits always sent us own restrictive and inhibited lugubriousness. enting to see Gandhari dressed as a Kabuki ac- into a frenzy of cleaning.

In that darkened auditorium, watching the tor, with a winged jacket worn over her To stress the importance of hygiene in theperformance, I realised that theatre was a kimono and descending the steps of the ram- atre, he would periodically remind us to wear space where many worlds intertwine. parts with her long gown trailing behind her. I fresh underclothes. Even though this embarI joined NSD without knowing what ‘drama’ had the task of shadowing the actor and mak- rassed us, its significance was not lost on us. meant. Alkazi taught me that theatre was not ing sure the kimono did not meet with any ob- Nothing is fouler than to do a scene with a coa hobby but a profession, one that required se- structions, which could be anything from the actor who has a bad case of halitosis along rious dedication like any other. He drew a jagged edges of boulders to a startling snake! with smelly underarms. A man of immense boundary, created an inside and an outside, During a dress rehearsal, a swarm of bees was personal discipline, he set high standards for and then demonstrated to his students that found trapped in the fibrous platinum wig himself and his students. Very often one the success of creativity lies in communicat- worn by an actor. The timely intervention by a would find him cleaning the toilets and ing and evolving with this outside. colleague with a mashal (lighted flame) saved sweeping the stage… no part of the theatre exTaking the casual approach I was used to in the day. I had the minuscule role of a maid in perience was taboo for him. my previous student life, I once wrote a note the play. After my scene I would quickly get explaining my inability to attend rehearsals. A out of my mauve-and-black tunic and rush to neelam mansingh chowdhry is a Chandigarhcurt reply came my way, “If you are not dead, watch the rest of the play. In the vast empty based theatre practitioner and founder of The Company

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And the show goes on Assam’s mobile theatre industry is under fire for rapidly shedding its traditional identity to embrace the contemporary. But it continues to thrive on popular demand

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early two decades after it was every year; the entire crew — from the cook to alike hound him for selfies and autographs. made, you’ll still find the residents the actor — travel together, and whenever they He is seen on countless billboards across Guof Pathshala, a little town in lower arrive at a new village, every household reac- wahati, endorsing inverters or promoting his Assam, gushing about Titanic. hes for the poosaki kapoor (dressy clothes) it re- new play. Bora prides himself on being one of Without ever having watched the film. This is serves for special occasions. the first actors to have made the switch from because the Titanic Pathshala loves isn’t the reIn mid-2007, the ULFA threatened to force films to (mobile) theatre, setting a trend in the cord-breaking blockbuster by James Cam- closure of these groups, branding them as ve- new millennium. eron. It is a play, adapted by a local theatre hicles of “cheap popularity trying to ape BollyWhile the reverse is happening around the group months after Cameron’s cult classic hit wood”. While “cheap” popularity managed to world, Assam has witnessed a shift from films screens in 1997. But if you ask anyone in Path- override the diktat of the to theatre, both in terms of acshala they will have you believe that Cameron banned militant organisation, tors and audiences. Why has the made his version only after seeing Kohinoor the theatre industry still has its Assamese film industry, known Theatre’s production on one of his many visits fair share of critics. “They sing for its sensitive, languid storytellI would cycle 10 km there. All of Assam was riveted. National and dance for no apparent reaing, failed miserably? “The momedia picked it up soon enough. In their Sep- son,” says Naba Tamuli Phukan. from my hometown in bile theatre goes to the doorstep tember 1998 issue, India Today proclaimed the When Abahan Theatre staged Nagoan to Bebejiya, if of the people in the remotest of Assamese version the winner: “After all, could their first play of the season, Rak- I missed a single show villages. Cinema halls, on the Cameron recreate a maritime disaster with- tapaan, last year, it was much other hand, are few and confined out water?” like a Bollywood masala film, to towns,” says Bobbeeta Sharma, It was Titanic that catapulted Pathshala’s Ko- complete with pelvic thrusts chairperson of the Assam State Roots and wings to When Sankar Venkateswaran shifted to and Attapadi, he knew it would radicallycychange his theatre practice as well as his lifestyle sr praveen hinoor Theatre fame.

In 2010, the National flashy clothes.

“I would Film Corporation.

High producSchool of Drama invited them to the Capital to cle 10 km from my hometown in Nagoan to Be- tion costs and low returns, and lack of good showcase their ‘unique’ model of entertain- bejiya, if I missed a single show,” says Phukan, scripts are the other contributory factors. ment. While Assam’s 80-year-old film industry who has been watching plays since 1964. He re- “Theatre in Assam now is high on production is on the verge of near-collapse, the bhramya- members how he used to think about the value — an extremely stylised and glamorous man (mobile theatre) industry is in the pink. plays he watched for days after. “Such was the affair,” says Sharma The first group, Nataraj Theatre was propped impact. Nowadays I can’t remember the last A risqué affair up in Pathshala in 1963, unaware that it was play I saw,” he says. paving the way for a multi-crore industry in The glamour, however, brings with it many Screen to stage the decades to come. other elemental changes. For one, the ramp is Much is known about the bhramyaman Jatin Bora, the poster boy of Assamese films, a recent addition to the bhramyaman stage. groups of Assam: each group (about 150- will turn 46 this April. The middle-aged, slight- The choreographer is a new recruit to the strong) travels from villages to towns across ly rotund actor has a tremendous fan follow- crew. The musician, on the other hand, has the state, staging plays from August to April ing: seven-year-old girls and 50-year-old men lost out. “Pre-recorded songs by well-known

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Opening act in the Western mountains

Attapadi is an unlikely setting for theatre. Sankar Venkateswaran roots his theatre in the tribal region and works to spread it to the local people

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he year was 2007. Sankar Venkates- cial indicators, has perplexed planners for the by the culture funds. I don’t know how much waran was looking for a space to be- past many decades. culture funds the panchayat here is utilising,” gin rehearsals for Sahyante Makan: Projects worth several hundred crores of ru- says Venkateswaran.

The Elephant Project, his theatrical in- pees have gone down the drain without makSoon after the successful staging of Saterpretation of Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon’s ing a difference to the lives of the people here. hyante Makan, he was back in Attapadi, lookpoem. Rehearsal spaces in cities were an ex- Infant deaths, 10 reported last year, continue ing to set up his theatre. He bought land near pensive proposition, one he couldn’t afford. to haunt these hills every summer.

Mukkali, halfway up the hills and overlooking Vinu Joseph, his stage manager, who came Venkateswaran, who came here by force of the Bhavani river, from a settler farmer. Thus from a settler family in Attapadi, suggested a circumstance, instantly knew that the time was born Sahyante Theatre — the theatre of location in his native place. It was at Puliyara had come for him to make a radical shift in his the Western mountains. The land was in the in the tribal Attapadi region of Palakkad dis- theatre practice and lifestyle. middle of nowhere, with the motorable road trict in Kerala. A small space, it was hitherto “Henrik Ibsen had once said that an artiste ending almost a kilometre away, near a nameused for drying cardamom. should bear the guilt and reless village of 16 tribal families.

“It was necessity that made us come to Atta- sponsibility of the society to Venkateswaran and his friends padi. We couldn’t afford anything in the city, which he or she belongs. I am from the Theatre Roots and where there was also a lack of rehearsal space. guilty of the sins which my foreWings Company got a few peoA place like this has We knew we had to go far away. Then we came fathers committed. I can’t escape ple from outside to make a road. been abandoned by here and found that this place is really far that. It’s not a thing of the past.

The local people viewed them the culture funds away from civilisation and all processes of It’s right there in front of us. This with suspicion. modernisation. It was not because it is geo- makes one ask what purpose “They probably thought us to graphically far away. We are only half an hour does art fulfil? When that quesbe some resort people. They used away from the nearest township and 50 km tion comes up, you have to think to call me ‘bhai’ at first, a term refrom the nearest airport in Coimbatore. There of locating your theatre practice somewhere served for the outsider. Slowly we gained their is some other gap which makes this an exclud- and it’s certainly not in a city for me. You can’t trust. We got the old motor pump near the rived and isolated place,” says Venkateswaran, sit in the city and do work which will reflect er repaired and changed the pipelines, after the artistic director of the International Theat- the reality here. Culture is no more to live, cul- which the residents here started to have acre Festival of Kerala held annually at Thrissur. ture is to commodify. By this process, it also cess to drinking water. Then, they made this This gap, which separates Attapadi, the abandons the larger part of the country. The small bamboo house for me. We started eating most economically backward block in Kerala, majority is away from the cities and cultural together. They offered to help me with making from the other partsA of a state high on all so- Theatre, hotpots. place like successful this has been abandoned Moving performance truck that belongs to Kohinoor oneAof the most bhramyaman (touring theatre) groups in Assam poulomi the road and later with the dey construction of the

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Change in the ring The choreographer is a new recruit to the mobile theatre crew; (above) the ramp is a fairly recent addition; (right) audio tracks have made the live orchestra redundant poulomi dey

playback singers like Papon and Zubeen Garg are used by most theatre groups today. The concept of live orchestra no longer exists,” says Teertha Saharia of Abahan Theatre. Several families have lost out on employment too.

Take Anil Pathak, for example. A playback singer with various theatre groups since 1984, Pathak now runs a small restaurant selling ‘bhaat aru sah’ (rice and tea) in Guwahati. He quit theatre in 2005 when pre-recorded audio tracks started replacing his voice. “I felt unwanted,” he says. His restaurant gives him and his family enough money to get by but, “What is the point… I was never too passionate about food anyway,” he says.

The natya-nritika, or dance drama is also on the wane. In an attempt to keep the tradition alive, some theatre groups precede the main play with a short dance drama, which is nothing more than a feeble imitation of the glorious productions of the past. National award-winning filmmaker Munin Barua predicts a slow decline of bhramyaman theatre sooner or later. “The kind of plays I write, they don’t run anymore,” says the man who has delivered blockbusters like Hiya Diya Niya (2000) and Ramdhenu (2011). He talks about the golden age where writers like Bhabendranath Saikia and Arun Sharma created socially relevant plays, rooted deep in Assamese culture and history. “The theatre groups vie to get the biggest stars, offering them even bigger paycheques,” he says. While older plays would be adapted from Bengali jatras, most today are South Indian film rip-offs. “I am not saying imports don’t work, they do. Villagers would spout dialogues from Cleopatra and Hamlet till a few years ago,” Barua says, “But we can’t really feed the masses idlis and dosas in the name of bhramyaman theatre; the Axomiya

will very soon want his favourite maasor tenga dreds of women stopping her on roads, telling her how ‘empowered’ she made them feel. “I (tangy fish curry).”

Another aspect irking the purists is lan- prefer theatre to films. The former is more guage. “They use words which no respectable challenging,” she says.

Assamese-speaking person would,” says BaHowever, sceptics are certain that it is the rua. While recent imports like tamaam (tre- money that has led to the shift. “Earlier, theatmendous) and botola (rubbish) work res would go to rural areas for charitable reacolloquially, it admittedly sounds awkward on sons,” says Arun Nath, a noted actor based in stage. But the crowds love it. Hoots and whis- Sonitpur. As a young actor travelling with Ruptles follow almost every act of Abahan Theat- konwar Theatre in the early 1970s, he rememre’s Raktapaan, which has all the ingredients bers sleeping on wooden benches in old of a runaway success: romance, fight sequenc- classrooms, in ramshackle school buildings es, family feuds and death. The without electricity. Today, big play opens on a monsoon day in man Bora travels with the group, Pathshala. But the entire town, but in his own car, with a personin gumboots, raincoats and umal assistant and gets the best acbrellas, shows up. The spotlight Pathak quit theatre in commodation. “I don’t even have remains on the heroine, who to button my own shirt,” Bora 2005 when preshimmies around on the ramp recorded audio tracks says, “but the only problem for in her satin sari. The crowd me as an actor is how demandstarted replacing his voice cheers. They approve. ing mobile theatre is.” In 2013, Bora’s father died while he was Big names, big bucks touring with a theatre group. “I The USP these days isn’t the play, performed the last rites but had but the star. The bigwigs have alto get back on stage immediately ready been booked for next August. Prastuti after. I was acting even as my father’s body Parashar, 36, reportedly the highest paid actor burned,” he says. in the industry (a whopping ₹1 crore per seaThree weeks back, in Sarthebari, Bora went son) has already been signed by Abahan. She on stage as Jaladayshya, the ‘good’ pirate, who moved to theatre in 2005 with Shakuntala rescues people from the ravaging floods of MaTheatre’s Morome Morom Bisare, considered juli. Around 9 pm, the tickets were sold out, to be one of the first ‘modern’ plays. “It was a and the enraged crowd proceeded to break multi-starrer, with fashionable costumes, fast- the counters. In Tezpur’s Kumargaon, I ask a paced dances, and glamour,” she says. Was it a nine-year-old to choose between a Shah Rukh hit? “A super duper hit!” comes the reply.

Khan film in a cinema hall and a Jatin Bora Parashar is well aware of the impact she naatok (play) in Joymoti Pothaar. “Definitely makes in an industry partial to the male. “I Jatin da,” she answers. don’t confine myself to pretty Barbie doll roles,” says the actor. Her role in and as Maha- tora agarwala is an independent journalist based rani (2013), by Rajtilak Theatre, still has hun- in Assam

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United we rule Dolly Thakore (second from left) and Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal (second from right) with other members of the cast

Women, uninterrupted The young Indian brigade

Alleys to auditoria Basements, old studios, terraces, bookshops, cafes, gymnasiums, drawing rooms — no space is taboo for theatre. The play Silk Thread from Lebanon being staged at the recent ITFoK in Thrissur special arrangement

The Indian version of The Vagina Monologues completes 14 years on the stage next month

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ow many of you are comfortable saying the word vagina?” hollers theatre actor and director Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal to a packed audience. A majority of women raise their hands in a jiffy, and a few more follow seconds later, gingerly. The men — who make up a fair percentage of the audience — display ambivalence. It’s full house at t is remarkable today we live in a the Prithvi Theatre. Wethat squish together closer world on where no one can predict what and closer the wooden benches to make willturnout. be available for our chilroomprofessions for the large Mahabanoo has dren of inthe thenumber next 10-15 years. she Gone the lost count of shows hasisperage of securing life’s profession from deformed.

“I’m sureyour we’ve touched a thousand at cisionsshe made often by the parents) least,” says,(very before taking stage during for The school Monologues. or college. Very often decisions Vagina As for the these warm-up quesare made your true interests or tions, she regardless says they ofare necessary.

“People passions.

On one this new think ‘vagina’ is ahand bad word.

It’s phenomenon just a part of canbody lead to theworld’s mysterypopulation. of it unsetthe of insecurity, over half this tling for some. thelittle other, it forces usbefore to emThat’s why I doOn this orientation brace uncertain and unpredictable, the playthe starts,” she explains. allowing forthis the arts creep inproductions, with greater In March year,toPoor-Box forcebyinto this new way being. run Mahabanoo andofher son Kaizaad KotWhy arts? 14 Because, inVagithis wal, willthe complete years ofsuddenly, staging The risk-taking age There of start-ups and innovation, we na Monologues. are vernacular plays that no longer fear thelonger, unknown, the unfamilhave been around but and in English theatiar it becomes acceptable.

The arts, too, fall into re, is amongst the longest-running plays. the category of the unknown and“We unfamiliar.

And there too, it stands apart. performI celebrate thisinworld!

Andthan I believe this isplay. one more shows the year any other of theplays, reasons havethey an increasing Most the we longer are around,number the auof youngsters who lookingOur to make dience comingtoday in tends toare decrease. audia life in theatre India. It issays no longer someences have only in increased,” Kaizaad.

The thing you are passionate andall do their after ‘house-full’ board parkedabout outside hours,shows after office, late intoevening the night, leading three on a Saturday is proof. a life sleep and fatigue.

Theofplay is deprivation an Indian adaptation of Instead Ameriit is aplaywright professionEve thatEnsler’s you immerse yourself in, can seminal producand of know have to be entrepreneurial to tion the you same name.

While she can’t “fool earn a living it. I see thisMahabanoo happening around” withthrough the original text, in our across India. And it ismake only and themajor crewmetros have added elements that a more matter of time before this trickles to it identifiable.

The American anddown British other urban accents have centres. been replaced by Bengali, GujaraOther factorsones. too have this emancipati and Punjabi Theaided character of Bob is tion of theKulkarni. theatre dream. numnow Atul And inThe thegrowing segment on ber ofthe reputable and festivals what vaginatheatre shouldawards wear, ermine and over the past fivereplaced to 10 years have mink have been with theimmensely more desi enhanced the value theatre in public perJaipuri razai.

