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Mumbai Meri Mehbooba Hain
(Mumbai through its plays)

Its a poignant line in Vishal Bharadwaj’s MAQBOOL. Mumbai meri mehbooba hain.

Its a mehbooba you love. And irrevocably hate.

The great poets (Narayan Surve, Namdeo Dhasal, Annabhau Sathe, Amar Sheikh) and their ballads have celebrated this city. Then there were the Kamgar centres in Andheri, Worli, Naigaum, Kala Chowkie, Vikhroli. In the finest tradition of theatre, they deployed thumris, dholkiwallahs, petiwallahs, lavanis, bharood, songi and now films songs and tv serial plots.

If its Mumbai, then anything and everything goes. As a road side artiste stated: that being remembered makes you live for ever. … And does living in infamy count?

That was the fate of performances staged in open-air grounds like Jambori Maidan with audiences of 1000+. The plays are publicised through word of mouth or handbills outside Lower Parel or Currey Road station. Stagings include JWALA and SAKHARAM BINDER. Sometimes there’s something new and innovative …

Goodbye Chetan Datar

If you met Chetan Datar in the last months of his life, not that any of us knew it was going to be the last few months of his life, he was carrying the crucifix of the burden of sustaining Awishkar’s activity, Marathi theatre and perhaps the young people who flocked to him. The
slender body, had begun to develop a hunch. But he would prowl and strut, then welcome you with a warm greeting, and burst into laughter. Or he would cock his head, smile, fidget and twitch, all at once and bellow Ramu Ramoowalia, for all the world to hear. That was his pet name for me.

For those of you not in the know, B S Ramoowalia, was an Akali Dal MP (later independent) and also the man who read aloud to the Late Harkishen Singh Surjeet when his eyes started to fail. And so, I was …

15 TRULY TRIVIAL TIPS FOR A WANNABE THESPIAN

1. When someone else is rehearsing, sit on the bench with sunglasses - and point an imaginary bazooka at passing actors. See if they die.

2. During a rehearsal send sms to yourself. Then reply. Repeat 200 times.

3. Every time the director asks you to do something, ask if it adheres to the Alexandria Technique.

4. Carry a dustbin to rehearsal and label it “MEMORY”.

5. Listen to Stanislavsky in Russian on your IPod; and walk non-stop through a revolving door.

6. At an audition, if you’re asked what you would do, if you were not an actor, please reply in a staccato voice: “have sex with a serial killer on a white stallion that is going to win next year’s derby”.

7. Finish all your sentences with “Viva la Muerte - Long Live Death”.

8. Read your lines - and ignore the punctuations. Take a break. And then …

Vijay Tendulkar is no more.

The sms was short.

A very dear friend, one who guarded Tendulkar’s life had sent it. It said: “He’s gone.”

Gone?

And what remains?

Memories? Staccato conversations? Longish silences.

Tendulkar’s body of work is formidable. He has penned 28 full length plays, seven collections of one-acts, six collections of children’s plays, four collections of short stories, three collections of essays, a novel, and 17 film scripts, in a short span of 50 years.

Everyone knows that.

What is unheralded is, his non-theatre jotting. His sketches on P L Deshpande, men in power; unknown underdogs are his best work as a journalist. The piece on Amar Sheikh and Hamid Dalwai is stunning. The Walk the Talk (before TV invented Walk the Talk) with Vasantrao Naik is Dario Fo.

He once said to me: “It’s never about the writing. Anyone can write. It is about the observations.”

His project with TISS on …

7 ISLANDS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (3rd Edition) :
VENUE: S P JAIN AUDITORIUM, BHAVANS CAMPUS, ANDHERI (W)

The 7 Islands International Film Festival thus, intends to expose the Indian youth to film that brings new ideas, methodology, solutions and experimentation for social change through non violence and global disarmament.

More than 5000 elite and intellectual people of in and around Mumbai will have the privilege to views the rare film & pass the message across the society of non violent resistance and global disarmament through out the world.

Date : 26/1/2008
INAUGURAL FUNCTION ( 5.30 p.m. to 6.00 p.m.)

