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Home , Javed Akhtar, Naseeruddin Shah, Prithvi Theatre, Ratna Pathak Shah, Satyadev Dubey

September 2020 ®

ON Stagevolume 10 • issue 2

The NCPA’s Cherished Bonds

SHABANA AZMI “When I first performed at the NCPA, I understood why space is very important for an actor”

NASEERUDDIN SHAH “When the Experimental Theatre came along, it was a great boon”

KUNAL KAPOOR “I consider our relationship with the NCPA with great respect and appreciation” NCPA Chairman Khushroo N. Suntook

Editorial Director Radhakrishnan Nair Editor 16 Snigdha Hasan

Consulting Editor Vipasha Aloukik Pai Contents Editorial Co-ordinator opening up its offerings to Hilda Darukhanawalla audiences the world over. The Art Director 16 Chairman, genre heads and senior 24 Tanvi Shah creatives shed more light on the way forward. Associate Art Director Hemali Limbachiya Assistant Art Director 16 Nandkishor Sawant The Music Will Go On As countries gradually lift Graphic Designers Gautami Dave restrictions, it has become Sanjana Suvarna easier to believe that the enriching experience of Advertising attending a live concert is Anita Maria Pancras not a distant reality. Gauthier ([email protected]; 66223835) Herrmann, who founded the Tulsi Bavishi ([email protected]; 9833116584) Artie’s Festival in collaboration with the NCPA, tells us how his Production Manager chamber music ensemble has Mangesh Salvi been adapting to the situation. Senior Digital Manager By Beverly Pereira Jayesh V. Salvi

Cover Credit Jeff Spicer/Getty Images (Azmi); 19 Sarang Sena/The The Today Group via High Fidelity Getty Images (Shah) As turns 91 this month, Kerala-based Produced by singer and ardent devotee Saritha Rahman speaks about Editorial Office Features conceptualising a concert in her 4th Floor, Todi Building, honour, the pressures that came Mathuradas Mills Compound, with it and why her own journey Senapati Bapat Marg, is entwined with her deep love Lower Parel, 06 12 and respect for the songstress. - 400013 Reflections In Remembrance of a Visionary By Krutika Behrawala that artistes draw from in turn. intense receptivity between some Mukesh Parpiani, looks Printer Her Last Supper. By Anil Dharker On Dr Jamshed J. Bhabha’s 106th By Vipasha Aloukik Pai of the greatest jazz musicians of the back on Mumbai’s tryst Spenta Multimedia, Peninsula Spenta, birth anniversary, personalities 20th century. with the monsoon over Mathuradas Mill Compound, from the world of the performing 22 the decades through N. M. Joshi Marg, Lower Parel, 08 arts share memories of their On a Literary Note 27 frames capturing its Mumbai – 400013 Enduring Bonds association with the man the Bruce Guthrie, Head of Theatre The Wondrous World of Jazz 31 sodden fury, squelchy The arts fraternity is called so NCPA owes its existence to. & Film at the NCPA, shares a Collaborations A Flood of Memories streets and battered-but- Materials in ON Stage®cannot be because its strength lies in selection of books and plays that Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, Head of Piramal Gallery, not-broken denizens. reproduced in part or whole without the written permission of the publisher. Views cohesiveness, a certainty that have inspired him as an artiste poles apart in their musicality, and opinions expressed in this magazine has only become more palpable 14 over the course of his career. came together multiple times Follow us on: during the lockdown. The NCPA Agility to Meet Challenges to create great music, while two are not necessarily those of the publisher. facebook.com/NCPAMumbai All rights reserved. has cherished a long-standing In the absence of live brilliant saxophonists, Coleman relationship with personalities performances, the NCPA 24 Hawkins and Ben Webster, @NCPAMumbai NCPA Booking Office and organisations that share management shows the way Onstage, Backstage and jammed for one night and ended @NCPAMumbai 2282 4567/6654 8135/6622 3724 one thing in common – an by adapting to the situation Beyond up making an album that is www.ncpamumbai.com youtube.com/user/TheNCPAMumbai1 undying love of the performing and moving the organisation’s Three luminaries from the world considered a jazz masterclass. arts. Some of their reflections curatorial, educational and of Indian classical dance reflect on Anurag Tagat takes a look at some on the pandemic, and this bond outreach work to the digital the energy that the performing powerful collaborations, replete We look forward to your feedback and suggestions. Please do drop us an