The play of also has a Hindi version,

which is trickier to write given that the Hindi came together — Dolly Thakore, Jayati Bhatia, word for vagina is commonly used as an exple- Avantika Akerkar and Dr Sonali Sachdev — was tive. “It was hard to translate in the sense you the perfect fit. Over the years, many actors don’t want to vulgarise anything. In Indian have been associated with the play. The most popular entertainment, when one talks about constant feature, apart from Mahabanoo hersex and women, it tends to degenerate into self, has been Dolly Thakore. misogyny and cheap thrills,” says Kaizaad. He “Many years ago, I was asked to review The admits the Hindi version isn’t as popular, but Vagina Monologues, the book, for The Sunday isn’t ready to let go of it yet. “If it was purely an Observer,” says Thakore. When Goldie Hawn ception. This is important, especially givenendthe (one economic decision, the show would have FLI, Gati Festival, Jaipurto Literature of theDance Hollywood actresses have pershrinking spaceago in but media serious cov- formed ed a long time we for areany keeping it alive Festival in and Kochi Biennale.

All of them thethe play) visited India later, Thakore erage of we thefeel arts.it needs to be seen in the lan- asked because celebrate and the performing her theatre friend Parmeshwar Godrej for arts the Privately setofup awards like theand Mahindra guage of a lot country brothers sisters. actress’s from across India and the world.

Butwanted to impact contact details.

“I really to Excellence in Theatre Award andyou thethat Vinod Those who have seen both will tell the know urbanhow Indiathey in adid lasting way,says. theyThakore will have to it,” she sent Doshi one Fellowship theatre practice Hawn Hindi is far moreimpact visceral,” he adds. multiply manifold. a fax but never got a response. Finally across the country in very different The play’s nearly two-hour running ways. time sheLuckily, weplay come fromshe a tradition of pilsaw the when went abroad in Among thethrough festivals,athe government-run takes you gamut of emotions.BhaIni- 2001. grimage, these festivals can become of “As itsohappened, Mahabanoo camepart to me rangam Delhiahas considerably in soon tially, youinlaugh lot, grown then you’re shaken by a pilgrimage route It is ironic after that.

I toldfor herarts no lovers. one is going to be stature and influence the past fewand years, the personal narrativesover of sexual abuse vi- interested and sad that these festivals are private inmost two of old women talking about as has the olence, andyounger finally International you gape in Theatre Fes- endeavours, their rather than public or governvaginas.

We needed to get tival of Kerala (ITFoK) in Thrissur. awe when the actors demonment-funded.some I do young hope this changes, and the people in,” she says.

Other festivals strate howyoung the sound of anrun orga-privately have government realises thattoitquantify needs tothe play It’s hard im-a madecan a great impact too, sm resemble thatincludof a part as partner, partpact of supporter, the play commercially.

The American and ing the Jairangam Jaipur, the machine gun. “Thisin play has nevfunderisand promoter to regions There a paucity of venues, and British accents have Rang Rangmandal in er got aVinayak bad response.

Only one, beyond Tier-I cities. they arethe only given a few dates a replaced by Bareilly and the more recentwho Bir- In been from a man in Hyderabad, Another interesting developto perform.

To make matthis risk-taking age month Bengali, Gujarati and la Group festival, Aadyam.inThese wrote ‘This is bullshit’ our ment is the growing opportunity ters worse, venues like the NCPA of start-ups and Punjabi ones initiatives books,” strive tolaughs nurture the- innovation, comment Mahafor theatre practitioners to train refused to stage the play we do not have atre inFor several — from banoo. some, ways the plays hits at high-quality international without giving any reasons.

Also, fear the unknown, awarding all girl ashome hard.excellence “There wasinone schools national workthey haveortoeven pay for the rights to and the unfamiliar pectsfainted of creating a play, recogwho during theto show at shops.

I haveplaywright. seen struggling acthe original “It is not becomes acceptable nising promising Palladium.

We stopped theyoung show tors save up pennies and literally easy to survive in theatre.

Only individuals, tothecreating newWe learnt that masochists like and took her to green room. beg, and not-quite-steal meborrow stay on,” says Mahabanoo. works andwas bringing her sister abusedworks by herfrom uncle and the par- But there’s no todearth get to of a coveted It viewers.workshop.

People who acrosshadthesaid country and ents nothing.

I’mthe told the sister were too young was tonot so 20 watch it 14years yearsago. ago The are world to the local audiences. serve aslater,” plat- now watched play as well a They few months younger generation in theatre to have filling the theatres.

Kaizaadseems says that, sadforms to showcase talent, as also develop a ly, she adds. anthe admirable desire towith develop skills and play still resonates viewers because keen and more young theatre Theaudience. powerfulMore narratives are real stories that the learn the tools of the trade. issues of abuse and violence are just as gerpractitioners and layafter audiences are flocking to mane have been compiled interviews with over Eventoday the as less-glamorous and ago: more“I often munthey were 14 years thesewomen festivals an annual retreat.

200 ofasdifferent ages and ethnicities. used daneto aspects of theatre, such as theatre mansay in the early days of the play that we In Hollywood, actresses Julia Roberts, Susan hope agement, takers. very first theatre thathave we all seekIndia’s unemployment soon, Stopovers for the arts Sarandon, Marissa Tomei and Jane Fonda have which management training programme, fourmeans the need for a play thatthe is about Today we have in India violence performed in far themore play. opportunities Here, when Mahabamonth SMART: the againstStrategic womenManagement would have ingone to immerse ourselves ina other art formsBollytoo, away.” noo tried approaching “second-level Art of Theatre course, has attracted wonderThat, unsurprisingly, is yet to ahappen. such asstar”, the annual Ishara Puppet Assi- ful array of young theatre groups that are hunwood she refused becausefestival, her guruji chaudhuri tej’s festival theatre forcast young — TI- mohini would frownofupon it. The thatpeople eventually gry to learn how they can function better and

Spurring Indian theatre are the youngsters, who continue to face age-old obstacles but are finding creative ways of circumventing them

sanjna kapoor

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Subversion has no clothes

realise their dreams. There is exciting work taking place amongst younger theatre groups and performers, marked by a readiness to take more risks with content and form. The very language of theatre is being challenged and rediscovered. From The Tadpole Repertory in Delhi, to Jyoti Dogra and her one-woman pieces, to Patchwork Theatre in Mumbai, to the Natak Company in Pune, to Badungduppa Kalakendra in Assam and so many more...

A new culture is brewing of late within the theatre community, and that is one of collaboration — exciting connections of sharing and allika Taneja’s newest stage creating newer work.

Spearheaded by is thea 12th-floor younger generation, thisapartment movementinisGreater throwNoida, a suburb kmwork fromand the ing up exciting possibilities for50new Capital where skyscrapers are forms of theatre. theMyreal inhabitants.

A small carpet onI the own organisation, Junoon, which cofloor is her Clothes, founded four performance years ago, isspace. finding great enough to fill acollaborating trunk and herwith onlylikeminded prop, hang strength from from lampshades and a curate house and ladder. organisations to design, runMore proare neatly stacked on a chair and stool. small grammes.

This includes names suchAas Tatable lamp contributes to theForum lighting. masha Theatre, India Theatre and India The audience, littleGillo over two dozen, is Foundation for theaArts, Theatre Repertomostly academics and university students. ry, QTP, and even individuals such as Ratnabali They are perched durries, cushions, beds, Bhattacharjee andon Timira Gupta.

Each organichairs and sofas, and atbrings least some them sation or individual their ofunique know what expect.

Taneja taken Thoda strengths toto bear, to craft veryhas special encounDhyan Se,the a shard of a playarts. thatThere bruises with its ters with performing have been silence and mocks withtheatre its black humour, collaborations between groups and wherever her audiences willtheir havecounterparts it. But some individuals from Delhi and things never or change.

Like theand heavy silence in Bengaluru, between Pune Jaipur.

Perwhen she tours walkshave in naked.

As she stands and formance been arranged between looks at each of us straight in the eye, the true contheatre groups across cities, enabling ventionalofrelationship between the actor and sharing resources and manpower, as also the spectator fractures. appears deepening learning and a The senseactor of being part comfortable in her nudity, but it challenges of a larger whole. theSatyadev audience.

Oneonce earnestly meets her Dubey said, “Theatre willgaze. nevAnother looks away. watches, mouth er die because thereThe willthird always be need from agape.

The fourth, shoulders slouched,in smiles the audience to immerse themselves pera casual smile. wander all over her body. formance.”

I doGazes believe this strongly.

And inTaneja can feel them India all. “Whatever the gaze terestingly, in urban the audiences are may be, have We to be doing I’m doing. across allI ages. also havewhat an audience thatI make sure I’mable not to offended of it. I’m veis ready and afford by an any evening at the ry in with fact thatisthey are noaudiences’ hermits. I theatre.

Thethe challenge to capture have to give deal with the fact attention andthem maketime themtofeel equally responthat there’s a naked bodyalive. in the room sible for keeping theatre They are and the what’s the big deal about it,” says Taneja. true patrons.

She stands and then turns slightly as minds A month ago I was fortunate to experience a and minutes ticktheatre away. practice She stands tillJhaathe marvellous rural called di Pati in the Vidharbha region of Maharashtra. I was in Navegaon for the premier of a new production by the Venkatesh Mandali when my host, Sadanand Borkar, took me also to the Jhaadi Pati playing in the next village. That very evening, he explained, within a radius of 12 km, a dozen performances were taking place simultaneously, watched by more than 24,000 people. All of them would have purchased a ticket each, priced from ₹30 to ₹300, resulting in a turnover of ₹18 lakh from just

Two bits for theatre The challenge is to capture audiences’ attention and make them feel equally responsible for keeping theatre alive. People watch a play at an open theatre near Kolar, Karnataka

A shard of a play that is a political choice, a protest — one that fractures the conventional relationship between actor and spectactor

kamal narang

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Bend it Young practitioners are experimenting with content and form. Jyoti Dogra performs her solo play Notes on Chai at Bharat Bhawan in Bhopal am faruqui

breathing around her becomes normal. Till the abruptness of the nudity wears off. Till, as she says, “What’s the big deal” becomes a flickering thought in the head. Then she smiles, a smile so beguiling, that the audience is relieved to give it back. She is still naked. But now it’s no more about nudity. The anonymous naked body has become the smiling person. And then she intones, “Thoda dhyan se” (Be careful). Taneja crushes the potent silence of nudity with a monologue that works itself into frenzy. She talks about being in tune with the ‘atmosphere’ of a place. About being home before dark. About not telling anyone much about you, so that no one really knows you and cannot blame you for anything. Each dupatta she ties around herself, the tops, shorts, socks and gloves she wears, one on top of another, smothers the person who stood before us a few minutes back. A lifetime’s advice of ‘be careful’ makes her a scarecrow. She exchanges individuality for anonymity, if that will keep her safe. Finally, she puts on a helBrightWhen spot The number of reputable awards met. notgrowing an inch of flesh is visible, she and festivals have given a fillip to the theatre scene. A scene “If fromsomething Mathi, whichhappens bagged four Mahindra in Theatre awards last year says, despite allExcellence this, you can at least say it’s not my fault.”

Telling it the hard way Mallika Taneja’s Thoda Dhyan Se bruises silence and mockstowith its ways to this small corner of rural Vidharbha on a sin- er spaceswith anditsare managing find black humour the of her south Delhi gle eated night!in And thebalcony Jhaadi Pati season lasts five pull their resources together and survive. home,What between spoonfuls of dal-chawal, months. is more astonishing is the qual- Thankfully, the number of independent theatTaneja talks of howwhich Thodaprides Dhyanitself Se started. shespaces has kept both the andthe new versions ity of the audience, in buy- re cropping up old across country is “Years of being told theseitsthings.

Years of peo- growing. alive. She performed in Jantar under ing tickets and knowing theatre.

But at whatitcost?

WhyMantar, can the govpleThis watching, touching, looking.

Years be- ernment a tree, on not December theresources year before last.

The 150-year-old theatre practice getsofzero chip in 16 with and assisting a woman in the city.”ItsItperformers, was one ance? audience in support from the government.

In stood fact, around most as of she theperformed time, the experiment among many and her friends her innerwear, in a it space that guaranteed writers and producers are she farmers (sadly few- government makes prohibitively difficultno to at and The fewer Tadpole Repertory were working on security lacked thetosanctity oflaws theatre. er now, as the more commercial TV run theseand spaces, owing rules and that four years But this particular “Myblind voiceto couldn’t carry. to use atheatremike.” actors fromago.

Pune and Mumbai makework theirgrew way are the needs of aI had developing each this timelucrative she performed it —themes, in her inner“I’mculture. okay toThis perform anywhere.” And last into world). The when going must change. wear, before friends, range artistes andfarmer acquaintshe got her biggest stage soand far. BengaIn Sannot bawdy comedies, from sui- month Interestingly, in Delhi, Mumbai ances to insuperstition small spaces.and “Who knew what this kar Venkateswaran found a curator willcides women’s lurushe there seems to be a spurt play had,” she says.The audience ing to take the in risk.

Dhyan of Se non-trawas the empowerment. theThoda emergence The Zurich Theatre Spektakel sent her an in- final performance at thetheatre International knows the plays well and demands ditional spaces. Theatvitation.

And Taneja reachedenterout to veteran re Festival of Kerala.

For Taneja ITFoKtheatre was a its money’s worth of quality re people or even Maya Krishna Rao fascinating. to work and rework Theatre the turning she could performavailable at a govtainment.

It is truly lovers are turning peoplepoint; that piece.

They decided to do away with thethemselves inner- ernment festivalspaces with the State aidHowever, the greatest challenge into machinery performing or theatre wear. “Imost just urban stopped having anher is — subversion at old its best. facing theatre workers basements, stulovers are turning ingspaces swers to why I’m doing it that is appreciative the audiis the lack of spaces to create work terraces, of bookshops, available spaces into Shedios, way.” naked in. became the about 300 of them, who in andBeing to perform Spaces that performing spaces ence, cafes, gymnasiums and drawonlynot way toauditoria do; oncefor shehire, wasbut When you let your hading norooms clue what was But in store are just included. susconvinced, nudity was just their a when they walked theunless Black ones that actively nurture tainability is theinto issue; counterpoint play part it.and “I have understood, emo-au- itself out, there is Box. Shegovernment calls it a ‘moment’, when work develop a discerning the wakes up to tionally,Seeing at a gut even if I in- true co-existence something forsafety the theatdience. thelevel, government’s the needshifted to create nets cannot articulate exactly, re and the could difference towardsit this direthat need, more and for such endeavours, as audience. it does for“They innovation this is theatre the onlypeople way toare do it.

The their own and start-ups, have thistohappen.

They more creating we not are let going continue to rest of to it iscreate figuring how.” in.

A In the proc- struggle, and might havesurvive disagreements with spaces andout perform simply rather than lot they of figuring out, at could that. otherwise be thrive. me. But they didn’t stop the ess, are turning what “Strength comes in theinto doing. be show. lettime, people havethan theirever voice and they seen as prime real estate little You oasescan of creNowThey is the more before, for standing in sharing a rehearsal room and doing it. But theatre will debate it later. cannot asklives. for a better ativity and — Studio Safdar in Delhi, to claim itsYou space in our Given it is very different to do itLamakaan in a room full of peo- the response.

When youofletthe your counterpoint Sitara Studio in Mumbai, in Hyderadynamic nature younger generaI hadin to Irinjalakuda, be comfortable withStudio my body play itself out, there is true co-existence.” bad,ple.

Walden Avikal in tion in theatre, I believe this will happen. As Manifesto of thewith Arts and it Kala is a constant process. ToTheatre a large theTaneja is set to startinwork on a piece Dehradun, Lok Manch Mullanpur anonymous quote “Culture, of which the arts are highextent have Vinayak said, ‘Dekhenge to dek- says, Shubham Vardhan on the politics ofthe memory in Ludhiana, and IRang Rangmandal is but a collective means of henge — they will getnot over it’.” est andexpression, forgetting. She is also gearing up for the in Bareilly among others.

Andalso I am menof telling stories, of imaginpiece established is her political 24-hour meaning, walk, her piece at the upcoming walk tioning the olderThe and more Prithvi making and then real, who we choiceRanga — herShankara protest, in question festival.

Thodabelieving Dhyan Se,what her isexperiment at Theatre in Mumbai, Benga- ing what wewill are doing here Ourgoes culanswer.Adishakti And it is in risky.

So are, subversion, happen as and longwhy. as she luru, Ninasam inand Heggodu, Pudureflects us; how we see the world andwhat how thatinperformance In- ture about it smartly.

‘Careful’ is, ironically, cherry, or Seagull risky Theatre Guwahati, asin they seestell us.”her when she sets out to is still confined toin small her world friends continue to play adia very important role our the communities and more festivals. theatre development, but have much ex- perform.