6.00 p.m. to 7.40 p.m.
A Song For Beko
(Inaugural Film)
7 International Awards

Nizamettin Aric Germany
100 minutes

Break

7.45 p.m. to 8.22 p.m
The Operation-Stories from the Russian Province
3 International Awards
Kerstin Nickig
Germany
37 minutes

8.25 p.m to 9.57 p.m
The Last Atomic Bomb
3 International Awards
Robert Richter
Japan & U.S
92 minutes

…

*We’ve Extended Our Deadline to February 8, 2008

Dear friends of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival,

The Human Rights Watch International Film Festival and Adobe Youth Voices are looking for youth produced works on human rights from around the globe to screen in our newly established YOUTH PRODUCING CHANGE program. We’re also hoping you’ll be able to help us spread the word about our extended call for submissions by passing along this email.

We’re looking for film, video and animated works made by youth (ages 19 and younger) that focus on human rights and social issues like:
Equality, education, civil rights, children’s rights, women’s rights, international justice, HIV/AIDS, the environment, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender rights, health, the environment, war and conflict, freedom of expression, counterterrorism, gender, refugees, immigration, economic, social, and cultural rights and more.

Selected films will travel to:
*Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, New York : June 9-16 2008
*Human …

www.osians.com

CALL FOR ENTRIES

Osian’s-Cinefan, 10th Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema will be held in New Delhi from 10 - 20 July 2008.

Osian’s-Cinefan is dedicated to promoting Asian, Indian and Arab cinema of high artistic quality, raising awareness in the audiences of the richness of these cinemas, nurturing young talent and encouraging interaction among industry and media professionals.

The Festival accepts feature films and short fiction films (new!) for screening in 35mm or Digital Beta PAL or in Betacam SP PAL. All non-English films and videos must be subtitled in English. Please refer to Rules and Regulations for more details on eligibility.

SECTIONS

Competition

Asian and Arab

Asian and Arab films made between May 2007 and April 2008

Indian Competition

Indian films made between May 2007 and April 2008

First Features

First features by Asian, Arab or Indian directors made between May 2007 and April 2008

In-Tolerance

Feature or Documentary films made between May 2007 …

A few of my favourite JAZZY things
(with HUGE INPUTS by NARESH FERNANDES, Editor, TIME OUT, Mumbai and Denzil Smith, actor and producer of JAZZ)

Sorry for the lecture, but here goes!

If you’re in a hurry, please scroll to the bottom of this post, straight away!

When Hindi film music entered a period of rapid evolution during the Second World War, composers realised that the small groups they’d previously used could not effectively convey the drama unfolding on screen. So they formed large orchestras that ranged dholaks and sitars along with rows of violins, swathes of trumpets and a Hawaiian guitar or two.

Since not many musicians from teh Hindu / Muslim communities knew how to play saxophones or clarinets, Goans came to form the bulk of the orchestras.

But the Goans had another, rather more influential role. Until then, composers would rehearse their groups (which usually had fewer than 10 musicians) …

Pina Bausch in India

German choreographer Pina Bausch has dubbed her new, Asian-inspired dance to be performed next month in India the “Bamboo Blues,”.

The Wuppertal Dance Theatre is set to visit India January 7-19, playing in New Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.

New Delhi: 7.01.07
Mumbai: 12.01.07
Kolkata: 18.01.07 & 19.01.07

Please nb: both in Delhi and in Mumbai, the performance will take place within the Festival of the National School of Drama!

Bausch, 67, had decided on the “inspiring” title after a visit to Kyoto, Japan. The piece was devised in 2006 in consultation with the Goethe Institute, the German cultural agency, in India, and was premiered in Germany in May this year without any name as the company’s “new work.”

As part of its golden jubilee celebrations The National School of Drama presents Bamboo Blues: a dance theatre production by Pina Bausch and the Tanztheater Wuppertal and a co-production with the Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavans …

2nd plug in a row.

Sincere apologies to do this. But in desperate times, one resorts to desperate means.

The thing is, we had a show of MEDHA & ZOOMBISH II, today, 26th December @ Prithvi House. AND we had a poor house.