through the decades. platform with plans afoot for arts fill the Tata Theatre with and with skilful improvisation and email at [email protected]. COVER STORY With in a scene from Dear Liar ENDURING BONDS The arts fraternity is called so because its strength lies in cohesiveness, a fact that has only become more palpable during the lockdown. The NCPA has cherished a long-standing relationship with personalities and organisations that share one thing in common – an undying love of the performing arts. Some of their reflections on the pandemic, and this bond Jamshed Bhabha sahab, who WITH THE experience of performing the same through the decades. liked my work very much, called me play for a month every night and one day to discuss if I would like to FATHER, THE again, nowhere else would I be able collaborate on a project in which the MOMENT I to get the theatre for a month. The NCPA would share the burden of READ THE PLAY NCPA was generous enough to give producing something spectacular. it to me and have faith that I could While I ’t do spectacular stuff, I I DECIDED TO fill it for a month, though that to me he very first time that I became aware of , ACTOR said to him if there is anything close DO IT AND THE was the less important thing. We the existence of the NCPA was not long to spectacular that I would like to ONLY CHOICE didn’t do a realistic presentation. after it was founded. It was 1970 and I do, it is Julius Caesar, a play that [But that people could connect was a first-year student at the National had been on my to-do list for a long WAS THE with it] proves you don’t need the School of Drama. The NSD was on a tour time. He consented and so Motley EXPERIMENTAL realistic clutter to get across if your andT the first stop was Bombay, at the Bhulabhai and the NCPA went into a joint content is strong enough. THEATRE Desai Institute which was the first base of the NCPA. production with a cast of 70 people. The pandemic has led some to After coming to Bombay in 1975 and founding my It was an overambitious production. retreat into their shells and the rate own company in 1979, there was the Little Theatre But I must say that we were not obstructed in any of mental illness has multiplied manifold, but the where we performed. The Tata Theatre had already way, were given a free hand and the Tata Theatre for creative burst of energy that has resulted from the been completed but we didn’t dare perform there five days to rehearse in and then a run of four or five lockdown and mostly from young people is fantastic. because it was too large for us and we used to shows. Even though the play was criticised, I still feel Some wonderful work has been produced, shot by get scanty audiences. This is when Kumud Mehta it was a play worth doing – Shakespeare otherwise is these youngsters in their homes, with their own was the Director of the NCPA and she was greatly not something you can do in the original language in families at times and the subjects they are coming encouraging of us. It wasn’t very often that we India. I got the opportunity to try my hand at a kind of up with! You can’t do a song and dance thing in performed; all of us were busy trying to establish theatre that I realised was not my cup of tea. the pandemic, so you are compelled to think of ourselves in the movie world. But whenever we did It’s been a long-standing relationship with the NCPA something else. The way a lot of theatre companies ask to be accommodated, we always were. Gradually, and my hope and prayer for it is that it does not forget like Akvarious or QTP are using the social media we gained enough confidence to perform in the to fulfil the altruistic motives with which it was built. space is great. Sheena Khalid and Puja Sarup are Tata where [Satyadev] Dubey did a production of It’s a question of passing on encouragement to the doing terrific work. There are people like Makarand Don Juan in Hell in 1981-82. Performing at the Tata next generation – the kind that I received as a young Deshpande conducting workshops online and there when it was new was truly a magical thing because man. The NCPA also has a great responsibility towards have been any number of people doing storytelling. I the acoustics were so good you did not need educating the audience. We don’t need a Broadway don’t think there has been so much theatrical activity amplification of any kind. here – we have enough meaningless cinema. What we by so many people at the same time. It’s ironic that Then the Experimental Theatre came along and I felt need are plays with content, not glitter; the kind of it is the pandemic that has driven us to it. The whole that was a great boon. Performing in a proscenium is theatre which immediately connects with audiences. of Europe went through a massive trauma in World something which is outdated in most parts of the world With The Father, the moment I read the play War II and look at the amount of writing that came and I was happy to see a theatre without a proscenium I decided to do it and the only choice was the out from it after that. The agony of Partition created and the flexibility it offered. I felt this was a haven for Experimental Theatre. Having the audience on all great literature. After that, not much. This is our first us; another Prithvi on this side of town, which also has four sides was the only way I wanted to do the play. national trauma after independence. It might just set a very encouraging approach towards young theatre I also always wanted to do a month-long run. I had right our and cure it of making those workers. However, it was a while before I started worked in plays in England and Paris and found monstrous blockbusters that make no sense but

MAYUR SHROFF experimenting in the Experimental. it very enjoyable. I wanted my team to have that which get the audience’s adrenaline flowing.

