‘Ilhaam’ had not made much of an impression on me.
As a result, I ended up giving the next play ‘Shakkar ke paanch daane’ a miss,
an error I deeply regret now that I have read the play, but I’ll come to that
later.
Right after we
returned to Delhi from shooting the film that we are working on together, there
was a festival of Manav’s plays at Mandi House. By this time I knew him
reasonably well, or enough at least to know that he is very talented with a
sharp, quick thinking, improvisational mind, and a spontaneous and infectious
energy. And further, he is a team player who gives people their
space. This I knew of the person, but towards his work I had had a mixed
reaction, having seen only Hansa and Ilhaam.
I made it a point
then, to see all three plays that were being staged, including Ilhaam, which
was to be the first. Even after the second viewing, my opinion about the play
stays largely unchanged. I still have the same problems with it. Perhaps I am
unable to see things his way, perhaps he is content with his interpretation… in
any case, in my opinion the play lacks insight, and is heavy with a bias and an
interpretation that is almost Western in nature.
The second play
‘Park’ was something else altogether. It was hilariously funny, with an
underlying theme so simple and so profound- it was superb. The design was
simple- it’s centered around three people and three benches in a park and
happens almost in real time. The beauty is in (the nature and content of) the
interactions between the three people, borne out of their individual quirks.
The idea of occupying and claiming space was lovely in itself, and it seemed a
bit of a stretch to bring in the Israel- Palestinian conflict, Kashmir and the
adivasi- Maoist struggle, especially since all of these are complex issues with
fairly complicated histories. I found it surprising that Manav should slip up
in this regard considering that he is half Kashmiri. I don’t know enough about
Israel- Palestine, but to equate adivasis to Maoists would be offensive to
anyone familiar with the region. Having said that, the references were clearly
made in good faith, and the audience responded to it in the same spirit.
As the
characters’ back stories are revealed, the play enters a different and
unexpected zone- it becomes an insightful comment on some of the ills of our
education system, and our way of bringing up children. Manav seems to be a keen
observer- of people, and trends and events and such- as a good writer ought to
be, and this shows in his detailing, especially of characters. There is an
everyday simplicity and earthiness to his characters that is refreshing. (This
response might seem peculiar, but bear in mind that it comes from someone who
is mostly unfamiliar with Hindi writing as well as theatre, having read none of
Hindi literature, and seen very little theatre.)
The three actors
were fantastic. Some credit for this may be due to the director as well; who
seems to know a thing or two about handling actors, and pays great attention to
performances, a trait that was on display earlier on, on our shoot too.
The third and
last play that I saw was called ‘Laal Pencil’. This was essentially a
children’s play; here’s the official synopsis: a young school girl is relishing
her new found stardom amongst peers and teachers ever since she suddenly,
mysteriously starts writing beautiful poetry. What no one knows is that it is
not her, but a magic red pencil that she found in class that's writing the
poetry. The constant struggle between truth and falsehood, desires and
righteousness, love and hate, and the pain of keeping a secret, lead upto the
girl's final decision. Will she or won't she? Based on a Korean novel, 'laal
pencil' is a poignant tale of a girl with a secret.
The plot of the
play is simple enough, and does not stray far beyond what is stated in the
synopsis. But it is highly stylised in its presentation, while also offering,
in oblique ways, a critique of the way children are treated, both at home and
in school. There were all kinds of tools employed- from costumes (the students
wore only one shoe), to make up (the students were in mime style make up- with
their faces painted white) to shadow play (Pinki’s parents fight behind a
screen and her father, who has gone away, is never actually seen) to word play
(the argument between Pinki’s parents is fantastic in it’s simplicity while getting
the message across more effectively than would have been possible with normal
dialogues) to more word play (the students almost never say anything
intelligible- always repeating generic phrases, in a allusion to the rote
learning that is prevalent in our schools) to symbolism (the pencil grows
bigger as Pinki’s guilt increases, the students drag themselves across the
stage to reach ‘the other shoe’) to multiple role play (at some points there
are multiple actors playing the same character, Pinki) and so forth. There were
several more, these are only the ones I remember offhand. Besides, I’m not a
theatre person myself and my responses are such as can be expected of a lay
audience.
This play
certainly had a message, and even employed Mahatma Gandhi in order to get it
across, or perhaps to legitimise it. This is just as well, for Truth in itself
does not seem to command the respect and high regard that it should in society,
and is usually propped up/ legitimised / appropriated by invoking religion and/
or the fires of hell or the next birth, as the case may be. To invoke the
Mahatma then, is to clearly state your secular credentials.
I seem to vaguely
remember Manav saying that ‘Laal Pencil’ is not a play for children. In a way I
see his point- the message in the play is as relevant for and applicable to, an
adult. Besides we as a society would do well to return to all those moral
science lessons we read in school, for we don’t seem to be doing a very good
job of applying any to our lives. Besides, there is much in the play that
demonstrates both an understanding and a critique of our schools, teachers and
parents, and to that extent I suppose it is certainly one that adults ought to
see. But it is very clearly also a play that would appeal to older children,
who might recognise some of their angst, depicted on stage.
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