So please HELP the cause. Those of you who have the time (and inclination), to see a fun play, PLEASE drop in tomorrow for:

MEDHA & ZOOMBISH II
(Education + Nonsensification = Something Ookie)

27th December (Thurs) - 11 am
PRITHVI THEATRE. Janki Kutir. Juhu.
Tickets: Rs 50/-
STRICTLY, NO LATE ENTRY!
Tel No: 26149546!

Hmm.

MEDHA & ZOOMBISH II is a musical.

The twenty odd cast members consist of very talented college students. And most of them play, themselves.

The students have helped me script, and design and direct the show.

MEDHA & ZOOMBISH II been co-directed by PFCite: Chaitanya Tamhane along with Sudeep Modak. The music has been designed two very young people: Akshata Sawant & Swapnil Ajgaonkar

WHAT THE MEDIA …

JAZZ in Bollywood

Please excuse the “plug” for a play of mine - JAZZ. There are two reasons to do it. REASON ONE. To entice an audience into the auditoirum (my plays never have more than five persons in the auditorium). REASON TWO: JAZZ may interest some of you.

The best things in life are a fluke.

I was attending a sombre session between Girish Karnad and Mahesh Dattani at Prithvi, and as luck would have it Denzil Smith is present. I tell him, I think I’ve an idea for a play. And I strut off. That day, Denzil and me exchange, 101 sms’. We set up a meeting with Naresh Fernandes (Editor, Time Out and Mumbai lover), who showers us with a feni, pattice, cookies, and a lec-dem with video clips on his favourite subject on earth: the influence of Jazz in Bollywood.

For me, that is …

Modi v/s Modi

As we ascend the ladder, viciousness wears a thicker mask

Excerpts from my travails - while travelling through Gujarat during Phase I of an over-heated election. This is not an “art” piece, but it has all the “drama” of a Greek Tragedy!

Imagine a town of dust, dispensaries and dharma where locals are sceptical about outsiders who enter their town in big cars, in search for their souls. Imagine a town, where there is a discussion if big monies will trickle down? Or if the outsiders are too busy communing with “the gods”; to have time for the inhabitants of Dharampur. Where officialdom says, property prices have shot up, since land has being purchased to build many more ashrams. Imagine a town where the statue of Gujarati poet, Narmadh is almost evicted; so as to accommodate the statue of the founder of Shripad Raj Chandra Ashram. Imagine this …

SAVE Namdeo Dhasal!

Namdeo Dhasal, founder of the Dalit Panther, author of the literary classic Golpitha, bestowed with the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 by the Sahitya Akademi, has suffered from myaesthenia gravis – a rare and irreversible neuromuscular disease – since the 1980s. He is undergoing treatment at the Bombay Hospital and Medical Research Centre. The treatment is exorbitant, recurring and indefinite.

The Maharashtra government has decided to give Rs 5 lakh to Dhasal. Amitabh Bachchan, who suffers from the same ailment, has donated Rs 5 lakh towards Dhasal’s treatment. Salman Khan has given Rs 1 lakh.

If you wish to contribute towards the treatment and hospitalization of Dhasal, and the recurring costs incurred by his family:

1. Write a cheque in favour of the ‘Bombay Hospital Trust and Medical Research Centre’ with a covering note mentioning that the amount sent by you is specifically meant for the hospitalization and treatment of …

Best Read Plays in India

The Parliament Library is one of the richest repositories of books in India, and was established in the year 1921 to assist members of the Indian Legislature. These days, with the number of adjournments and walk-outs, it seems our MPs have nothing to do. So they make a dash to the Parliamentary Library and instead of autobiographies, biographies or monographs, they are reading plays.

According to “unconfirmed, totally basless reports”, this is what they are reading.

Absolute Hell as read by Manmohan Singh

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as read by Somnath Chatterjee

Happy Days as read by Pratibha Patil

Endgame as read by Prakash Karat (since he is not a member, he borrowed the play on Sharad Yadav’s membership card)

Look Back in Anger as read by George Fernandes

Much Ado About Nothing as read by Pranab Mukherjee and Arjun Singh

The Caretaker as read by Sonia Gandhi

Waiting for …

Greetings PFCites.

If you’re prone to uttering things like Civil Liberty, Freedom of Expression and Constitutional Right then you must take the following test.