TanejaWhat wantsisit exciting to reach as perience on the ground. is sanjna kapoor is a theatre practitioner and the p anima of Junoon many possible, so co-founder how younger theatre people are as creating new-

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Many faces, many masks The entrance to the National School of Drama, the main venue for the Bharat Rang Mahotsav

Different strokes Preparations are in full swing ahead of the festival

A sonorous welcome Artists get ready for the inauguration of the theatre festival

Word on the street Students from Delhi University enact a street play

Wait and watch People take a break between plays

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King of kings Ratan Thiyam’s production of Macbeth, the opening act of the festival

Come into play All the world’s a stage, but there are some venues that are special. The 18th edition of Bharat Rang Mahotsav — the annual festival of National School of Drama — started this week. For two more weeks, colours, moods, emotions and ideas will rule the Capital as artistes from across the country and the world take centre stage. Kamal Narang takes us through the festival’s first few days.

Spellbound The audience watches a play with rapt attention

Masterclass Sonal Mansingh at a Living Legend Series interactive session

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United we rule Dolly Thakore (second from left) and Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal (second from right) with other members of the cast

Women, uninterrupted The young Indian brigade

Alleys to auditoria Basements, old studios, terraces, bookshops, cafes, gymnasiums, drawing rooms — no space is taboo for theatre. The play Silk Thread from Lebanon being staged at the recent ITFoK in Thrissur special arrangement

The Indian version of The Vagina Monologues completes 14 years on the stage next month

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ow many of you are comfortable saying the word vagina?” hollers theatre actor and director Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal to a packed audience. A majority of women raise their hands in a jiffy, and a few more follow seconds later, gingerly. The men — who make up a fair percentage of the audience — display ambivalence. It’s full house at t is remarkable today we livecloser in a the Prithvi Theatre. Wethat squish together world on where no one can predict what and closer the wooden benches to make willturnout. be available for our chilroomprofessions for the large Mahabanoo has dren of inthe thenumber next 10-15 years. she Gone the lost count of shows hasisperage of securing your life’s profession from deformed.

“I’m sure we’ve touched a thousand at cisionsshe made often by the parents) least,” says,(very before taking stage during for The school Monologues. or college. Very often decisions Vagina As for the these warm-up quesare made your true interests or tions, sheregardless says they ofare necessary.

“People passions.

On one this new think ‘vagina’ is ahand bad word.

It’sphenomenon just a part of can body lead to the world’s mysterypopulation. of it unsetthe of insecurity, over half this tling for some. thelittle other, it forces usbefore to emThat’s why I doOn this orientation brace uncertain and unpredictable, the playthe starts,” she explains. allowing for this the arts creep in productions, with greater In March year,toPoor-Box forcebyinto this new way being. run Mahabanoo andofher son Kaizaad KotWhy arts? Because, in Vagithis wal, willthe complete 14 years ofsuddenly, staging The risk-taking age of start-ups and innovation, we na Monologues.

There are vernacular plays that no longer fear the longer, unknown, the unfamilhave been around butand in English theatiar becomes acceptable.

The arts, too, fall into re, it is amongst the longest-running plays. the category of the unknown and“We unfamiliar.

And there too, it stands apart. performI celebrate thisinworld!

Andthan I believe this isplay. one more shows the year any other of theplays, reasons havethey an increasing Most the we longer are around,number the auof youngsters whotoare lookingOur to make dience comingtoday in tends decrease. audia life in theatre India. It issays no longer someences have only in increased,” Kaizaad.

The thing you are passionate andall do their after ‘house-full’ board parkedabout outside hours,shows after office, late intoevening the night, leading three on a Saturday is proof. a life sleep and fatigue.

Theofplay is deprivation an Indian adaptation of Instead Ameriit is aplaywright professionEve thatEnsler’s you immerse yourself in, can seminal producand know have to be entrepreneurial to tion of the you same name.

While she can’t “fool earn a living it. I see thisMahabanoo happening around” withthrough the original text, in our major acrosselements India. And it ismake only and the crewmetros have added that a more matteridentifiable. of time before this trickles to it The American anddown British other urban accents have centres. been replaced by Bengali, GujaraOther factorsones. too have this emancipati and Punjabi Theaided character of Bob is tion of theKulkarni. theatre dream. numnow Atul And inThe thegrowing segment on ber ofthe reputable festivals what vaginatheatre shouldawards wear, and ermine and over the past fivereplaced to 10 years have mink have been with theimmensely more desi enhanced the value theatre in public perJaipuri razai.

The playof also has a Hindi version,

which is trickier to write given that the Hindi came together — Dolly Thakore, Jayati Bhatia, word for vagina is commonly used as an exple- Avantika Akerkar and Dr Sonali Sachdev — was tive. “It was hard to translate in the sense you the perfect fit. Over the years, many actors don’t want to vulgarise anything. In Indian have been associated with the play. The most popular entertainment, when one talks about constant feature, apart from Mahabanoo hersex and women, it tends to degenerate into self, has been Dolly Thakore. misogyny and cheap thrills,” says Kaizaad. He “Many years ago, I was asked to review The admits the Hindi version isn’t as popular, but Vagina Monologues, the book, for The Sunday isn’t ready to let go of it yet. “If it was purely an Observer,” says Thakore. When Goldie Hawn ception. This is important, especially givenendthe (one economic decision, the show would have FLI, Gati Festival, JaipurtoLiterature of theDance Hollywood actresses have pershrinking spaceago in but media serious cov- formed ed a long time we for areany keeping it alive Festival in and Kochi Biennale.

All of them thethe play) visited India later, Thakore erage of the arts.it needs to be seen in the lan- asked because we feel celebrate and the performing her theatre friend Parmeshwar Godrej for arts the Privately setofup awardsbrothers like theand Mahindra guage of a lot country sisters. actress’s from across India and the world.

Butwanted to impact contact details.

“I really to Excellence in Theatre Award andyou thethat Vinod Those who have seen both will tell the know urbanhow Indiathey in adid lasting way,says. theyThakore will have to it,” she sent Doshi one Fellowship impact theatre practice Hawn Hindi is far more visceral,” he adds. multiply manifold. a fax but never got a response. Finally across the country in very different The play’s nearly two-hour running ways. time sheLuckily, weplay come fromshe a tradition of pilsaw the when went abroad in Among thethrough festivals,athe government-run takes you gamut of emotions.BhaIni- 2001. grimage, these festivals can become of “As itsohappened, Mahabanoo camepart to me rangam Delhiahas considerably in soon tially, youinlaugh lot, grown then you’re shaken by a pilgrimage route arts It is ironic after that.

I toldfor her no lovers. one is going to be stature and influence the past fewand years, the personal narrativesover of sexual abuse vi- interested and sad thatinmost these festivals are private two of old women talking about as has the olence, andyounger finally International you gape in Theatre Fes- endeavours, their rathervaginas. than public or governWe needed to get tival of Kerala (ITFoK) in Thrissur. awe when the actors demonment-funded.some I do hope changes, andsays. the youngthis people in,” she Other young festivals privately have government realises strate how the sound of anrun orgathattoitquantify needs tothe play It’s hard im-a madecan a great impact too, sm resemble thatincludof a part as partner, partpact of supporter, the play commercially.

The American and ing the Jairangam Jaipur, the machine gun. “Thisin play has nevfunderisand promoter to regions There a paucity of venues, and British accents have Rang Rangmandal in er got aVinayak bad response.

Only one, beyond Tier-I cities. they arethe only given a few dates a replaced by Bareilly and the more recentwho Bir- In been from a man in Hyderabad, Another interesting developto perform.

To make matthis risk-taking age month Bengali, Gujarati and la Group festival, Aadyam.inThese wrote ‘This is bullshit’ our ment is the growing opportunity ters worse, venues like the NCPA of start-ups and Punjabi ones initiatives books,” strive tolaughs nurture the- innovation, comment Mahafor theatre practitioners to train refused to stage the play we do not have atre inFor several — from banoo. some,ways the plays hits at high-quality without giving any international reasons. Also, fear the unknown, awarding all girl ashome hard.excellence “There wasinone schools national workthey haveortoeven pay for the rights to and the unfamiliar pectsfainted of creating a play, recogwho during theto show at shops.

I haveplaywright. seen struggling acthe original “It is not becomes acceptable nising promising Palladium.

We stopped theyoung show tors save up pennies and literally easy to survive in theatre.

Only individuals, tothecreating newWe learnt that masochists like and took her to green room. beg,meborrow and not-quite-steal stay on,” says Mahabanoo. works andwas bringing her sister abusedworks by herfrom uncle and the par- But there’s no todearth get to of a coveted It viewers.workshop.

People who acrosshad thesaid country and ents nothing.

I’mthe told the sister were too young was tonot so 20 watch it 14years yearsago. ago The are world to the local audiences. serve aslater,” plat- now watched play as well a They few months younger generation in theatre to have filling the theatres.

Kaizaadseems says that, sadforms to showcase talent, as also develop a ly, she adds. anthe admirable desire towith develop skills and play still resonates viewers because keen and more young theatre Theaudience. powerfulMore narratives are real stories that the learn the tools of the trade. issues of abuse and violence are just as gerpractitioners and layafter audiences are flocking to mane have been compiled interviews with over Eventoday the as less-glamorous and ago: more“I munthey were 14 years often thesewomen festivalsofasdifferent an annual retreat.

200 ages and ethnicities. used dane to aspects such mansay in of thetheatre, early days of as thetheatre play that we In Hollywood, actresses Julia Roberts, Susan hope agement, takers. very first theatre thathave we all seekIndia’s unemployment soon, Stopovers for the arts Sarandon, Marissa Tomei and Jane Fonda have which management training programme, fourmeans the need for a play thatthe is about Today we have in India violence performed in far themore play.opportunities Here, when Mahabamonth SMART: the againstStrategic womenManagement would have ingone to immerse ourselves inaother art formsBollytoo, away.” noo tried approaching “second-level Art of Theatre course, has attracted wonderThat, unsurprisingly, is yet to ahappen. such asstar”, the annual Ishara Puppet Assi- ful array of young theatre groups that are hunwood she refused becausefestival, her guruji chaudhuri tej’s festival theatre forcast young — TI- mohini would frownofupon it. The thatpeople eventually gry to learn how they can function better and

Spurring Indian theatre are the youngsters, who continue to face age-old obstacles but are finding creative ways of circumventing them

sanjna kapoor

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Subversion has no clothes

realise their dreams. There is exciting work taking place amongst younger theatre groups and performers, marked by a readiness to take more risks with content and form. The very language of theatre is being challenged and rediscovered. From The Tadpole Repertory in Delhi, to Jyoti Dogra and her one-woman pieces, to Patchwork Theatre in Mumbai, to the Natak Company in Pune, to Badungduppa Kalakendra in Assam and so many more...

A new culture is brewing of late within the theatre community, and that is one of collaboration — exciting connections of sharing and allika Taneja’s newest stage creating newer work.

Spearheaded by is thea 12th-floor apartment younger generation, this movementinisGreater throwNoida, a suburb kmwork fromand the ing up exciting possibilities for50new Capital where skyscrapers are forms of theatre. theMyreal inhabitants.

A small carpet onI the own organisation, Junoon, which cofloor is her Clothes, founded four performance years ago, isspace. finding great enough tofrom fill acollaborating trunk and herwith onlylikeminded prop, hang strength from lampshades and a curate house and ladder. organisations to design, runMore proare neatly stacked on a chair and stool. small grammes.

This includes names suchAas Tatable lamp contributes to theForum lighting. masha Theatre, India Theatre and India The audience, littleGillo overTheatre two dozen, is Foundation for thea Arts, Repertomostly academics and university students. ry, QTP, and even individuals such as Ratnabali They are perched durries, cushions, beds, Bhattacharjee andon Timira Gupta.

Each organichairs and sofas, and atbrings least some them sation or individual their ofunique know what expect.

Taneja taken Thoda strengths toto bear, to craft veryhas special encounDhyan Se,the a shard of a playarts. thatThere bruises with its ters with performing have been silence and mocks withtheatre its black humour, collaborations between groups and wherever her audiences willtheir havecounterparts it. But some individuals from Delhi and things never or change.

Like theand heavy silence in Bengaluru, between Pune Jaipur.

Perwhen she tours walkshave in naked.

As she stands and formance been arranged between looks at each of us straight in the eye, the true contheatre groups across cities, enabling ventionalofrelationship between the actor and sharing resources and manpower, as also the spectator fractures. appears deepening learning and a The senseactor of being part comfortable in her nudity, but it challenges of a larger whole. theSatyadev audience.

Oneonce earnestly meets her Dubey said, “Theatre willgaze. nevAnother looks away. watches, mouth er die because thereThe willthird always be need from agape.

The fourth, shoulders slouched, in smiles the audience to immerse themselves pera casual smile.

Gazes wander over her body. formance.”

I do believe this all strongly.

And inTaneja can feel them India all. “Whatever the gaze terestingly, in urban the audiences are may be,allI ages. have We to be doing I’m doing. across also havewhat an audience thatI make sure I’mable not to offended of it. I’m veis ready and afford by an any evening at the ry in with fact thatisthey are noaudiences’ hermits. I theatre.

Thethe challenge to capture have to give deal with the fact attention andthem maketime themtofeel equally responthat there’s a naked bodyalive. in the room sible for keeping theatre They are and the what’s the big deal about it,” says Taneja. true patrons.

She stands and then turns slightly as mindsa A month ago I was fortunate to experience and minutes ticktheatre away. practice She stands tillJhaathe marvellous rural called di Pati in the Vidharbha region of Maharashtra. I was in Navegaon for the premier of a new production by the Venkatesh Mandali when my host, Sadanand Borkar, took me also to the Jhaadi Pati playing in the next village. That very evening, he explained, within a radius of 12 km, a dozen performances were taking place simultaneously, watched by more than 24,000 people. All of them would have purchased a ticket each, priced from ₹30 to ₹300, resulting in a turnover of ₹18 lakh from just

Two bits for theatre The challenge is to capture audiences’ attention and make them feel equally responsible for keeping theatre alive. People watch a play at an open theatre near Kolar, Karnataka

A shard of a play that is a political choice, a protest — one that fractures the conventional relationship between actor and spectactor

kamal narang

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Bend it Young practitioners are experimenting with content and form. Jyoti Dogra performs her solo play Notes on Chai at Bharat Bhawan in Bhopal am faruqui

breathing around her becomes normal. Till the abruptness of the nudity wears off. Till, as she says, “What’s the big deal” becomes a flickering thought in the head. Then she smiles, a smile so beguiling, that the audience is relieved to give it back. She is still naked. But now it’s no more about nudity. The anonymous naked body has become the smiling person. And then she intones, “Thoda dhyan se” (Be careful). Taneja crushes the potent silence of nudity with a monologue that works itself into frenzy. She talks about being in tune with the ‘atmosphere’ of a place. About being home before dark. About not telling anyone much about you, so that no one really knows you and cannot blame you for anything. Each dupatta she ties around herself, the tops, shorts, socks and gloves she wears, one on top of another, smothers the person who stood before us a few minutes back. A lifetime’s advice of ‘be careful’ makes her a scarecrow. She exchanges individuality for anonymity, if that will keep her safe. Finally, she puts on a helBrightWhen spot The number of reputable awards met. notgrowing an inch of flesh is visible, she and festivals have given a fillip to the theatre scene. A scene “If from Mathi, whichhappens bagged four Mahindra in Theatre awards last year says, something despite allExcellence this, you can at least say it’s not my fault.”

Telling it the hard way Mallika Taneja’s Thoda Dhyan Se bruises silence and mockstowith its ways to this small corner of rural Vidharbha on a sin- er spaceswith anditsare managing find black humour the of her south Delhi gle eated night!in And thebalcony Jhaadi Pati season lasts five pull their resources together and survive. home,What between spoonfuls of dal-chawal, months. is more astonishing is the qual- Thankfully, the number of independent theatTaneja talks of howwhich Thodaprides Dhyanitself Se started. shespaces has kept both the andthe new versions ity of the audience, in buy- re cropping up old across country is “Years of being told theseits things.

Years of peo- growing. alive. She performed in Jantar under ing tickets and knowing theatre.

But at whatit cost?

WhyMantar, can the govpleThis watching, touching, looking.

Years be- ernment a tree, on not December theresources year before last.

The 150-year-old theatre practice getsofzero chip in16 with and assisting a woman the city.”ItsItperformers, was one ance? audience in support from the in government.

In stood fact, around most as of she theperformed time, the experiment among many and her friends her innerwear, in a it space that guaranteed writers and producers are she farmers (sadly few- government makes prohibitively difficultno to at and The fewer Tadpole Repertory were working on security lacked thetosanctity oflaws theatre. er now, as the more commercial TV run theseand spaces, owing rules and that four years But this particular work “Myblind voiceto couldn’t carry. to use atheatremike.” actors fromago.

Pune and Mumbai make theirgrew way are the needs of aI had developing each this timelucrative she performed it —themes, in her inner“I’mculture. okay toThis perform anywhere.” And last into world). The when going must change. wear,bawdy before friends, range artistes andfarmer acquaintshe got her biggestMumbai stage soand far. BengaIn Sannot comedies, from sui- month Interestingly, in Delhi, ances to in superstition small spaces.and “Who knew what this kar Venkateswaran found a curator willcides women’s lurushe there seems to be a spurt play had,” she says.The audience ing to take the in risk.