8 • September 2020 NCPA NCPA September 2020 • 9 , ACTOR KUNAL KAPOOR, DIRECTOR,

WHEN WE WERE CELEBRATING hakespeare’s company, The King’s MY FATHER ’S Men, and his theatre, The Globe, were beneficiaries of royal patronage. In BIRTH CENTENARY WITH A India too, Tansen and received UNIQUE SHOW CALLED RAAG royal patronage. The arts have alwaysS been greatly supported by the royalty SHAYARI, I HAD NO DOUBT and governments world over. THAT THE PREMIERE SHOW As Winston Churchill said on cutting the arts COULD ONLY BE PERFORMED subsidies – “The arts are essential to any complete AT THE TATA THEATRE national life. The State owes it to itself to sustain and encourage them.” However, unfortunately, in India, post-independence, this support has continuously reduced with each decade. With virtually no grants and subsidies, the When we were celebrating my father Kaifi Azmi’s few theatres we have in Mumbai struggle birth centenary with a unique show called Raag to survive. Most do so by lending themselves Shayari written by and performed by to sangeets, social club evenings, religious him, , and me, discourses, political and corporate functions. I I had no doubt that the premiere show could only prefer to call such venues auditoriums – a hall be performed at the Tata Theatre. The thunderous with seats in which sometimes a live dance, standing ovation we received vindicated my faith in it music or play performance may take place – as being the best venue for this show. opposed to theatres. There is another memory I cherish from a London alone has more than 260 theatres which performance of Tumhari Amrita. Just before the 6 pm in 2017 hosted almost 19,000 performances show was to commence in a packed Tata Theatre, I to 15.5 million ticket-paying audiences – and was arrested for being involved in a demonstration they still struggle to survive. (New York has over was six months old when my mother Shaukat in support of the rights of slum dwellers. My parents, 400 theatres.) Kaifi would strap me on her back and take me Feroz and my co-actor Farooque Shaikh rushed to I do not see how and why theatres in Mumbai with her for rehearsals of plays she was doing for the Colaba Police Station where I had been detained. should be perceived as “competitors” – we Prithvi Theatre, so I imbibed a love for theatre My mother tried to reason with the cops to let me go need more, more and many more theatres. And PRITHVI THEATRE almost by osmosis. because for people from theatre, it was sacrosanct partnering with each other is extremely important AND THE NCPA HAVE II would often hear her say that space is very that the show must go on. She assured them that she and can only have a positive result. SUPPORTED EACH OTHER important for an actor. It was when I first performed was willing to stand guarantee to bring me back to In this light, Prithvi Theatre and the NCPA have Tumhari Amrita directed by Feroz Abbas in the the police station right after the performance. supported each other continuously over the last CONTINUOUSLY OVER THE early nineties at the NCPA that I understood what In the meantime, the audience had been apprised four decades. Prithvi has held festivals at the NCPA, LAST FOUR DECADES she had meant. Whether it’s the Tata, Experimental, of the situation and informed that they were free to hosted Literature Live! at Prithvi and partnered Jamshed Bhabha or Little Theatre, it is the space that leave and that their tickets would be duly refunded. I gives both freedom and a challenge to the actor. reached the theatre at 8 pm and when I made my entry Tata is a far cry from the regular boxed proscenium at around 8.10, I was amazed to see not one member The Symphony Orchestra of India with the Symphony stages. At first, you feel intimidated and a little lost of the audience had moved from his or her seat. The performs at the Prithvi Theatre Orchestra of India in under the monthly SOI@Prithvi as a performer but then you begin to explore and play received a standing ovation while we put our concert series monthly performances adjust to its demands and reach out to the audience hands together for an audience sensitised over the of Western classical in different ways. years to the joys and travails of a live performance. music at Prithvi – bringing the SOI to a north Mumbai audience With Javed Akhtar, Zakir Hussain with much success. and Shankar Mahadevan during Both of us have Raag Shayari a common aim – to promote and develop the performing arts. I consider Prithvi Theatre’s relationship with the NCPA with great respect and appreciation. I wish this relationship could be the same across all theatres in Mumbai.

NCPA September 2020 • 11