Impressions & Expressions - Theatre

This was the article which I wrote for my company's intranet magazine sometime in 2007.

Just thought of reproducing it here....

Theatre…. Plays, scripts, lighting, makeup, costumes, props, and to top it all the sheer excitement of being on stage in front of a live audience!!

It is almost 18 years since I have been sucked into the black hole called theatre. I have no idea how to come out and have no intention of coming out either!!

The Indian theatre scenario has been subtle in the last few years. In spite of this, most of the theatre folks, no matter how busy they are with television soap operas and cinemas, make sure that they come on stage once a month and really get into the act!

I am delighted to belong to the theatre community, which is known for its eccentricities. In my experience of being part of Kannada theatre over the last 18 years, I have seen many ups and downs.

My venture into theatre was not sudden; it began in school. I started my theatre experiments with the street theatre as a singer. It was a strange experience as there was no stage, no make up, or lights and we performed amidst the public. Our goal was “Theatre for a cause”. We always believed and still believe that theatre is more for a social cause than entertainment.

There have been days when we went without food or shared meals but still kept moving from village to village. The people from the villages encouraged us to perform in numerous ways. In exchange for our street theatre performances, they performed their folk art, which we tried to use in our plays. In one of the plays we used martial arts like Kalaripayattu from Kerala, Thaang Tha from Manipur, and the dance form Sarpankali from Kerala.

Traveling to villages, singing and acting on the streets, and trying to create awareness on social issues like cancer, alcohol addiction, superstitions, through the street plays, have been memorable moments and I've had the satisfaction of reaching out to people on various occasions with success.

I then moved on to proscenium theatre, that is theatre on stage. The performances challenge your creativity within restricted limits.

I had the chance to be part of a workshop conducted by Utpal Dutt, an unforgettable name, whose brilliance showed in his expressions and creative genius. Utpal was tough to work with and demanded the best!

On the other hand, I found it easy to work with Shankar Nag on a his production “Nagamandala”, which was written by Girish Karnad. Our rehearsals at his farmhouse often began at 10 p.m. and lasted till 2 a.m. And by 4:30 a.m., Shankar was ready for his shooting schedules. A man with huge reserves of energy and a super star, yet very down to earth. This is what theatre teaches you-- have your foot firm on the ground and never allow it to float around! And the perfect example of Shankar Nag's humility was evident when he chose to return from Calcutta with us by train in a second class compartment. A man with unmatched talent, very few know that he was an excellent singer as well.

Nagabharana, the man who has won many national and international awards for his films, is one more person I remember fondly. Of course, I am still a singer with his theatre group, BENAKA. He is brilliant at visual conceptualizations and can go to any extremes to bring those visuals to reality. It is wonderful to share the stage with him.

This article will not be complete if I do not mention Rangashankara, a dedicated theatre space for Bangaloreans created by the collective genius minds of Girish Karnad, MS Sathyu, and Arundhathi Nag based on the lines of Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai, which led by Shashi Kapoor and his daughter Sanjana Kapoor. I have participated in about 30 shows in Rangashankara and each time I am on stage, it has been a hair rising experience for me! I still get cold feet.

I had two dreams of which one is realized and another will never be.

The first one was to watch Utpal Dutt on stage, which never happened and he is no more with us. So, this will remain unfulfilled.
The second one was to watch Amol Palekar on stage, which I did during one of the plays in Mumbai.

I still dream of working with people like Nasiruddin Shah, Nana Patekar, Anang Desai, Lillette Dubey, and many more.