Dhyan of Se non-trawas the empowerment. theThoda emergence The Zurich Theatre Spektakel sent her an in- final performance at thetheatre International knows the plays well and demands ditional spaces. Theatvitation.

And Taneja reachedenterout to veteran re Festival of Kerala.

For Taneja ITFoKtheatre was a its money’s worth of quality re people or even Maya Krishna Rao fascinating. to work and rework Theatre the turning she could performavailable at a govtainment.

It is truly lovers are turning peoplepoint; that piece.

They decided to do away with thethemselves inner- ernment festivalspaces with the State aidHowever, the greatest challenge into machinery performing or theatre wear. “Imost just urban stopped having anher is — subversion at its facing theatre workers basements, oldbest. stulovers are turning ingspaces swers to why I’m doing it that is appreciative the audiis the lack of spaces to create work terraces, ofbookshops, available spaces into Shedios, way.” naked in. became thethat about 300 of them, who in andBeing to perform Spaces performing spaces ence, cafes, gymnasiums and drawonlynot way toauditoria do; oncefor shehire, wasbut When you let your hading norooms clue what was in are just included.

Butstore susconvinced, nudity was just their a when they walked theunless Black ones that actively nurture tainability is theinto issue; counterpoint play part it.and “I have understood, emo-au- itself out, there is Box.the Shegovernment calls it a ‘moment’, work develop a discerning wakes when up to tionally,Seeing at a gut even if I in- true co-existence something forsafety the theatdience. thelevel, government’s the needshifted to create nets cannot articulate exactly, re and the could difference towardsit this direthat need, more and for such endeavours, as audience. it does for“They innovation this is theatre the onlypeople way toare do it.

The their own and start-ups, have thistohappen.

They more creating we not are let going continue to rest of it figuring how.” in.

A In the proc- struggle, and might havesurvive disagreements with spaces toiscreate andout perform simply rather than lot they of figuring out, at could that. otherwise be thrive. me. But they didn’t stop the ess, are turning what “Strength comes in theinto doing. be show. lettime, people havethan theirever voice and they seen as prime real estate little You oasescan of creNowThey is the more before, for standing in sharing a rehearsal room and doing it. But will debate it later. cannot asklives. for a better ativity and — Studio Safdar in Delhi, theatre to claim itsYou space in our Given it is very different to do itLamakaan in a room full of peo- response.

When you ofletthe your counterpoint Sitara Studio in Mumbai, in Hyderathe dynamic nature younger generaI had in to Irinjalakuda, be comfortable withStudio my body out, there is true co-existence.” bad,ple.

Walden Avikal in play tion itself in theatre, I believe this will happen. As Manifesto of thewith Arts and it is a constant process. ToTheatre a large theTaneja is set to startinwork on a piece Dehradun, Lok Kala Manch Mullanpur anonymous quote “Culture, of which the arts are highextent have Vinayak said, ‘Dekhenge to dek- says, Shubham Vardhan on the politics of the memory in Ludhiana, and IRang Rangmandal is but a collective means of henge — they will getnot over it’.” est andexpression, forgetting. She is also gearing up for the in Bareilly among others.

Andalso I am menof telling stories, of imaginis her political 24-hour meaning, walk, her piece at the upcoming walk tioning the olderThe and piece more established Prithvi making and Thoda then believing real, who we choiceRanga — herShankara protest, in question festival.

Dhyan Se,what her isexperiment at Theatre in Mumbai, Benga- ing what wewill are doing here Ourgoes culanswer.Adishakti And it is in risky.

So are, subversion, happen as and longwhy. as she luru, Ninasam inand Heggodu, Pudureflects us; how we see is, theironically, world andwhat how thatinperformance In- ture about it smartly.

‘Careful’ cherry, or Seagullrisky Theatre Guwahati, asin they sees us.”her when she sets out to is still confined toin small her world friends tell continue to play adia very important role our the communities and festivals. theatre development, but have much more ex- perform.

TanejaWhat wantsisit exciting to reach as perience on the ground. is sanjna kapoor is a theatre practitioner and the p anima of Junoon many possible, so co-founder how younger theatre people are as creating new-

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And the show goes on Assam’s mobile theatre industry is under fire for rapidly shedding its traditional identity to embrace the contemporary. But it continues to thrive on popular demand

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early two decades after it was every year; the entire crew — from the cook to alike hound him for selfies and autographs. made, you’ll still find the residents the actor — travel together, and whenever they He is seen on countless billboards across Guof Pathshala, a little town in lower arrive at a new village, every household reac- wahati, endorsing inverters or promoting his Assam, gushing about Titanic. hes for the poosaki kapoor (dressy clothes) it re- new play. Bora prides himself on being one of Without ever having watched the film. This is serves for special occasions. the first actors to have made the switch from because the Titanic Pathshala loves isn’t the reIn mid-2007, the ULFA threatened to force films to (mobile) theatre, setting a trend in the cord-breaking blockbuster by James Cam- closure of these groups, branding them as ve- new millennium. eron. It is a play, adapted by a local theatre hicles of “cheap popularity trying to ape BollyWhile the reverse is happening around the group months after Cameron’s cult classic hit wood”. While “cheap” popularity managed to world, Assam has witnessed a shift from films screens in 1997. But if you ask anyone in Path- override the diktat of the to theatre, both in terms of acshala they will have you believe that Cameron banned militant organisation, tors and audiences. Why has the made his version only after seeing Kohinoor the theatre industry still has its Assamese film industry, known Theatre’s production on one of his many visits fair share of critics. “They sing for its sensitive, languid storytellI would cycle 10 km there. All of Assam was riveted. National and dance for no apparent reaing, failed miserably? “The momedia picked it up soon enough. In their Sep- son,” says Naba Tamuli Phukan. from my hometown in bile theatre goes to the doorstep tember 1998 issue, India Today proclaimed the When Abahan Theatre staged Nagoan to Bebejiya, if of the people in the remotest of Assamese version the winner: “After all, could their first play of the season, Rak- I missed a single show villages. Cinema halls, on the Cameron recreate a maritime disaster with- tapaan, last year, it was much other hand, are few and confined out water?” like a Bollywood masala film, to towns,” says Bobbeeta Sharma, It was Titanic that catapulted Pathshala’s Ko- complete with pelvic thrusts chairperson of the Assam State Roots wings to When Sankar Venkateswaran shifted to and Attapadi, he knew it would radicallycychange his theatre practice as well as his lifestyle sr praveen hinoorand Theatre fame.

In 2010, the National flashy clothes.

“I would Film Corporation.

High producSchool of Drama invited them to the Capital to cle 10 km from my hometown in Nagoan to Be- tion costs and low returns, and lack of good showcase their ‘unique’ model of entertain- bejiya, if I missed a single show,” says Phukan, scripts are the other contributory factors. ment. While Assam’s 80-year-old film industry who has been watching plays since 1964. He re- “Theatre in Assam now is high on production is on the verge of near-collapse, the bhramya- members how he used to think about the value — an extremely stylised and glamorous man (mobile theatre) industry is in the pink. plays he watched for days after. “Such was the affair,” says Sharma The first group, Nataraj Theatre was propped impact. Nowadays I can’t remember the last A risqué affair up in Pathshala in 1963, unaware that it was play I saw,” he says. paving the way for a multi-crore industry in The glamour, however, brings with it many Screen to stage the decades to come. other elemental changes. For one, the ramp is Much is known about the bhramyaman Jatin Bora, the poster boy of Assamese films, a recent addition to the bhramyaman stage. groups of Assam: each group (about 150- will turn 46 this April. The middle-aged, slight- The choreographer is a new recruit to the strong) travels from villages to towns across ly rotund actor has a tremendous fan follow- crew. The musician, on the other hand, has the state, staging plays from August to April ing: seven-year-old girls and 50-year-old men lost out. “Pre-recorded songs by well-known

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Attapadi is an unlikely setting for theatre. Sankar Venkateswaran roots his theatre in the tribal region and works to spread it to the local people

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he year was 2007. Sankar Venkates- cial indicators, has perplexed planners for the by the culture funds. I don’t know how much waran was looking for a space to be- past many decades. culture funds the panchayat here is utilising,” gin rehearsals for Sahyante Makan: Projects worth several hundred crores of ru- says Venkateswaran.

The Elephant Project, his theatrical in- pees have gone down the drain without makSoon after the successful staging of Saterpretation of Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon’s ing a difference to the lives of the people here. hyante Makan, he was back in Attapadi, lookpoem. Rehearsal spaces in cities were an ex- Infant deaths, 10 reported last year, continue ing to set up his theatre. He bought land near pensive proposition, one he couldn’t afford. to haunt these hills every summer.

Mukkali, halfway up the hills and overlooking Vinu Joseph, his stage manager, who came Venkateswaran, who came here by force of the Bhavani river, from a settler farmer. Thus from a settler family in Attapadi, suggested a circumstance, instantly knew that the time was born Sahyante Theatre — the theatre of location in his native place. It was at Puliyara had come for him to make a radical shift in his the Western mountains. The land was in the in the tribal Attapadi region of Palakkad dis- theatre practice and lifestyle. middle of nowhere, with the motorable road trict in Kerala. A small space, it was hitherto “Henrik Ibsen had once said that an artiste ending almost a kilometre away, near a nameused for drying cardamom. should bear the guilt and reless village of 16 tribal families.

“It was necessity that made us come to Atta- sponsibility of the society to Venkateswaran and his friends padi. We couldn’t afford anything in the city, which he or she belongs. I am from the Theatre Roots and where there was also a lack of rehearsal space. guilty of the sins which my foreWings Company got a few peoA place like this has We knew we had to go far away. Then we came fathers committed. I can’t escape ple from outside to make a road. been abandoned by here and found that this place is really far that. It’s not a thing of the past.

The local people viewed them the culture funds away from civilisation and all processes of It’s right there in front of us. This with suspicion. modernisation. It was not because it is geo- makes one ask what purpose “They probably thought us to graphically far away. We are only half an hour does art fulfil? When that quesbe some resort people. They used away from the nearest township and 50 km tion comes up, you have to think to call me ‘bhai’ at first, a term refrom the nearest airport in Coimbatore. There of locating your theatre practice somewhere served for the outsider. Slowly we gained their is some other gap which makes this an exclud- and it’s certainly not in a city for me. You can’t trust. We got the old motor pump near the rived and isolated place,” says Venkateswaran, sit in the city and do work which will reflect er repaired and changed the pipelines, after the artistic director of the International Theat- the reality here. Culture is no more to live, cul- which the residents here started to have acre Festival of Kerala held annually at Thrissur. ture is to commodify. By this process, it also cess to drinking water. Then, they made this This gap, which separates Attapadi, the abandons the larger part of the country. The small bamboo house for me. We started eating most economically backward block in Kerala, majority is away from the cities and cultural together. They offered to help me with making from the other partsAof a state high on all so- Theatre, hotpots. place like successful this has been abandoned Moving performance truck that belongs to Kohinoor oneA of the most bhramyaman (touring theatre) groups in Assam poulomi the road and later with the dey construction of the

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The namesake Japanese actor Micari performing Sahyante Makan: The Elephant Project thyagarajan

theatre.” ‘Bhai’ was soon suffixed with the lage performed at a national festival for tribal come closer. This proximity is important in homely ‘etta’ (elder brother). arts and craft in Mumbai. It was the first per- theatre and this is an idea we have kept in One of the things that happened in the ini- formance for them outside their village. mind while designing this space.” tial days of Sahyante Theatre was the revival of Echoes from Silent Valley was a contemporary A challenge for Venkateswaran is to pro‘Madhurai Veeran Koothu’, an indigenous per- voice performance fusing Madhurai Veeran gramme performances that are relevant to the formance form of the Thadikkundu village, Koothu with short choreographed pieces that local audience. “Sustaining an audience by which has not been performed in the past 25 express the existential concerns of forest, live- programming critical works is most imporChange in the ring The choreographer is a new recruit toyears. the mobile theatre crew; as (above) ramp is a fairly recentlihood addition;and (right) audio It tracks have made the live orchestratant. redundant land. touched upon infant Survival issues well the as television and That’spoulomi howdey you educate and build an auother entertainment avenues had almost deaths in Attapadi through lullabies. dience. Unlike ad hoc programming, here “It’s not very easy to do theatre with them. I each programme will have an intention and a killed the koothu. Venkateswaran came to very soon want his favourite women stopping her onof roads, telling playback singers like Papon and Zubeen Garg maasor tenga know of this indigenous art form when the vil- will do forums with them, where a few ideas are dreds targetof audience.

A small festival Malayalam ‘empowered’ them afeel.

“I are mostabout theatre today.

The (tangy fish curry).” lageused eldersbytalked it atgroups one of the regular short circuited, which then becomes a possi- her playshow is being plannedshe formade Sivarathri, time Another aspect and irking the puristsWhat is lantheatre films.come The former is more concept of live orchestra noplace. longer forums held at the director’s “It exists,” was an bility for dialogue imagination. we prefer when the localto people down from the use no respectable says Teertha Saharia of performance, Abahan Theatre.

Severimpoverished sort of with no guage. need to“They evolve is words a newwhich language, where the challenging,” mountains to she the says. temple nearby.” person would,” says BaHowever, sceptics are certain that it is the al families have on backdrop. employment lights and an oldlost sariout as the Buttoo. the Assamese-speaking spectator becomes the actor and vice versa.

It’s “At some point, I want to set up an internaWhile recent imports like tamaam that hashere led towhere the shift.

“Earlier, Take for example.

A playback sing- rua. songsAnil hadPathak, a raw energy.

They were in the colloeasy to put up a show with them.

That’s like(treus- money tional festival I want to theatbring (rubbish) work res would to rural areas for charitable reaer with variousbut theatre groups since 1984, quial language, the broad ideas could be mendous) ing them to and create botola a spectacle.

The performworks fromgoregions like West Africa.

If it’s posit admittedly on sons,” says Arun Nath, a noted actor based in Pathak now Our runsinterest a smallinrestaurant understood. watching itselling made colloquially, ance sensibility has to besounds evolvedawkward and it will sible for a German collaboration to happen aru sah’ (rice and tea) in it.

Guwahati.

But the crowds it. Hoots and whis- Sonitpur. As a young travelling with Rup‘bhaat them interested in performing Only theHe el- stage. take time.”

It has been love a challenge Delhi actor or Mumbai, it should be quit in 2005 with whenthe pre-recorded followthe almost everyregularly. act of Abahan Theat- konwar Theatre in the early he rememders theatre were familiar form, butaudio even tles to hold forums possible for a 1970s, West African colRaktapaan, which has all the ingredients bers sleeping laboration tracks started replacing hisit.voice.

“I felt un- re’s on wooden benches in old they had forgotten most of It’s been a slow Faced as they are with pressing to happen in Attapaa runawayproblems, success: romance, fight sequenc- classrooms, indi.ramshackle wanted,” says. His restaurant him school buildings process ofhe recollection for them gives and it’s anand on- of livelihood the local I imagine a new I imagine a new local, without family feuds anddisappear death. The his family enough money to get by but, “What es, electricity. going process,” says Venkateswaran. people sometimes for inter-cultural spaceToday, here.bigI a new global, a new man on a monsoon is the point…

I was never passionate about Bora travels the agroup, In 2014, a group of 22 too people from the vil- play days.opens Rampant alcoholismday is in animagine a newwith local, new regional and newer but Pathshala.

But the entire town, food anyway,” he says. in hisaown with aand personother challenge. global, new car, regional newways of looking at gumboots, umThe natya-nritika, or dance drama is also on in Even alerassistant getsatthe bestconacwhile raincoats evolving and a theatre ways of and looking these these connections the wane. In an attempt to keep the tradition brellas, shows up.local The spotlight don’t even have sensibility in the communi- Pathak nections,” says“IVenkateswaran. quit theatre in commodation. alive, some theatre groups precede the main remains on Theatre the heroine, to button own shirt,” Bora ty, Sahyante is alsowho enviAlso in my the works are further 2005 when preplay with a short dance drama, which is noth- shimmies on thecreation ramp recorded audio tracks says, “but the only for saged as aaround residential explorations into problem ‘body theating more than a feeble imitation of the glori- in herwhich satin opens sari. The crowdto me anDietrich, actor is the howcelebrated demandspace, its doors re’.asUrs started replacing ous productions of the past. National cheers. his voice approve. ing mobilechoreographer, theatre is.” Inis2013, theatre They companies from all over.

German curaward-winning filmmaker Munin Barua prefather died he was The work on the theatre is progressing, with rently living Bora’s here, working withwhile VenkateswaBig names, big bucks attempt at group. bringing dicts a slow decline of bhramyaman theatre settlers as well as tribal people lending a hand. ran on Ur Hamlet, touring an with a theatre “I sooner or later. “The kind of plays I write, they The on stage sans It is sethad to USP these days isn’t thestructure play, the words. last rites but Venkateswaran calls the ‘variable Shakespeare performed don’t run anymore,” says the man who has de- but loveon thisstage place.