To begin at the beginning, we celebrate 60 years of Independence by ruminating …

- The Rupee is on a new high vis a vis the US Dollar. So the Rupee calls the Dollar; and enquires, Are you peeved? Will you Nuke me?
- Speaking of being Nuked, the Iraqis were expected to rebuild their country in record time; and create a New Constitution (inclusive of wherefore, whereas and nevertheless). So they did the honourable thing. They used the un-used American Constitution
- UK had a high voter turnout of 95% for their local elections. The 5% who didnt vote were rich, wealthy Indians who are settled in the UK
- Schools and colleges will motivate students to set their mind free; although it is the one thing the brain …

Bombay’s first theatre was called the Bombay Amateur Theatre, it came to existence in 1776. During the days of the old Bombay Gujarati, Parsi and Urdu plays, there was a phenomenon of the times; an long tin board in front of the rows of the pit class which would be stamped on by the audience to create a din, this was the audience’s way of demanding an encore.

Bangwadi
the famous theatre off Princess
Street incorporated dwellings of performers and a company kitchen. The atmosphere was of a labyrinth of lanes leading up to the auditorium. Then there were soft sounds of music, theatre books for sale. All this added to the experience of seeing a play.

Some of Mumbai’s, grand old theatres like the Royal …

“Nobel Prize for Namdeo Dhasal”

Namdeo Dhasal is in the news because of the translation of his poems into English by Dilip Chitre. What is curious is, after the mandatory 2-3 lines about his poetry, the reviews target Dhasal for betraying the secular, progressive cause. Dhasal, as all of us know, has joined hands with the “communal and corrupt” Shiv Sena. This charge is made by fence sitters; or poets and intellectuals who prefer hob-nobbing with the “corrupt and communal” Congress.

And in this way, the classical conundrum of caste politics, unfolds. The Brahmin rules are different from the rules for Dalits!

In COTTON 56 POLYESTER 84, singer-actor Nagesh Bhosale descided to render Eknath’s couplet “I am the bastard Mahar, son of the Lord”. I thought it was a fine piece of theatre. Until one day, I get a call. I’m told the couplet is objectionable. I ask, why? I’m informed …

UP: Tis getting more and more confounding

One week before the results of the UP Election results, the bahubalis from Sahaswan and Bisauli, Mau and Farukkhabad were on the run to Mumbai-nagari. I’m informed by Mohammed, a taxi driver, “Sab maidan chod kar bhaag rahein hain. Behenji is going to be the next CM.” I tell him the exit polls on TV predict a late surge by the BJP. He says, “sab sharyantra hain”.

Of course Mohammed is proved right; and I’m mystified.

In the past three years, everytime I return from the hinterland of UP, I’m more confounded than ever before.

One blistering day, I’m invited to an old world mansion in a small town, Eastern UP. Its an interview with a publisher. We are discussing the virtues of V Sat and an ideal print run for a regional edition, when a six feet gentlemen descends, unannounced. Introductions done, but …

The Ghost of Emergency

I can’t sleep because my dreams have become an oddity. Everytime I shut my eyes, a nightmare, begins. I enter my parent’s house. The main door is ajar. My mother is sitaring; and my father is praying. There’s an elderly lady who is reading a newspaper; and making a check-list about which Breaking News is backed by which political party and for what purpose. The newspaper is lowered. Its The Ghost of Emergency.

I realise this is no ordinary dream. This is a dream with an extraordinary premise. I gawp at The Ghost and try to interpret my dream. Should I read it as an allegory or a magical-realist fable, or as an edge-of-seat adventure. Or best still, should I drop everything and run away! Being a coward in the classical sense, I run away. I think I’m safe. But the next seven days, my dream repeats itself. …

Literature Across Frontiers

Abu Dhabi is a city on show. It aspires for bragging rights for the biggest, the best, the richest.

The day I land there’s a buzz about the unveiling of a $21.250 million racecourse project, Meydan Race Course in Dubai (a hour’s drive from Abu Dhabi). It is the world’s richest horse race, the Dubai World Cup.

A visit to the Saadiyat (Happiness) Island project which shows off models of building designs in the 7-Star Emirates Palace. Its a grand-plan to create an entire culture city on a barren desolate island. This would include museum branches of the Louvre and the Guggenheim as part of the Cultural District. The project will cost $27 billion and the best of masterbuilders (Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Tada Andao, Jean Nouvel) have been hired.

