Life at 20

Life at 20

IN March, theatre lovers would certainly not long to be anywhere else but Mumbai the venue city for Ekjute’s theatre festival. Called Ekjute Natya Pratishthan, it is Nadira Zaheer Babbar’s way of saying, ‘We are 20’.

So, while the stage has been set for some of the group’s best platform performances, space has already been made for the ‘greats’ among the audience to watch some good theatre up-close. Usha Ganguly, M K Raina, Amal Allana, Prasanna and Ram Gopal Bajaj special invitees from across the country are expected to attend the fortnight-long festival, beginning onMarch 4.

Yahudi ki Ladki, Dayashankar ki Diary, Bharam ke Bhoot, Ballabhpur ki Roopkatha, Court Martial, Sandhya Chhaya, Baat Laat ki Halaat ki, Begum Jaan and Shakubai this theatre showcase will shout, weep, sing, dance and indulge in a lot of melodrama. From Bhangwadi and Shakespeare-inspired Parsi style of theatre in Agha Hashr Kashmiri’s Yahudi ki Ladki to Nacha folk style of Bharam ke Bhoot to one-actor plays by Aashish Vidyarthi and Sarita Joshi, the festival will experiment with various theatre genres but ‘experimental’.

“Mine has been modern Indian theatre for the last three decades, for I feel the audience is not yet ready for experimental theatre,” says Babbar of the theatre scene since she performed Beemar her first play, written by her father Sajjad Zaheer.

Then on, she has been closely guarding and observing the live arts scene in India, fighting allegations that “she hasn’t been doing enough, like IPTA” and that “Ekjute thrives on re-runs, like Shakubai”, or “how could she have plays running with non-Ekjute actors like Ashish Vidyarthi and Sarita Joshi”.

To this, Babbar neither retorts nor reacts. “Ebrahim Alkazi once told me that no one kicks a sleeping dog. Only when you are proactive they keep needling you, which is a proof of doing some good work regularly. And as far as non-Ekjute members doing one-man plays is concerned, these have been the ones which still run to packed houses,” she defends her case.

“We want to try out new avenues and build a new generation of audiences for Hindi theatre, while reviving traditional and folk theatre like Bharam ke Bhoot by Dwarika Prasad from Chhatisgarh,” says Babbar, her eyes glinting with determination. “In the process, some plays work and others don’t” unfortunately, Ekjute’s Pankh Hote To and Samba Shiva didn’t click, while the depressing Sandhya Chhaya has gone down well, with people relating to the problems of the lonely old couple. So, no laugh-a-minute comedies or bedroom farces for Ekjute. Just good, serious modern theatre. “For this, we need to train audiences. And the effort have been on since Prithvirajji started doing plays on serious issues and generated an audience for them even 60 years ago.” As for the fest, apart from the performances, there’ll be workshops, felicitation of backstage artists and seminars uniting theatre personalities, poets and musicians.

Among all this activity, however, there has been no time to celebrate the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award which she received late last year.