It’s a differthe star.

The bigwigs to get“Iback immediately theatre’, a fluid space have that alcan transform open here in 2017. livered blockbusters like Hiya Diya Niya ready ent world so full of life.

Thisfather’s reminds me for next Prastuti I wasand acting even as my body based been on thebooked requirement forAugust. a play. The bor- after.

(2000) and Ramdhenu (2011). He talks about Parashar, of the 1920s Switzerland, where the dancers 36, reportedly paidisactor he says. der between the outsidethe andhighest the inside neb- burned,” the golden age where writers like Bhabendra- in outweeks to the forest to perform and exthe industry (a whopping ₹1 crore sea- went Three back, in Sarthebari, Bora went ulous, as the large opening at thepermain the ‘good’ pirate, who nath Saikia and Arun Sharma created socially son) plore,” says Dietrich. has already been

by Abahan.

She on stage as Jaladayshya, performance space hassigned the hills as the backpeople from ravaging floods of will Marelevant plays, rooted deep in Assamese cul- moved Venkateswaran is the aware that the place tospace theatre in 2005 with Shakuntala drop. The on the ground floor as well as rescues MoromeatMorom considered Around pm, wereassold out, ture and history. “The theatre groups vie to get Theatre’s change him 9 and histhe art,tickets as much or even the amphitheatre the topBisare, are tailored for in- juli. be one of the first ‘modern’ plays.

“It was enraged proceeded to break the biggest stars, offering them even bigger to morethe than how hecrowd is changing the place.

“If timate performances.

“We have so many biga and fashionable fast- the In aTezpur’s Kumargaon, I ask paycheques,” he says. While older plays would multi-starrer, you counters. are making work here and it goes out,a theatres in ourwith cities.

Their scalecostumes, is way beyond Natya Sastra dances,proportion. and glamour,” she says.

Wassays it a nine-year-old to choose between Rukh be adapted from Bengali jatras, most today paced there are certain things that needatoShah be heard, the human are South Indian film rip-offs. “I am not saying hit? large“Atheatres can behit!” builtcomes for gods, for hu- Khan super duper the but reply. film voices in a cinema and a or Jatin Bora including that arehall excluded pushed (play) be in Joymoti “Definitely imports don’t work, they do. Villagers would mans it should be small In an interParashar is well awaretheatres. of the impact she naatok out. It won’t political Pothaar. propaganda.

But a da,” The she Water answers.

Station might have memspout dialogues from Cleopatra and Hamlet makes action with distance in ananother industryperson, partialattoathe male. of “I Jatin play like till a few years ago,” Barua says, “But we can’t don’t perhaps 20 metres, youtomay be able to hear confine myself pretty Barbie doll bers from the community here.” reallyVenkateswaran feed the masses idlis and dosasinin the roles,” each other andactor. see broad gestures. if you tora agarwala is an independent journalist based says the Her role in andBut as MahaSetting up stage Both the settler and tribal families are helping build Sahyante Theatre byquality Rajtilak Theatre, still hunsrAssam praveen Attapadi sr praveen name of bhramyaman theatre; the Axomiya rani want(2013), to have interaction, youhas have to in

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Control freak in reserved seats Act One, Scene One of censorship is set in 1870s India — colonial rulers doing battle with national uprising-disguised-as-performance mela

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The psychicultures. cartographer Pala Pothipithiya with his imaginary maps georgina maddox staged in 1970.

Tendulkar’s Ghashiram Kotwal is an official The vultures were Ramakant and Umakant, text. So is Jayant Pawar’s Adhantar. Likewise A family matter Anoli andby herPradeep studio portraits with their lasciviousness and viciousness, plus Mee Nathuram GodsePerera Boltoy Dalvi georgina maddox their sister Manik’s vulgar sensuality. Tendul- and Yada Kadachit by Santosh Pawar are playGidhadhe. kar made a link between vultures and the ve- ing to full houses now. All taboo plays.

Not nice, nor adorable. neer of morality that prevailed in middle class edSo? Maharashtra been gentrified? byHas Lakeeren Art Gallery (Mumbai), disSimply reprehensible.

Maharashtra.

No. a selection of her architecturally played Petty-minded beasts — squabbling and It’s a warped saga of domestic violence; and evocative Scratchfabric the surface the old scars are visworks.and Gallery Continua from squawking at a stinking carcass. how Manik copes with her desirible.

A case in point is the show at Italy featured Michelangelo Pistoletto’s bowls Willing to attack each other over decompos- es and her family. the Bhagat Singh Maidan in Kala of pulses arranged in the shape of the infinity ing meat.

A bit like Sakharam Binder.

It intriguing, was October 2014. sign. These Chowkie. works were as 5, was CeVultures.

A play due to which Tendulkar The brightly Lok Shahir Amar BMW SheikhArt Janmsar Manrique’s painted Car, Gidhadhe. became officially associated a special Samaroh enclosure Samiti outside was the There werewhich more had shatabdi Carrion eaters with beady twisted eyes. with sensationalism, sex and vikeen Segard’s to host works a performance in main hall. Julian spoke of the plainclothes Undernourished, greedy, crooked olence. Most of Maharashtra honour of the clashabetween nature andlegendary urbanity.people’s Iranian personnel than Pan-Asian roster Nepalese artists Hit Man Gurung (above) and Sheelasha Rajbjhandari (right) nepal artbeaks, council often covered in blood and gore and guts and was stunned by the wanton dispoet.

This being the historic maiartist Azadeh Akhlaghi’s stunning staged pholegit audience bloody eyeballs. play of illicit sex.

Shahir Amar tograph ‘By dan an Eyewhere Witness’Lok featured 13 women All so revolting.

After the box-office success of Sheikhthe sang powadascadaver during of thea trying to identify disfigured Vultures. the Marathi film Natsamrat Maharashtra moveslain civilianSamyukta man. Wim Delvoye’s shiny miniaGidhadhe. (based on the cult play by VV ment.

The aim:appreciative to create awareture cathedral drew many gazes Most people would prefer to keep a distance Shirwadkar), the buzz is that the Natsamrat ness labour reforms during the Mill from about laypersons, while artists and collectors from them. team will present Sakharam Binder in its cellu- Workers’ mutteredMovement. that it was too ‘decorative’.

But Vijay Tendulkar didn’t. loid avataar. Once again, with Nana Patekar in But the Brihanmumbai Municipal CorporaThe Delfina Foundation’s enclosure of He cared for the vultures. the lead. tion (BMC) saidplants no. According to the BMC nothorny, dried had people wondering He placed them on stage, in the living room.

This is truly the age of post-modernism. Ev- tice, playgrounds thatthem. were Ittraditionally why only no one was watering apparently The play was penned in 1961. It was finally erything and anything goes. used for religious functions publicHedge meetsymbolised the 1840-70 Salt and Sugar ings before March 2012barrier had the approval to that formed a customs to collect taxes host “similar for the Britishactivities”. colonial rulers of the time. UnThe showwhile transpired someintereststrings fortunately, the textafter was really here was no eye-popping public art do with the marketing strategies that my part- were pulled.

It failed was harmless The show ing, the visuals to conveystuff. the underlying and no performances to shock or ner Aparajita Jain has been personally under- was on. Meanwhile, geriatrics were ambling message. entertain viewers this time around. taking,” says the gallery’s founder Peter Nagy. around the from park’sthe periphery, cycling The team Museuminfants Of Modern Art However, the India Art Fair (IAF), in on three-wheelers, from the made several notesDJinmusic theirthudded little black book. its eighth edition, looked less cluttered with Pan-Asia vicinity.

Yesterday’s being gener“The highlight forradicals us waswere Ram Rahman’s bigger aisles, a better layout and certainly an Visitors flocked to booths that represented ally laidback. was a not songjust or two about booth, which There showcased paintings improved quality of the artworks. With a few critical artwork from South Asia. From Nepal the of classinand By the time but conspiracy also architecture thecaste. city through his exceptions, of course. it was the Nepal Art Council, showcasing sev- the folk legends were ready to growl life photo-montage works,” says Stuartabout Comer, It appears that the curatorial team compris- en young artists including Hit Man Gurung, in thecurator boondocks, it was time to pack up.art. chief of media and performance ing Neha Kirpal, Zain Masud, Sandy Angus and Sheelasha Rajbhandari, Manish Harijan and The situation wasn’t very different theFair ViAngus, director of the Hong KongatArt the other nameless people working behind Asha Dangol. Sagar Rana, vice-president of the drohi literaryoffunction in Siddarth and partner IAF, washosted the first to scoopColup the scenes have all pulled up their socks, and Nepal Art Council, a public-prilege, in Wadala, under the eye of the Rohit Chawla’s image ofMumbai Chinese the results were there for all to see. The kitschy vate partnership, says, “It is our police. Thereartist was nothing starry-eyed about Ai Weiwei, for an undisimages of the Prime Minister freeing doves first time in India and we are exthe event. More plainclothes personnel than a closed sum. and the endless rows of decorative art that cited to present seven young legitless audience. The sleeping giant that is the The IAF looked marked the rather over-packed fair in 2015 contemporary artists from Nefew hundred who attended the two-day international art market might cluttered thisThe year, were gone. It was replaced by a fine collection pal. We are known for our tradi- with bigger aisles show and of songs, plays were be performances stirring againand and looking from across South Asia that brought the view- tional arts but this platform has keenly awarewith that kindly the political narrative had eyes on the Indian a better layout er up to speed with our shared histories and allowed us to display our growshifted. Utopia idealism are passé.

The art and market.

Anders Petterson contemporary conflicts. ing contemporary art scene bemost potent went literary from Chithe on words record touted to say, “The fore a wide international dais pointed nese to thecontemporary sections of the market Indian Peis Sales pitch audience.” From Sri Lanka, the nal Code: coming off the boil and collecMissing this year were several blue chip galler- Colombo art collective Theertha showcased tors Section 143 — Being of an unlawful are looking for member new opportunities in ies like Chatterjee and Lal, Galerie Maskara playful imaginary maps by Pala Pothipithiya, assembly Asia.” Petterson is the front man for ArtTactic, and Zaveri Contemporary from Mumbai, and performance photographs by Jagath Weeras- a regular Section performance 147 — Rioting report on markets in District XII, Latitude 28 and many others from inghe and subversive studio portraits by Anoli Dubai, Section 149 —and If an offence isconsidered committedone by London elsewhere, Delhi. Fewer galleries meant there was more Perera. Pakistan’s Taseer Art Gallery had artists any member of an unlawful assembly, every of the most reliable indices used to measure room and viewership for the 70 that did par- like Lala Rukh, Saba Khan, Mohsin Shafi and other member of the assembly shall be guilty the global art scene. ticipate. “Logically, when there are fewer gal- Humaira Abid. The Bengal Art Lounge show- of Over the offence 80,000 attended the IAF this year. The leries, there are better sale opportunities for cased the evocative works of Dali Al Mamoon food Section — Voluntarily causing hurt stalls,323 films and talks added to the enjoyathose who have chosen to participate,” says from Bangladesh.

504 — Insultsome intended to were provoke bleSection experience, though visitors disgallery owner Rasika Kajaria of Exhibit 320. breach of peace appointed by the lack of cutting-edge art. The Showcasing artists like Vibha Galhotra and Su- Overseas interest The police heardowners’ the jeers, theas vacuity and smiles on gallery faces they took makshi Singh, 320 reported brisk sales. “This is The accent on the global was notable with a the high-minded theories.

They were home tidy earnings told another story.as apolactually the best sales that Nature Morte has subtle yet interesting international presence ogetic as the show onstage. Their presence Drama under surveillance Idealism is passé. The most potent touted from theadais to to sections of the Indian Penal Code ivano georgina maddox a Delhi-based arts writer ever literary had atwords the IAF, although lot pointed of it has this year.

German artistshutterstock/eugene Alke Rech, representcould be traced toisthe enactment of the Draramu ramanathan

Gidhadhe.

Horrid things.

Vultures.

Balancing act

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Man on a mission As Ebrahim Alkazi, theatre practitioner and director of the National School of Drama for 15 years, turns 90, a student pays tribute space behind the audience, I once found Alkazi pacing up and down. On seeing me he reneelam marked, “You have also come to see my mansingh monumental blunder?” The iconic Alkazi bechowdhry came terribly human at moments like these.

At NSD, Alkazi made production work a part of training, ensuring that the actor was familiar with all aspects of a performance — acting, costumes, set-designing and even handling the box office. I recall him hinting that actors should not hang around the audience after a show, fishing for compliments. Curtain-calls were also not a partNatsamrat, of the culture ofthe Alkazi’s Cardboard character “The government has appropriated Babasaheb Ambedkar. But their Ambedkar Nana Patekar-starrer based on cult mythology is the antithesis of Ambedkar” — Playwright Sambhaji Bhagat k ananthan Marathi play Shirwadkar, was anot box-office hit ptito theatre.

In by a VV way, actors were allowed turn egoistic, or think of themselves as public matic Performances Act (DPA) XIX of 1876 by political tool in the hands of the Indian Na- figures. lector Mumbai for entertainment tax clearthe British Government. pre-payment entertainment tional Congress. Tilak introduced the melâ, ance Hisafter syllabus tried toof“Establish links tax; beTo understand the ebbs and flows of what which entailed hundreds of singing troupes tween a policetraditional station NOC; an RTO NOC; theatre RTO bandoforms of Indian and DCP Zone; to Rangbhoomi bast charges; happens in today’s India, one has to grasp the and performances. It was Brecht before Brecht ‘modern’ expression; encouragePermisplaysion fortoscript and lyrics; censor ofboard became an ism. The mela in outdoor perform- wrights first scene of the first act. respond to the challenges conclearance; police permission the In the 1870s, two plays were on the DPA ra- ance spaces provided a solid political message temporary Indian station situations, and at theinsame ward;be and 33 other licences. dar: Chaka Darpan in Bengali and Malha- for the masses. time aware of the developments in other raoche Natak in Marathi.

On cue, this form of earthy theatre was un- parts Andofso,the technically every show Maharashworld”. Rather thanintreat ancesThe British official who ruled against the der surveillance. tra is “illegal”. that sort of tral material as The ‘holyState cow’,wields he recommended plays said: “During the ten days festival,” wrote SM Ed- viewing clout. it as ‘an expression of its own time’.

“I do not know who was the author, or what wards, the Police Commissioner of Bombay, in Q: What’s forward?

Alkazi hadthe noway patience with intellectuals his motives were, but the work itself was as The Bombay City Police, “bands of young Hin- who A: The ultimate trump categories card in anyoftheatrecreated watertight ‘tradigross a calumny as it is possible to conceive. dus gave theatrical performances and sang re- tion wallah’s armoury — budmaashi. versus modernity’, arguing that academGanachari, historian and scholar, The object was to exhibit as monsters of in- ligious songs, in which the legends of Hindu icsAravind advocating this had no experience of mentions how in into the 1910s “The time between iquity the tea planters and those who are en- mythology were carefully exploited to arouse translating a text a performance.

For him, To be Ebrahim Alkazi as Hamlet in the playto he the directed in 1947 the two acts of a play was used to address the hatred Group of theMumbai ‘foreigner’, the word mlenccha or modern gaged in promoting emigration tea for Theatre consciousness meant a rejection of audience on the of gospel of nationalism.

At districts — bodies of men as well conducted as ‘foreigner’ being applied equally to Europeans the caste system, dissolving religious and hat was thegentlemen… one momenthave that come and Muhammadans.” times,discrimination; someone from being the audience spokeand on any in the empire.

These immediately.” That was an invaluable class imaginative melâsItbelife, askthem myself.

Lokmanya his Ganpatiwork. the theme of national interest. parampara For example, what is called aaltered Mirrormy held upI to in lesson on the Tilak ethicsand of community al- open.

Rejecting the guru-shishya in Kanchangadchi came boysAlkazi’s of Indian theatre. rejection favour Was it the people I met or the so duringofthe performance which the gratification of vile passions, cruelhadthe to bad do with complete a formal training of module, at NSD Alat Thane, Dhonddev Kashinath Mohana was prosecuted. Maharashtra with its kazi experiences I had?as The ty, avarice and lust, is represented theirperor- of Tilak self-indulgence. consciously discouraged any display of powadas (ballads) was disi- sycophancy, Phadke, Narayan Atre and Diler Khan, a guard tradition son andoccupation. the theatreIdirector am today is a rich dinary do not Iknow that this It was duringofmy NSD days that Alkazi no touching of feet prior to a lenced.the Thethree chorus and thewent duffson were muted. show, from the GIP Railways, made a speech on the mixture what I have heard, smelt, play was of ever acted, butseen, it is written, and in exall rected plays that to become for instance.