In the midst of all this, Abu Dhabi is very keen to assert its supremacy in the …

Twenty years ago Mahesh Bhatt made another semi-autiobiographical statement with a movie Kaash. I just happened to watch it again last week.

More than anything that struck me while watching it was its deja vu feeling. I had seen it somewhere.
And then it dawned upon me that it has lots of resemblance to the recent release The Pursuit of Happyness starring Will smith and his real life son Jaden Syre Smith and directed by italian direcctor Gabriele Muccino!

The story as such of both films is quite different in treatment but what bonds them together is the depiction of father-son relationship.And travails of a single parent.Though The Pursuit of Happyness is based on true story of Chris Gardner, it is basically a rags to riches story with Chris’s passion to achieve his ambition of becoming a qualified stock broker from a struggling medical supply salesman.

In Kaash the protagonist Jackie Shroff is already …

The Architect of Modern Theatre

What question would leading theatrewallahs put to Satyadev Dubey?

Satish Alekar, Vijay Tendulkar, Chetan Datar, Mahesh Elkunchwar asked questions. And then, Satyadev Dubey responded.

Rishi Mazumdar was entrusted with the onerous task of keeping pace with Dubey in his elements.

It’s with this background, that I (Ramu Ramanathan) accompanied Rishi for the interview.

Dubey is always a surprise. I’ve known him, on and off, for 20 years and have always been impressed by his infectious desire for a conversation. When I accompanied Rishi for this interview, he was waiting in his den for us. It was hot and humid, so he was suitably attired in a lungi. His house, as always, was an exasperating disarray. We sat on the floor, while Dubey drank a glass of unboiled milk and puffed at cigarettes. In between, one of us had to rush downstairs to procure a coffee …

Happy World Theatre’s Day To All Of Us!

1. We are in 2007. Where Bollywood meets Hollywood meets Silicon Valley. Sillywood it can be called. And the one asset which is missing, is human imagination.

2. The theatre I grew up in, is having an identity crisis. What is it? Remember when we switched from extravaganzas to musical theatre to realism? Then to neo-realism. And then to expressionism and absurdism. Then to inter-culturalism and then to cross-culturalism. It was all so definable. It was a comedy, tragedy or murder mystery. Then there were designer plays. Then, nothing. Today, we can’t even make out a great play from a trashy one.

3. These days, they speak about theatre annexing the markets. For instance, Shakespeare is said to be a half trillion dollar market . . . plus or minus half a trillion dollars. No one can define a Shakespeare play which is …

MEET THE PLAYWRIGHT

Girish Karnad in Conversation with Mahesh Dattani
11.00 am.
Wednesday, 21st March 2007.
Prithvi Theatre.

OPEN TO ALL. ENTRY IS FREE.

Girish Karnad’s new play FLOWERS, is based on a folktale from Chitradurga It’s about a priest whose life has become a balancing act between his passionate love for God and equally passionate love for his courtesan and is caught off his guard as one day they collide.

This dramatic monologue is produced by Ranga Shankara.

Rajit Kapur who won the national award for his performance plays the central character. The play is directed by Roysten Abel, who won the Best Play award at Edinburgh for his interpretation of Othello.

The production brings together the best of the Indian theatre professionals.

At Prithvi Theatre from the 20th March to 25th March.

Hope too see a few PFC-ites on Wednesday. Till then, VIVA!

Prithvi Theatre
Janki Kutir
Juhu Church Road
Mumbai 400 049

Box Office: 2614 9546

Fax: 2617 5775
www.prithvitheatre.org

Tis Getting Curioser & Curioser!

The Pune of Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Bhimrao Ambedkar, Jyotiba Phule and D R Gadgil has a new kid on the block. Its Vishwas Nangare-Patil. He is a man on a mission. He raids rave parties. He gate-crashes into a tamasha kala kendra and detains 49 persons, including 21 women and two bureaucrats. Patil proclaims, the centre is a cover-up for a dance bar.