Thedefinitive seven-actwork plays—with their and desirability of unity andofMusperienced, eaten, remembered respects adapted, for the stage,and andforgotten. it might, his Andha Yugallegories

by Dharamvir His students werebetween exposed Hindus to a range credeliciousGirish dialectics wereTughlaq imprisoned. lims. experiences, Many times, from during the intervals, SwaBut the power one moment that shaped and defined Bharati, for any of prevention the Government Karnad’s and Razia Sul- ative traditional theatre to the DPA XIXAll ofthree 1876 proved benign. deshi items, and leaflets me was firstatmeeting with Ebrahim Alkazi, tanAtbytimes have, bemy acted any moment.”

Balwant Gargi. were staged in realism to thebooks experimental.

This, preaching he felt, alSo, the deployed nationalism andorphotographs ofinto Lalathe Lajpat or The rather his work.remain He is the who formu- 1974 arguments theman same. at Government the Purana Qila, which the wasIndian a coupPenal by it- lowed the actor director to dip vast Codefor and Criminal Procedure Codewas plusbuilt the pool Rai, Bal Gangadharand Tilak and his/her Bipin Chandra lated concept modernpoint.

IndianThe theatre.

Thethe 1890s were of a turning polem- self the institution.

The stage of knowledge make choices.

Bombay City Police Billseven of 1898. were sold.”even into the daily early ’70s, I had come Chandigarh icsInofthe patriotism was in the air.toLokmanya Ti- above a chasm and had inter-connected His influencePal permeated These The lawschallenge became an There are and scores of as student of thethe History of Art at PanjabUtsav Uni- levels. lakahad launched Sarvajanik Ganesh wasinstruto organically con- lives of his students.

In scores the hostel, Sunday mentitofwith political coercion. anecdotes aboutsprawled Mumbai’s versity. can stillfestival) recall the I decided the- nect (public IGanesh in night 1893. The solidarity the tiered wooden seating for the would see most of us either on thethe It was Tilak 100 years It is atre budmaashi. atre was during what I the wished do. Two NSDa audience. of Hindus 10-dayto festival became Even the ago. green lawns or lounging in our rooms.

There are scores and Alkazi There is the delightful of Ambedkar now. and lighting productions helmed by Alkazi were in town rooms, toilets would arrive at six tale in the scores of anecdotes morning the Swajan ManLok Shahir and I had volunteered to help backstage — or- booths had to and blendplaywright in with andHiteishi urge us Natak to do some about Mumbai’s dali (1907) that travelled to RaniSambhaji Bhagat says, “The gov- If you ganising ‘chai’, handling the dhobi and simi- the environment. exercises.

Sometimes he would enare not dead, theatre budmaashi ter bennur and Dharwar, plus in Delhi and and Mumbai lar quotidian tasks. What struck me that day ernment Influenced

by Noh Kaour rooms quietly, look around come immediately andclothes Gwalior with its has theatre appropriated Babasaheb more than the mirrors, spotlights and smell of buki during his time in atIndore the strewn and dust-covplays.

In addition towalk the out plays, Ambedkar.

But their Ambedkar greasepaint, was the energy and bonhomie Japan, Alkazi wanted to create ered bookshelves, and as the “drop scenes” curtains with the antithesis among the actors. The ease with which they re- amythology resonanceis between Kabukiof unobtrusively.

The mess, so natutheir nationalistic Ambedkar.”and Bhagat that to lated to their bodies was a world I was unfa- principles the says characters ral to coded us, was suddenlygraffiti seen were “a must see”.

TheHis messages were simple: understand Ambedkar Initially everyoneit must read through miliar with. It contrasted sharply with my from the Mahabharata. was disoriAlkazi’s eyes. visits always sent us Annihilation Caste. But theseas are the voices “Be patriotic about your country”, and “Don’t own restrictive and inhibited lugubriousness. enting to see of Gandhari dressed a Kabuki ac- into a frenzy of cleaning. of dissent are jacket being forsaken by her the import articles from foreign and In that darkened auditorium, watching the tor, with awhich winged worn over To stress the importance of countries” hygiene in thestate. Theand evolution of DPA along theramlaw atre, “Don’t performance, I realised that theatre was a kimono descending the stepswith of the hedrink”. would periodically remind us to wear of sedition haslong beengown recycled andbehind repackaged.

These “drop scene”Even curtains were deployed space where many worlds intertwine. parts with her trailing her. I fresh underclothes. though this embarBut it’s DPA. between scenes or acts. audiences I joined NSD without knowing what ‘drama’ had thethe tasksame of shadowing the actor and mak- rassed us,two its significance was The not lost on us. endows the government withwith methodololoved it. isThe enforcement did anot meant. Alkazi taught me that theatre was not ingItsure the kimono did not meet any ob- Nothing fouler than to do aofficers scene with cogies and means prevent plays that irk the actor grasp the cona hobby but a profession, one that required se- structions, whichtocould be anything from whoplay haswithin a badplay. caseThe of subterfuge halitosis along State’s peace So on hand the Cul- with tinued.

It wasunderarms. much later that the DM of Satara rious dedication like any other. He drew a jagged edgesof ofmind. boulders to one a startling snake! smelly A man of immense ture Department will saya the show mustwas go personal confiscated the curtains Section 42for of boundary, created an inside and an outside, During a dress rehearsal, swarm of bees discipline, he setunder high standards on, come what may.

On the other, there arewig the himself the District Police and then demonstrated to his students that found trapped in the fibrous platinum and his Act. students. Very often one permissions and no-objection certificates by anda would GB Phansalkar’s mantra after he lost and the the success of creativity lies in communicat- worn by an actor.

The timely intervention find him cleaning the toilets clearanceswith from the cultural an sweeping curtains: Too bad, butnowe must find another ing and evolving with this outside. colleague a mashal (lightedsecretary; flame) saved the stage… part of the theatre exNOCday. from the the BMCminuscule after paying venue charges way to beat system.

Taking the casual approach I was used to in the I had role of a maid in perience wasthe taboo for him. and play. deposits; the scene BMC Ishow department’s This was true 100 years ago. More so, now. my previous student life, I once wrote a note the After my would quickly get NOC;ofamy firemauve-and-black brigade NOC; a PWD electrical and explaining my inability to attend rehearsals. A out tunic and rush to neelam mansingh chowdhry is a ChandigarhSomething’s rotten... Playwright Vijay Tendulkar put ‘vultures’ on stage the hindu practitioner founder based of TheinCompany ramutheatre ramanathan is aand playwright, Mumbai stage compliance col- based curt reply came myarchives/shailendra way, “If you yashwant are not dead, watch the rest of report; the play.a note In thefrom vastthe empty

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The perfect practice

With the last of the six intruders out of the way, a war of words broke out between the official security and intelligence agencies. As the questions swirled around the conduct of just about every individual — including the Punjab Police officer who had escaped the intruders — agreement crystallised around the singular point that Pakistan was to blame. For reasons yet unclear, the specific group identified was the Jaish-e-Mohammad and a démarche served on Pakistan called for the arrest of its founder and chief, Maulana Masood Azhar.

Azhar has an old history with India, having been arrested in 1995 in Kashmir while drumming up support for the Pakistan cause. In retaliation, militants controlled by Pakistan’s intelligence directorate had kidnapped six foreign tourists in the Valley to bargain for his release. The Indian side held firm, wore down the kidnappers and perhaps secured the transfer of the hostages to one of several militant groups it had domesticated.

Nothing more was heard of the hostages.

Azhar, finally, was sprung from prison in 1999 as part of a deal involving an Indian Airlines plane hijacked from Kathmandu. According to a deeply researched and documented account of the Kashmir kidnap, the portly and loquacious Azhar was operationally inept, having picked up a lasting physical disability Life after Pathankot A curious affair by all accounts, the terrorist strike at the airbase in Punjab has cast a long shadow over Indo-Pak diplomacy ap/channi anand from a friendly fire incident while attending an Afghan training camp.

Once India identified Azhar as the person of STATES OF MATTER Show and tell The crucial aspect of applied drama as defined by Heathcote and peers is that it can be practised by a regular academic teacher exploring a regular interest, reports suggesting his arrestacademic led to a subject, or an NGO worker working with victims of domestic abuse brief flicker of hope that engagement would continue. But the normality of a sullen standhen I joined the Shiv Nadar to be made mandatory until grade 10 (Position off derstanding diversity — Azhar a topicjust that chilwas soon of restored, and lapsed University’s TEST (Theatre for Paper on Arts, Music, Dance and Theatre, 2006). into drencomplete had initially decried as ‘boring with a and well-deserved irrelevance.

Education and Social Trans- However, it also recognised one major prob- capital B’, Indian for theHigh wayCommissioner in which it is Former in apPaformation) programme in lem with getting this implemented: drama kistan proached in the social science syllabus.talking By the G Parthasarathy, an influential June 2015, I had already been teaching at a teachers in schools are trained in their own head end ofon four sessions, the module washis over, but TV shows, was quick to offer counschool for three years, and had several years of disciplines, but not as educators. For several sel. theirThere thirst fornoexploration not. During was real hurry, was he argued, in reconducting drama workshops behind me. Yet, years now, experts in the field have been call- suming the school’s the talks.integrated The greaterlearning priority through was to “raise this was the first time I was entering a struc- ing for training for teachers of drama for chil- the artscosts week,forThe of Indigo alive for theStory Pakistan Armycame internally tured training course in the field. What could dren, and several states across India have its middle-schoolers it was explored entirely support to ascross-border terrorism”. it have to teach me, I wondered. Plenty, as it recognised the importance of drama in con- Stretched through theatre musicofand thin in(teacher-in-role), operations in three its turned out. tributing towards the holistic development of four art. Actor and drama teacher Maya Rao deprovinces, the Pakistan Army should be Drama, for most people, is about having a students, and its therapeutic value for those forced signed the TESTan course (the first such course in to pay “infinitely” higher price “in fun experience, playing games and letting out with developmental challenges. Even in the terms a university), train teacher/actors of men, aiming materialtoand finances”. their energies in a fantasy space. A number of area of TiE, despite the fact that there are now who would be able to take applied drama into There is little new in the hawkish former parents are keen to have their children join a quite a few TiE repertories in India, there is diplomat’s different social scenarios.In She alsodifferent worked prescription. a has rather drama class because they believe it will en- just a single school where one can train to be a reaction, on the design the B El Ed course Delhiwho Unithe of retired general HS at Panag, pontaneity takes intense hance the child’s confidence.

But preparation. this is a very asked about the forces thatTiE drove it. An practitioner.

NSD’s Tripura Wing has,Indian since has versity the new,positions revamped heldand command at BEd the course. second sukumar However, the hard work choreolimited picture of all drama.

At the veryin outset, al- businessman’s hand was identified asonly possi2012, offered a one-year diploma in TiE to tier However, she deplores the lackhad of much trained of the Indian Army hierarchy, to muralidharan a diplomatic event often low me graphing to distinguish between two often in- bly influential, stood to gain material- vent about what students fromsince the he North-East, teachers to asimplement he saw a botched these opergoes unrecognised. have stepped terchangeably used Fewterms — ly trade Pakistan. andfrom claims to bewith the only schoolLarger global ation at Pathankot. courses.

“We have drama practiPreparedness was woefulup to claim credit for setting upDrama-in-Edua media spec- agendas Theatre-in-Education (TiE) and in Asia towere offer also suchadvanced a course. as a factor since ly absent, although tioners,”ample she says, “but not peoreason existed for tacle Christmas when Minister cationon (DiE).

I use TiEday, to refer to Prime the field of dra- theThe UScrucial has long beenofpromoting aspect applied reconciliaple trained in pedagogy.

Many precautions.

Indeed, India had been “singularDrama in the nonNarendra Modi took aand very theatre casual detour to La- tion matic performances workshops in the cause ofby pacifying Afghanistan. drama as defined Heathcote practitioners lack an had underly space lucky” that Pakistan intelligence not performative hore on hisand wayfor back from Kabul.

It happened by adults children.

DiE, on the other and Even the Pathankot shadherifpeers is that itraid can cast be a long standing applied drama, betargeted nearofthe border, “despite works through ‘being’airbases to be the birthday of histhat Pakistani hand, is about drama finds counterpart its way into ow over diplomacy, it was a curious rather affair by practised by a regular academic cause they are unfamiliar with Mehran and Kamra”. than ‘doing’ Nawaz Sharif, and werein underthe classroom, on preparations the sports field, staff all accounts.

A 24-hour warning teacher exploring a regular aca-went ignored, the literature in the TEST These are curious references.

Thefield.” naval base way forand a grand-daughter’s wedding.

Nooften bet- allowing rooms board rooms and prisons; armed to demic subject, or marauders an NGO workaims to bridge this was gap attacked by comMehran in Karachi ter occasion to bond and withsometimes the family. invisibly, enter used as a technique, a highlywith secured perimeer working victims of bining rigour with in 2011 academic and the air-force basethe in both sides swallowed cus- ter. to Bureaucracies enable deeperon engagement with the topic A senior Punjab offidomestic abuse.

It is aPolice technique discipline performance.

Kamra (in of Pakistan’s AttockHavdistomary and foreign secretaries at hand. invective Unlike theatre-in-education, drama- cial cartools wasand hijacked as of drama that whose uses the methods to ing was felt the life-changing andBoth lasting impact Isof trict) in 2012. involved Preparedness stepped up toiscarry forward the dialogue. The the in-education not aimed at performance. raiders set course to towards enrich the exploration, enable mining into drama-in-education, Rao moved away from lamic militants and inflicted a woefully absent, good just long enough for a pre- Pathankot, gamutcheer of lasted non-production-based dramatic managed his the topic and to findtoantalk emotional connect the NSD TiE heavy Company, with which she had cost in men and material. although ample dictable to force itselftogether back onstage.

On way practicescast is often clubbed under aptaxi driver without it. Itof is trouble. strongly Aoriented towards reason analysisexisted worked its formation in 1986.should “It washave like these incidents for sinceWhy New pliedYear’s drama.Day, an Indian airbase in Punjab, they encountered, notHeathcote quite so sees asprecautions and reflection, which “the a drop in thearoused ocean,” sheasays.

“There is too litretaliatory rage just a few miles fromnon-performative the international border, Drama in the space lucky, had his throat slit. only thing that, in the long run, changes any- tle being done in theIndia field is ofunclear. applied drama.” against came attack.

That situation was‘being’, tidied body”. worksunder through explorations, through As the attackers their that allows Kuldeep Singh Parthasarathy’s Drama is the began only medium Sengar, who has strategic worked with adup afterthan a few premature declarations of victo- rampage, rather ‘doing’; and its aim, as underlined security intellithe explorer to step and in and out of the created NSD’s TiE Company for many that vice may haveyears, beenshares intended ry, only for Heathcote, a group ofisarmed marauders to gence

by Dorothy “to expand [the parscratching fantasyagencies world atwere will and to retain both emo- people not just in cities, butBut even the remotprospectively. it in is important raid India’sawareness, consulate in northern ticipants’] to the enable them Afghan to look their to and figure out if the attwo tionalheads connect detachment theevents same to estask of if villages, value part drama because it preit is already of the operational city of Mazar-e-Sharif. at reality through fantasy, to see below the sur- flagged

by Punjab Police this: had a“Iterror time. Heathcote explains am thedimentree. I doctrine serves local cultural forms while giving them of India’s neighbourhood strategy.

If Apoplectic anchors declared and sion. face of actionsnews to their meaning” (BJ war Wagner, Thetree.

Prime Minister’s National Security so, see the I am inside the tree.” (Dorothy thethe scope explore need new areas learning. twotocountries to stepofback from Indian dossier estabDorothyintelligence Heathcote: produced Drama as aa Learning Medi- Advisor, AjitPieces Doval, took charge, entrust- the Heathcote, of then Dorothy) Clearly, a strong demandhow for drama aswant a learnabyss and consider far they to lishing the complicity of Pakistan’sFramework state agen- ingInthe um). The National Curricular operation a poorly trained myholding own practice, thistohas translated to continue ing medium country.

The questhe exists policyin of this inflicting mutual pain cies. again, a new bumped into and (NCF)Yet recognised the beginning value of having an intelightly armed force, while flying in drama classes where we have explored thecomhis- with tion is, we doing enough to respond to it? noare concern for gain. agrated dead-end. drama programme in its position pa- mandos from the National Guard for tory of communication andSecurity sustainable transmanjima chatterjee is a playwright and drama muralidharan is an independent writer thearts, predictable outcome of yet anothperGiven on the and clearly emphasised that the up. Vast army garrisons in the portmopping design with upper primary classes.