Nine of the 21 arrested women are booked under the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act. On cue, there is a response from Ashok Jadhav, president of the Maharashtra Tamasha Theatre Owners Association. He says, the women were wrongly booked under the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act.

I was at a wrestling akhaada in Kolhapur when I read the news in the local daily. It was early morning, the young trainee-wrestlers were marched off to buffaloes across the street, where morning milk had …

IBSEN IN INDIA
The Guru of Exposition / Complication / Resolution

Henrik Ibsen says, “All that I have written these last ten years, I have lived through spiritually.” These are powerful words and they resonate in India.

2006 WAS the 100th death anniversary of Henrik Ibsen, the playwright who has an unerring influence on Indian Films (Especially, the 3-part structure of exposition, complication, and resolution).

This is an opportunity to witness the impact of Ibsen in India.

India’s premier drama institute the National School of Drama in Delhi - have staged Ibsen plays. In the recent past, the Ibsen plays which have been performed in Delhi have been A DOLL’S HOUSE and WILD DUCK. Besides there have been important productions of Ibsen plays in Kolkotta, Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune.

Instead of rattling out statistics, let me present an interesting trend in Maharashtra, a progressive, modern state in India, and the Bastion of Indian …

My Salaam To Vijay Tendulkar

Vijay Tendulkar tends to be equated with the big plays, the controversial films, the dubious debates. But one of the reasons, Tendulkar remains a living playwright, is the manner in which he surfaces in the most unexpected of places.

In the last summer, I saw the staging of two of Tendulkar’s one act plays, OLAKH and GOSHT in the boy’s common room at Ruparel College. The staging was stark with minimal props and one halogen light. In a clever bit of improvisation, six table-tennis tables were placed vertically to demarcate areas and wings. There was an audience of more than 70-odd youngsters who sat on the floor or bench-chairs, in the sweltering heat; and revelled in the experience.

Ruparel (like innumerable city colleges in Mumbai) has a strong culture of theatre. In the eighties, ex-students like Shafaat Khan, made the college their adda. In the …

About Books Being Banished

Recently Mumbai hosted an International Literature Fest. Writers from India and 10 other countries spoke about books.

It seemed like a continuation of themes that has been previously explored in the dark ages. Writers being prosecuted. Books being banished. But much more scary, is the slow and insidious nature of the author being co-opted by forces of intolerance.

The book along with its creator is being seduced. Things are no longer in the hands of the inventor. You may remember that bit of Woody Allen stand-up, where he went to see THE DYING SWAN and the audience were in a state of acute anxiety because book-makers from upstate New York had put money on the swan to live. Something similar was transpiring at Aurangabad. There was bombastic rhetorics. Proclamations made that art is eternal. And the book will survive, after all, politics or no politics.

Years ago, …

Theatre Interpretations to Pop Theories

- Plays come and go, but debts accumulate!

- In this day and age, mounting a play is like attempting the high jump. So, you’ve a team and you’ve to win the high jump. But the seven people in your team can jump one foot each. Either you quit the theatre or you must launch a fulsome tirade against the unfair rules in high jump!

- When you sack actors, the one you have sacked - will have a bonanza the next year. Big bucks, BMW, and a Bungalow!

- In your dealings with a private sector organisation for sponsorship there will always be one person who knows you’re fibbing. You must goad an MBA-grad in the organisation to get this person fired!

- Good ideas are a paucity. l But that does not mean one should be miserly. It’s just that you should know …

My Prithvi Story …

Like everyone I’ve got a solid piece of advise. After a particularly poor house of an “award winning” play of mine that nobody understood: COLLABORATORS, I was consoled by Tiwariji at Prithvi Theatre. He consoled me, by saying, look into the sky, sometimes even the sky is empty!

Since that day, I’ve always paid heed to Tiwariji, inasmuch as the other staff at Prithvi Theatre. From Baghubhai and Narayan who light up the stage and have the best insights into stage design. To Bhajani Bua who can play the Paya Petti (Foot Harmonium) - and is head of a troupe. To Ashok bhai who saw me struggle with an umbrella during a heavy down pour, and queried, do you know, why we use umbrellas?. I said, to prevent us from getting wet. Ashok bhai said, no, because in a Mumbai rain everyone gets wet. So, then for what, …