We sukumar teacher at Shiv Nadar Noida researcher based School, in Gurgaon and Shimla er effort in to the resume were neighbourhood training arts, dialogue, includingquestions theatre, ought have used forumremained theatre tospectators. reflect on our un- and

The teaching of applied drama in India leaves a lot to be desired, but a few recent bright spots raise hopes for a pedagogic renaissance

One step forward, W two steps back India and Pakistan are stubbornly persisting with a policy of mutual pain, with no thought for the human cost involved

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Tiatr: the people’s stage My uncle and Eleanor Roosevelt UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

The tradition of Konkani tiatr has strong historical roots in Goa, and is still doing an excellent job of providing meaningful, socially-conscious entertainment

Once upon a time in India, questions of gentlemanly honour (as opposed to shallow posturing) used to vex politically conscious young men

Spoilt for choice If one put together commercial, amateur and village tiatr productions, there are probably around 300 tiatr shows annually in Goa alone tiatr academy

of goa

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The good ol’ days

n my 17th birthday, my grandmoth- and having the foresight to document them ident of TAG.Pandit Nehru and er took me to a tiatr. It was the rag- for future generations.

The process takesRoosevelt him a month or two. AgosEleanor (right) during a current president of ing hit of its time, Roseferns’s Since then, tiatr has evolved into a robust in- tinho Temudo, tiatrist and dinner in October Ghantt (Bell). I think the reason I re- dustry, with a massive following not just in TAG, also needs a month, and takes on an averthe hindu archives member it so vividly is because the whole jam- Goa and Mumbai, but also other Konkani age of two 1949 productions a year. He has empacked auditorium had collapsed, helpless strongholds such as Mangaluru, and overseas braced technology, saving his scripts on his couple ofduring monthsthe ago, I was in my with laughter, side-show comedy ing condemnation ofthe US policies, bothwhere withinthere (Gulf countries, UK, Canada) mentlaptop. in another, manner. is faAnothermore tiatrist,personal Mario de Menezes hometown, Gorakhpur, eastern routines.

We had to look awayin from the stage the US “discrimination, prejudice Jawaharlal is a — sizeable expat Goan colour population.

Nehru was an honorary member ofin as mous in the industry for scripting a tiatr Uttar Pradesh.

As isrespite. usual during my one to give our aching sides It remains and Negro lynching” as wellthe as the paranoid tiatr Tomazinho Cardozo, experienced the Allahabad University’s students’ union, little as three days. back to a town where I have search of myvisits abiding memories. of “Reds-under-beds” — and playwright, educationist and first abroad, president of but protesting at the government’s action, the Most tiatrs focus on a social, religious or polived only during mywe college days and From the time were allowed tovacaplay footmostTiatr prominently bloody Korean War. in AcademyinoftheGoa or TAG (founded union cancelled his membership.

A few weeks litical message, which is sometimes apparent tions,ball I catch up with uncles older cousins unsupervised in theand streets (we must have Roosevelt advised that by the govern2009),was estimates if Indian one puts together later,from whenthe Nehru University, he letis Sot title.visited A tiatr the currently on show to understand the that been seven ortown eight), theI never headyknew. worldHaof tiatr mentcommercial, not to go to the students’ amateur andunion. villageThe tiatrcanproduchis anger said,is“Main jaanta which tha ki exKhoimshow, Asa? and (Where the Truth?), bib Ahmad, my father’s elder brother, is usualwas a tangible presence in our lives.

I rememcellation the talk provoked around the students tions,ofthere are probably 300 tiatrs yeh students’ union mein gadhe bhare Catholics hain, aur and plores conflicts of faith among ly a fount of information.

It isroad, not just he even produced ber having to clear the our that impromptu more. annually in Goa alone. The actual tumne yeh sects sabit kar ke dikhaya…” (I knew this other of Christianity. is now hitting 90,to but through long legal cars Mynumber playground, give way tohis Ambassador uncle chuckled as he recalled how one students’ is probably higher. union filled with donkeys, and Tiatr is an was extremely powerful vehicle for sopractice, hewith has seen a world that has now dis- the fitted colourful posters announcing students’ member came and Theunion popularity of tiatr canto bethem gauged just by you proved it…)” In response, oneheavily of the union cio-political change.

It was censored appeared as time and “Chotrai! the declaimed latestover tiatr, the andhorizon, loudspeakers blaring in English fiery tones, “Gentlemen! scanning and Konkani dailies,We whose members demanded of Nehruofwhy he had run during the final decades Portuguese colonihelter-skelter development of Indiafollowed have by Chotrai!” (Attention!

Attention!), have pages not been judged gentlemen are bursting with colour-enough!” to the same donkeys whenfor hethis was reason. being perseal rule Tiatr has wiped out much what olda world was —sales the name ofof the tiatr,the and sensational The students, led by the union de- cuted by the British. ful advertisements, manymembers, of been at the forefront at all the whilepitch leaving little traces of it inWe good writing. inviting onlookers. would run after cidedthem to gherao Anand Bhawan, that proudly proclaiming Writing events pivotal about points these in Goa’s post-LibWe hear of Delhi, Calcutta the the cars,stories a whole gaggleBombay, of children competwhere Roosevelt was staying.

In they have crossed ‘a century’ brings with it a strong history, from sense the 1967 Tiatr has been at thenow eration and Madras, but rarely of the of response, ing with each other, tosmaller collect towns the playbills the mounted police per(100 shows), or that recent sense of whatoveropinion and polla(when Goans fore at all the pivotalof nostalgia, Kozhikode, Jhansi, Aizawl or Gorakhpur. chucked out the windows. wereformances called out. have In a bid tosold-out. make The students been has been lost.

It is impossible to a whelmingly opted against points in decided Goa's postThis time, do notIknow why, we ventured to unIn myI teens, also played violin, a rather sure that were not tramThethey precursors to tiatr are folk to gherao a Prime Minister ad- to merger with Maharashtra), Anand Liberation history imagine his student days. He had studiedfor at tiatr, Allahabad usual choice of instrument in a few lopled,dramatic the students downas onzagor Bhawan, where formslayknown dressing a students’ union in any the present, with the progressive University at a timeproductions. when it was still theearly cal amateur It called was an the ground, that in Northso Goa andthe khellhorses (or fell) in especially one so loss of Goa’s scenic beauty, fragile Roosevelt was staying university, Harvard of the East.

Indianthe Republic had introduction to The showbiz, world of actors, would avoid them.

My uncle South Goa, respectively, staged against him. Recently, Na- of ecological balance when and a sense just been created, there were high expec- ended make-up and and prompters behind curtains. next tofeasts. an open at up village Thedrain, modern rendra Modiidentity. was heckled by Dalit unique tations Tiatr of what we couldcorruption achieve — and with the (a Konkani of teatro, and ruefully mourned newly feasts. tiatr is still a staplehis of village students at hard-hitting Bhimrao Ambedkar Francis de Tuem’s tiatr Reporter thosePortuguese expectations came inevitable disapword forthe theatre), Goa’s vibrant stitchedA typical shirt being soiled tiatr will have— six or seven acts (2015) uses University, they were arrested artistic licence with currentfor politipointments.

In 1952, the has Allahabad trademark theatre, been aUniversity part of its culeven (pordhe), for so good a cause. each about 20 minutes long. They are theircal protests. are now politicians out on bail.and Alla-chide eventsThey to lampoon Students’ was dominated turalUnion landscape for almostbya Communicentury and a Roosevelt, who taken byofsurprise the habad separated bywas a couple songs by (cantaram) fallen so low from grace theUniversity media forhas their spinelessness.

It was a roarsts, and they However, were more than littlewas angry at not quarter. the firstatiatr staged demonstration, and despite being from miffed which are often far-removed theatplotthat ing when the senior journalist Siddharth Va- and success, quickly crossing a century, the state of the and India.

TheMumbai) Korean on in Goa, butworld, in Bombay (today “the vice of crowd-pullers the union whoon was one of line,president and can be account radarajan meet theestablishment vice chancellormany af- a givingwent the topolitical War was second ofcelebration. brutal, bloody Aprilin 17,its 1892 for anyear Easter The proof the foolish boys who signed open cotheir catchiness andhad hilarity.

Thethe side-show ter asleepless talk henight. had given nearby, the ABVP stalemate, and Roosevelt, the Boy), duction wasthen titledEleanor Italian Bhurgo (Italian letter”, agreed givepopular a talk. The students dis- and medies aretoalso fillers.

The songs surrounded VC’s office andhold threatened vio-“Tiatr Whatthe does the future for tiatr? wife written of the American President, arrived for abeen

by Lucasinho Ribeiro.

He had persed, andacts the in next dayofgave a nice scroll the comic front the her curtain facilitate lencewill until the extricate him.attract I need topolice changecould with the times, and month-long visitcrew to India in Italian March.opera company part of the of an as a gift before would gowell. on wonder change of the setstalk. andRoosevelt props behind it as what Nehru would have thought of more young people, especially the college-goOntouring her tourIndia through Allahabad received at the time andshe was inspired to to writeI about — rathertiatrist honestly and candidaskeditpopular Roseferns (Antonio theseing new donkeys. Also,Cardozo where did thatBut world demographic,” says. he is in a degree from University and play subsequentwrite andthe direct a Konkani with music, ly, myRosario uncle said approvingly, in her book India Fernandes), often dubbed ‘King of go, the in which could take noone doubt aboutpeople its current stateoffence of health. ly, was supposed theopera. students’ and the perhaps along to theaddress lines of the Awakening Centuries’ forEast. his many runaway successful at not“There beingis considered enough”? no other “gentlemen dramatic form which can union. In Before thatof could a letter ar- was In tiatrs, the cast this happen, historic production the hullaballoo, thetostudents had ex-thing match the popularity of tiatr in Goa. Konkani how he begins write. “The first rivedJoão fromAgostinho the students.

It had the mostconsidered scath- pressed Fernandes, widely their displeasure at the Indian governis the idea, or the concept.

Tiatrs must have a tiatr is the Stage of Goa.” t@OmairTAhmad the “Father of Tiatr” today for taking the art message. Everything else gets built around form to the next level, scripting his own plays this,” says Roseferns, who is also first vice-pres- luis dias is a freelance writer based in Goa

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Omair Ahmad is the South Asia Editor for the Third Pole, reporting on water issues in the Himalayas

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Heritage at work (Left to right) Environmental activist Vandana Shiva and her sister Meera inaugurate a new ghani (traditional oil press) at Magan Sangrahalaya in Wardha, Maharashtra; Vibha Gupta, director of the centre, looks on

Small oil crisis

Darkest of them all Macbeth is the name of a disease spreading out with the greatest speed in the contemporary world — Ratan Thiyam k murali kumar

Ghanis, village-level extraction units, have long been a fount of cold-pressed edible oil. Now they find themselves on the wrong side of modern-day food safety regulations

On the crossroads of time

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he ghani (oil extraction plant) set up wholesalers,” explains Nalin Kant, a grassroots market the benefits of cold-pressed, virgin oil.

by Mahatma Gandhi at Sewashram activist from Jharkhand.

This form of extraction retains the oil’s flain Wardha, Maharashtra, has been a Refined oil manufacturers have been blend- vours and nutrients, which are otherwise devisible and working symbol of a self- ing vegetable oils with cottonseed oil. Accord- stroyed in high-temperature refining reliant community since 1934. This living lega- ing to the International Service for the processes. “Rural consumers have been suspicy is now in danger of shutting down.

Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications cious of oil that does not taste and smell like Ghanis have been around since ancient (ISAAA), a lobby for biotech crops, cottonseed oilseeds; the world is learning of its benefits times. Food historian KT Achaya dates the use oil makes up 13.7 per cent of edible oil in India. now,” says Gupta. egendary Fo of of sesame oilseedsactor-playwright to the HarappanDario civilisaIndia than had promptly appropriated proAs more 90 per cent of the cottonthe grown In 1993, Achaya discovered that from a 96 once2000 said,BC. “A The theatre, literature, an duction tion around ghania entails a symfor theisgolden jubilee of Independin the country genetically modified Bt cot- per cent share at the beginning of this centuartistic expression does who not ence biotic relationship betweenthat farmers and sent it used to London.

Thus, the ry, ghanis accounted for only four per cent of ton, the oil is being in violation of laws. speak for own time has no relegrow oilseeds anditsconsumers looking for metaphor imagery ofhas Macbeth wasclearripe the oil sold in India. This figure is even lower Geneticallyand modified food not been vance.”

On February 1, 2016, oil. the This essence of and fresh, healthy, cold-pressed rustic, apropos Thiyam to comment ed for humanfor consumption in India. upon the today. This has also meant a drastic fall in the these words reverberated infinds a packed grassroots enterprise today itselfauditoon the contemporary socio-political dispensation.

The FSSAI regulations do not make any dis- supply of nutritious oil cakes (residue after exrium New when the curtain went up tinction wronginside ofDelhi, modern food safety regulations.

Thiyam’sbetween first notable Chakrathe production, coldtraction) for cattle feed. India toonUnder the 18th of Bharat Mahotsav: theedition Food Safety andRang Standards Act, vyuha (1984), brings a similar analysis of powpressed oil from a ghani and the day imports more than 60 per International Theatre Festival of of India, 2006, all oil producers, regardless size,orgahave er, greedextraction and violence. been performed solvent used It byhas larger cent of its edible oil and oil cakes nised by the National Schooland of Drama (NSD). to maintain a laboratory employ two several times around“A theghani globe,isfetchingOaccooil manufacturers. for cattle feed, losing precious il producers, The openingtoperformance technicians test samples was — a requirement not a very profitable lades andoperation, global recognition for of size, foreign exchange in the process. regardless Macbeth, directed by the internathat the small, village-level units can ill-afford, it is more likehim and provider, his Chorus Repertory a service Hexane, used to extract oil have to set up a lab tionally acclaimed Thi-closure hang- that helps rural leaving the threat of Ratan imminent Theatre. established the folk,”Heexplains from soya bean and even oilandRepemploy two yam, who hails from Manipur. ing over them. in 1976 after Gupta. In a ertory ghani, oilseeds are completing seeds, is toxic to humans. Subsitechnicians to test notableto extract This classic considered the Thiyam’s “Ghanis willisstay if the government acts, if itfirstcrushed his training National Schoolsamples of the oil,atwhich dies enjoyed by the soy and palm darkest of toallapply Shakespearean decides not industrial norms to aproduction, cot- is markedly Drama and soonthe began incorpodifferent from industries in Malaysia and Indo(1984), solvent tragedies — a argues rumination tage industry,” Vibha on Gupta,Chakravyuha Director chemical rating elements like Nata Sankirextraction nesia make it impossible for ghabrings similarmethod analysisusedtana greed, violence and evilatengulfof Magan Sangrahalaya Sewashram. (a Vaishnavite by most commer- folk dance nis to compete with them. of power, cial greed ingInindividual andmustard society. Thi1998, after oil adulteration form) and Thang-ta oil manufacturers.

A ghani (a Manipuri Navdanya, a non-profit that and violence yam “Macbeth is the name the governkilledsays: 60 and poisoned thousands, martial into hisalthough works. promotes biodiversity, has launched a nationmay use electricity for art) the crushing, of a disease spreading with ment responded with out a nationwide ban on many units still Through subversion rever- wide satyagraha on January 30 to save the ghause bullocks to turnand a manual man, many voices Ratan Thiyam at an NSD the sale greatest speed in the conof unpackaged edible oils. New regu- crushing contraption, sion, thesewhose indigenous forms get One simple design ni from a certain death. kamal narang in Delhi temporary world and across so-and Standards has remainedassimilated lations made by the Food Safety own distinct event unchangedinto overhis centuries.

Across villages, grassroots activists are raiscalled advanced civilisation.

It is are being enAuthority of India (FSSAI) in 2011 form. hisgrown notable pro- ing awareness on the many benefits of locally Cold-pressed oil Among has lately in popaforced dangerous epidemic.” now, dealing the latest blow to the al- ductions Ibsen’s type of neo-colonial servitude. ularity forare its Uttar-Priyadarshi perceived health(1996), benefits, so it produced oil. “The support thatThough ghanis some need For aailing state ghani. under the ready For Armed the teliForces or oil (Special presser When We Dead Awaken (2008) and Tagore’s scholars the ancient past of Manipur in commands a premium price globally.

The The vil- from thelocate government is recognition, that this Powers) Act (AFSPA), noted theatre finda King community across the country, thiscritics also has Dark Chamber The performances thea highly time ofskilled the Mahabharata, at is a less exotic lage of ghanis, however,(2012). have not gained in any is work, and this the purest in Thiyam’s Macbeth strong resonances of Mincon- are direct bearing on their livelihood.

Prime by the scenic brilliance and design level, part of the Indian way.marked Environmental activist Vandana Shiva oil thatManipur you can became get,” saysaShiva. temporary resistance. must be reister Narendra Modi isHowever, probablyitthe most fa- aesthetics thematically they midalso Union 1949.

Over the last two decades, blames thisofonThiyam; the ignorance of the new “We in have suffered the village oilman it tohas be membered that of Manipur’s Aryan (oilseed Theatre engender mous member the ghanchi a concern for infatuation life and givewith voicethe to driven attracted attention dueeat to adulterated insurgency, dle-class and its blind to media extinction and we translated and produced Shakespeare’s origi- the crushers) community. marginalised drugs,Gandhi protests against AFSPAatand Naga leader West.

“If someoneeverywhere. sells cold-pressed oil from oils,” had lamented a gathering in nal“Traditionally, in 1965. Then villages in 1997, Lokendra across theArambam country Italy, they will flock to it. They come looking Indore Thuingaleng plans to visit his birthin MayMuivah’s 1935. drama directed — Stageofof oil Blood as environhave hadMacbeth communities pressers, who Constant indecades Manipur. images, partially for quinoa when we have amaranth, buck- place Eight on,All histhese words still ring true. mental theatreto upon a lakeoil inon Manipur.

Aramcrush oilseeds provide demand and Within freeragi,” India,she there wheat and says.are compartments of true, partially coloured, have created a myth yadav bam observed the Government also recently buy produce fromthat farmers to sell to colonial decree where peoplewere are trapped of Manipur that needs to be dispelled. The coOlive oil manufacturers the firstintoa saurabh

Manipur’s experimental theatre, nurtured by doyens like Ratan Thiyam, H Kanhailal and Lokendra Arambam, awaits a wave of fresh energy and ideas

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Quick-freeze misogyny lonial experience, breeding a sense of subjec- in Manipur as late as 1905, with Friend’s Dration in Indians, had been gradually effaced as matic Union, under the influence of colonial theatres in Kolkata. a result of the Independence struggle.

Later, Manipur Drama Union (1931), Aryan Along with the restoration of national selfrespect, efforts for ‘self-reliance’, ‘progress’ Theatre (1935), Rupmahal Theatre (1943), Langand ‘modernisation’ reached the nerves and meidong Dramatic Union (1955) and cultural veins of the country, but not in Manipur, or in squads — which were later incorporated into fact the whole of the North-East. In the 1990s, the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) theatre scholar Rustom Bharucha drew our at- under the leadership of Hijam Irabat Singh (1896-1951) — helped spread social awareness tention to this situation.

As for theatre and other arts, it always ex- and theatre activities around the state. Jawatends beyond what one sees on stage or on harlal Nehru Manipur Dance Academy (1954) canvas. Theatre in Manipur — which is synony- became the nerve centre for the teaching of mous with the works of Arambam, Heisnam Manipuri dance, music and allied subjects like Kanhailal and Thiyam — needs to be seen with- Thang-ta. in the framework of above-mentioned points, The anger within because, as of now, life in Manipur is very different from the life people are leading in other By the late ’60s there was discontent against Indian rule and commercial exploitation. In parts of India.

The origins of Manipuri performances can the awakening quest for authenticity, and search for an identity, experibe traced to native, primitive fermental theatre grew in the ’70s tility cults and ancestor worship under directors like Kanhailal, festivals of the Meiteis, who conThiyam and Arambam. They verted to Vaishnavite Hinduism, Many people relate as well as 30-odd tribes of Naga the 2004 nude protest probed anew their cultural roots, generating new theatrical and Kuki denominations. The

by Manipuri women celebratory rite of Lai Haraoba, to the performance of expressions from old vocabularies of performance, and enhancWari Liba or the art of solo storyDraupadi ing production values through telling along with folk music better use of stage technology. and dance created a strong sense While Thiyam established himof national culture in Manipur. self on the international stage The rulers of Manipur were the chief patrons of art and culture, which flour- with spectacular productions through his ished under the Ningthouja dynasty and Bha- close links with the arts establishment at the Centre, Arambam, balancing his academic gyachandra’s patronage.

In secular realms, shumang leela (courtyard commitment with theatre, invested himself theatre) has not only survived in the Meitei in the exploration of form and spaces. culture but is also quite popular, with every A relatively obscure figure then, Kanhailal village having multiple performing teams. at Kalakshetra Manipur (1969) struggled to Modern ‘proscenium’ theatre on the lines of channel and structure the use of performative the melodramatic shumang leela came about energy. His wife Sabitri Devi became his com-

Deplorable patriarchal elitism continues to stymie gender equality at religious places rational argumentation and there may be good reason to consider it valuable. However, no matter how passionately one wants to recover popular counter-logics to rationalistic logic, it is impossible to defend the exclusion of women on the grounds of defending them.

First of all, rituals and practices believed to preserve devachaitanya are not timeless. There is evidence that these are altered in consultation with the tantri, the highest priest authorStoryteller par excellence Veteran director ity, and/or through the practice of devaprasna, murali kumar Heisnam Kanhailal kconsultation an astrological with the divine.

The ‘responses’ have not been even. In 1991, the Kerala High Court ruled that the practice of alpanion on this quest. lowing women in Sabarimala outside the Kanhailal, who is knownshould for his be exploration main pilgrimage seasons ended in of acting techniques and performances with deference to devaprasnams that indicated Ay-a strong political sensibility, came in close conyappa’s displeasure at it. Women had been altact with well-known theatre and lowed to enter (but not climb thedirector sacred steps) playwright GC 10 Tongbra (1913-96) and his Sociefor more than years by the Travancore Devty Theatre.

Kanhailal has impossible always been a free aswom Board, a sanction without spirit who identified with are the other exploited and the tantri’s nod. But there temples Tamnalai (Haunting downtrodden.

His play which once excluded women, yet subsequentSpirits) appeared around N Premchand, ly opened their doors, such1972. as the ancient Thifaculty at Manipur obruvalla member Sreevallabha Temple, University, in the same Tamnalai —Itwhich dealt withthat the serves districtthat as Sabarimala. is inconceivable problem of ‘goons’ anda how innocents this happened without devaprasna and sufthe fered at their was athe breakthrough in consent of thehands tantri.—Also, ritual requirethe artfor of the drama-writing in Manipur, ments pilgrimage have changed which signifwas otherwise filled with linear and icantly, in my memory, since thenarratives ’70s. trite themes.market For a brief period in 1972, KanhaiSecondly, logic suffuses much relilal was exposed to Badal Sircar and his logics Third gion today, in which ‘quick-frozen’ local Theatre, the syntax of which was acquired and practices are important instruments.

Difrom the West. vine forces are most often fully and finally deGround control The sacred steps leading to the Ayyappa Temple at Sabarimala leju kamal Nevertheless, when itand came to Kanhailal, it scribable, manageable, marketable now. was a dissimilar body, rich in regional, Maintaining thatkind theyofhonour ‘timeless rituhe question of equal rights for wom- Clearly, the pleasures of fluid gender in Hin- ethnic, and political meanings. als’, is acultural major marketing stunt in all temples. en in religions seems to have am- duism are reserved for gods and celestial be- Certainly, Kanhailal’s thearticulation ascendant involved Hindutvaa masterproject bushed us with the eruption of ings; humans must remain trapped in gender ful linkage of political as well as popular condoes not fancy local counter-logics of faith.

Inactivism and debate around Shani binaries. Nowhere is this more starkly illus- cerns, but the VHP ingredients he combined — terestingly, leader evoked here fears Shingnapur and Sabarimala, temples where trated than at Sabarimala. faith, oppression, victimhood, self-awareness not about devachaitanya, but a ‘rational’, modwomen are not allowed to enter, and the Haji was available forconcern reinterpretation andsafety. re-arThis means that mere entry of women will — ern-protectionist — women’s Ali shrine, where women worshippers are not not fully resolve the patriarchal arrangement ticulation, resulting myriad responses However, the Hindu in right-wingers rarely from wish allowed into the saint’s mausoleum since 2011. that shapes worship there. But the audience.to rub temple managers and reliFor many, the widespread media interest in there has been much support Many people relate the 2004 nude gious conservatives the protest wrong these issues is frustrating: indeed, there are for the SC’s questioning. Sabariby Manipuri women Imphal to the performway. TheinKerala government may wheretothe bodylocal behundreds of other desperately urgent issues mala is unique in that men of all ance of Draupadi not be(2000), committed saving Our presence willthe site comes of resistance. either, but would pertaining to gender justice they have raised, castes and creeds, ages, married counter-logics make Sabarimala It is aapity that one seldom which the media has largely ignored. Never- and unmarried, rich and poor, pretend to do so.finds Evensignificant if the opsafer place for all in today’s sparks younger generation, theless, we should not despair — this is an un- are equally welcome there. All position to women’s entrywhich from should ideally beKerala carrying forward the legacy expected opportunity to question the the more reason for women to the government is the reof Manipur’ssult experimental theatre fromthat the ‘timelessness’ of rituals and customs, which is demand space in that relatively of a cost-benefit analysis ’70s. Critics reckons feel thatthe those inevitably raised by the patriarchal elite that inclusive community of believgainswho fromsucceeded the move these masters copiedresponsibilitheir styles controls most religious institutions. ers. Also, the concern that more policing and to be less than have lossesblindly from added without absorbing of their pracThe forest-shrine of Sabarimala has been in other arrangements to ensure women’s pro- ties, besides being athe ‘safeessence bet’ politically. quest. the news ever since the Supreme Court (SC) tection will become necessary should only tice It and is lamentable that the severe ecological This is not of anthe exaggeration if one observes questioned the logic in its practice of exclud- make women all the more insistent on gain- degradation forest-abode invites weak that the daily realities of Manipur are not ing women of procreative age, in response to a ing entry. Our presence will make Sabarimala response.

Access should be restricted tore-a flectedmanageable in the theatre of today, which areofjust petition from the Indian Young Lawyers’ Asso- a safer place for all. And it is common knowl- fixed, number of pilgrims all ‘museumised’, the that words of Erin Mee,legas ciation. There can be no mistake that gender edge that the 41-day-long vow that men are ex- genders.

And itin is sad even mythBand the ‘festival theatres of Manipur’.

In order to segregation is at the heart of the Ayyappa pected to keep before proceeding to the end have been cut to size, burying the non-hucreateFew meaningful theatre, a search for a new myth: Ayyappa is the son of two divinities temple is often honoured in the breach. Is it man. bother about animals — the tiger, so language be initiated as a dialogue bemost often associated with masculine attri- not a shame that the interest in keeping such central tohas thetoAyyappa legend.

In sum, the tween past, present and future. butes, Shiva and Vishnu. His companions were impious men away is negligible, compared to question which humans should be let in there Nevertheless, promising new will artistes like exclusively male; legend says that Ayyappa the anxiety about keeping away many possi- is not a trivial one, but it certainly not save Lourembam Kishworjit, Nongthombam may marry — and young women may enter bly pious women? the poonkavanam, Ayyappa’s beloved BloomPremchand, H Tomba, and S Thanilthe shrine — only when Kanni-Ayyappanmar But many conservatives, both men and ing Grove. This, indeed,SisJayanta the counter-logic of leimathat will we surely usher in(literally, ‘virgin-male devotees’, but actually women, seem to have a different logic in their faith need, onenew thatcreative cannotenergy be quickto the age-old of conscience. refers to male worshippers on their first visits) objection. They fear that the entry of women frozen for easetheatre of marketing. stop coming. Yet the female body remains an into Sabarimala will diminish devachaitanya — devika is a historian critic based in biswas teaches and at the School of Culture and irritant in the myth: Vishnu, in the legend, had the inherent divine force of the deity. Definite- jbenil Creative Expressions, Ambedkar University, Delhi to the form ofA male a beautiful Shetake walks in beauty Manipuri enchantress. artiste at a Shumang Guwahati ritu raj konwar ly,leela thisperformance logic is oneinthat is sidelined by modern Thiruvananthapuram

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saturday, february 6, 2016

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in-faq by joy bhattacharjya

I

n keeping with the rest of the issue, this quiz is on theatre. Break a leg!

here,there & elsewhere

Stage fright

Gut instinct

1

The first recorded actor in Greek theatre performed around 532 BC. He was the winner of the first known Dionysia or theatre festival.

Name him, or the word in the English language inspired by his name.

2

Edwin was probably the most famous American actor of the 19th-century. However, Edwin was forced to give up acting for a while because of his brother John. What was the surname of this distinguished family of actors?

3

Sir Ian McKellen is known for his performances in the Lord Of The Rings series.

With which fellow member of the X-Men cast did he also appear in a celebrated Haymarket production of Waiting for Godot?

4

Bhutto, a three-act play featuring a conversation between Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his jailor Zia-ul-Haq, has been performed since the ’80s in India. Which versatile film performer and director, better known for his comic roles, wrote the play?

5

This theatre form is mainly prevalent in North India, particularly Uttar Pradesh. Some of the most famous works are Syah-Posh Pak Mohabbat, Sultana Daku and Indal Haran, with Pandit Ram Dayal Sharma being the best-known contemporary writer. Name the theatre form.

6 7

Which ’80s film, based on incidents that happened in 1924, was also revived as a play around the 2012 London Olympics?

The word ‘panache’ entered the English language from which celebrated 19thcentury play by Edmund Rostand based on a real-life personality?

8

Obelix’s only stage appearance in an Asterix comics was a huge flop. Name the story, which also featured two theatre actors named Laurensolivius and Alecginus.

9

One of India’s most successful plays is a Feroz Abbas Khan adaptation of the AR Gurney play Love Letters. The play has been performed since the ’90s across India, Europe and the US and is about 35 years of letters exchanged between Zulfikar Haider and a certain Ms Nigam.

What is the name of this famous adaptation?

the Indian pizza-guy who lives next door wanders in looking glum.

J“Myiggs, stomach,” he says, rubbing his middle. “Hurts.” I tell him to see a doctor. “Can’t,” he says. “No insurance.”

I look sympathetic. I’m in the same boat. I don’t have the money to sign up for Obama Care so I can’t afford to be sick. But Bins’s ears prick up. “Stomach pain? Ah. I have a book for you.”

“Don’t be silly,” I say. We’ve both finished reading an interesting and entertaining bestseller called Gut. It's by Giulia Enders, a young German microbiologist. “It won’t help him get rid of his problem.” But of course Bins is unstoppable. “Don’t listen to her! She has no faith in anything. Really, this WILL help you.” He brandishes the small yellow paperback in the air. “For instance, the place you are touching is not your stomach at all! It is your small intestine. Really, your stomach is up here–” He pats his chest.

“It is NOT!” I say in the loud commanding voice of someone who can’t bear it when mature human beings are unable to locate the major organs of their own bodies. Jiggs scowls and says, “Why you are calling my intestine small?” I point to the area under where my ribs join up.

“THIS is where the stomach is. And believe me, the book will NOT help

you get rid of the pain. In fact it will make you fret about how hopelessly incompetent we human beings are at keeping our digestive systems in working order.”

“Knowledge is Power,” intones Bins.

“In the book, you will find out how many times you should go in the week—” Jiggs looks puzzled. “Go where?” “—and why your poop smells bad and what is the best colour for it to be.” “Chee!” says Jiggs, grimacing.

“Indians do not talk about such matters!” “But they are fascinating, these poops!” says Bins, undeterred.

“They are three-quarters water, onethird bacteria. Miles of intestine and

trillions of cells, everyone working together to help you to stay alive.”

“Bacteria is germs!” says Jiggs, looking alarmed. “And we need lots of them,” says Bins. “Even though some are bad for you,” I chime in. “Sometimes the bad ones are good for you BECAUSE they’re bad for you.” “But why is my stomach hurting?” asks Jiggs. “Maybe you ate something that your intestine cannot process,” says Dr Bins. “Then it will try to protect you by throwing it out from your mouth.” “Vomiting? No!” cries Jiggs. “It’s something that rabbits, horses and rats cannot do,” I say, soothingly. “So be grateful that you’re human. It’s the body’s way of protecting us from toxins.”

“The digestive system is mostly not under the control of our conscious brain,” says Bins, ignoring my inputs.

“We can say: it’s like an extra-terrestrial inside our body, doing its own work, quietly, efficiently—” “Stop!” says Jiggs, getting up to go. “You’re feeling better?” I ask. “The pain is gone from my tummy and into my head,” he says.

Bins hands him the book. “Just read it,” he says. “It will help you enjoy the ache.” manjula padmanabhan, author and artist, writes of her life in the fictional town of Elsewhere, US, in this weekly column

cornerstone

10

Playwright John Dennis came up with a new sound effect for his play Appius and Virginia, using metal balls rolling in a bowl.

Dennis was furious to hear his sound effect later being used in a famous scene in Macbeth. What did he reportedly exclaim on hearing the effect, a phrase that has since entered into common use in the language?

Answers 1. Thespis, from where we get the word ‘thespian’ for an actor 2. Booth. John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln, and his brother Edwin was forced to give up plays for a while because of the outcry 3. Patrick Stewart, who is also a close friend 4. IS Johar 5. Nautanki; some of the better-known performers are Gokul Korea, Ghasso and Ram Swarup Sharma 6. Chariots of Fire 7. Cyrano De Bergerac 8. Asterix and the Cauldron. Onstage, the only line Obelix comes up with was “These Romans are crazy!”

9. Tumhari Amrita, which was performed to great acclaim by Shabana Azmi and the late Farooq Sheikh 10. “The villains will not play my play, but they steal my thunder!”

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joy bhattacharjya is a quizmaster and Project Director, FIFA U-17 World Cup t@joybhattacharj

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