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!
Those were the days, when young theatre people like me were completely bewitched by Jennifer Kapoor. She has been one of the reasons, many of us, did theatre. Anyway, one of the best things in Prithvi were the tacky theatre boards. Basically, an aluminum sheet hammered into a wooden frame. With white sign-painting on a brownish-red background. There were tons of these boards. Being out of work and penniless, I never had the money to see these plays, but I would gawp at these boards and imagine the plays. Names spring up on me. IPTA, Ekjute, Yatri, Arpana, Ank. The big daddies at Prithvi Theatre. In that world another world would unfold.
I recall a performance of Athol Fugard’s BLOODKNOT by Shiv Subhramanyam and Tom Alter. There were six of us in the audience. For me, that play (and that show!) was a life altering experience. Later there was the one person performance of Dario Fo’s THE TIGER STORY during the Prithvi Fest which gave me the theatrical germ for MAHADEVBHAI. A few months, later Prithvi hosted a Puppet Theatre Festival, which in my view was one of the best theatre festivals at Prithvi.
And then there was the speech and voice workshops by Satyadev Dubey on Mondays, in which you had more than 100 actors and wannabe actors, doing riyaz, recall and rehearsals. This included mouthing Shaw’s preface to trees, which is perhaps why the trees at Prithvi grow better than their counterpart in the rest of the city.
My top five memories of Prithvi Theatre
1. Almost ten years ago, Joy Fernandes and me used to enact a small but potent play called AUDIENCE by the Czech playwright, Vaclav Havel. We were an upcoming, amateur theatre group. And as it happens, like all upcoming, amateur theatre groups, we were eager to perform two shows, daily. The 6 pm show began. There were senior theatrewallahs, two persons from NCPA, some officials members from the Czech Consulate. We were totally motivated. And then, even as Joy was opening his 2nd bottle of beer and launching into a tirade against my character, the electricity was cut off. The auditorium was plunged into darkness. We continued in darkness; with four candles provided by the Prithvi staff. Cold Czech became hot and humid Mumbai. We gulped the beer, and mouthed the lines. Post show, we were most depressed at the disaster. But the audience loved it. We got two extra dates at Prithvi, and were invited to NCPA. The members from the Czech Consulate stated, they were transported to “the bad, old days of Totalitarianism in Prague.”
2. A few years ago, one of the regulars at Prithvi was Iqbal Khwaja. His play, SNAFU was a rage among the youth and student community. SNAFU was about Raghu More, a Bhandup boy who gets admission into St Xaviers College. It was the Mumbaiyya version of the West Side Story. After SNAFU, he penned a freewheeling play called: SHAKESPEARE KI RAMLILA. Even in those days, when people did not like a play, they took it upon themselves to beat up the playwright. And so, Iqbal Khwaja was roughed up by right wing goons outside Prithvi Theatre. I recall Kunal Kapoor standing up for Iqbal Khwaja. The goons, exited. An interesting postscript: I bumped into two of them purchasing paan a short distance from Prithvi; and overheard them planning for their game in a under-arm cricket tournament in Chembur.
3. Then there was Theatre Positive, where we read (publically) more than 75 unperformed, unpublished plays. There were three exceptional playscripts which were unleashed on the theatre world. Sayaji Shinde’s TUMBARA, was subsequently directed by Sunil Shanbag. A play whose unique form has resulted in its very premise to be a play, being critiqued. Then there was an excellent translation of Satish Alekar’s BEGUM BARVE into Gujarati by Chandrakant Shah. This translation (aptly titled MASTER FULMANI) recreated the entire Bhangwadi tradition. Interestingly, the reading also raised pertinent questions about the fate of the Gujarati parallel theatre movement in the post-Mahendra Joshi period. And then, there was Paresh Mokashi’s SANGEET DEBUCHYA MOOLGI, a play, which turns the traditional bhajan-pravachan format on its head.
4. One of the most under-rated playwrights in Mumbai is Shafaat Khan, who has to his credit plays like BHOOMITYACHA FARCE, KISSE, SHOBHA YATRA, etc. His play BOMBAY KE KAUVEIN used to be staged at Prithvi. The play begins with a “staged” scene, in which a member of the audience berates the theater group for not starting on time. This actor did a mighty fine job of showing off his middle class angst. A lot of theatre people fell prey to the gag - and got into a heated argument with the actor. Whenever Shafaat was in the audience, he would hiss and instigate the agent provocateur. During one show, things got very tense. A well known actor-director (and screenwriter) fell prey to the gag. He chased the planted rabble rouser (who was screaming, “vaachva maala”), across the stage, into the Prithvi green room.
5. We used to rehearse for a play called THE BOY WHO STOPPED SMILING. Since it was a Little Prithvi Players production, we used to rehearse in the theatre. One day, when I entered the auditorium, the Prithvi staff was standing on the stage. Apparently Mak (Makrand Deshpande) and Teddy Maurya (Mak’s stage designer) had tied a cycle to the cat-walk as part of his stage design. That cycle belonged to one of the staff who needed it to run errands. They damned Mak (in particular) and Theatre (in general). This production went on perform more than 140 shows. While the actors did their thing on the stage, my production crew would solve the Times Crossword in record time in the backstage.
There’s so much more. From Rooky Dadachanji’s impeccable production of THE GLASS MENAGERIE to Satish Alekar’s all time classic, MAHANIRVAN. From Naseeruddin Shah in DEAR LIAR to Vithal Umpa in JAMBHOL AKHAYAN. From the maverick Mahendra Joshi to the sincere Toni Patel, both no more.
I attended a memorial for Baba, the unassuming gent, who used to sell tickets at the Prithvi desk. Baba had saved many a theatre group from bankruptcy, due to his verbal skills, while chatting with patrons who called to enquire about the play. He coined special words like social comedy and abstract thriller. At his condolence meeting, a lot of theatrewallahs spoke, including Shashi Kapoor and Amrish Puri. I thought to myself, it would be lovely if we held mock funeral ceremonies and said nice things about people when they were alive!
There is so much more.
Exclusive, Murmurings from Mumbai , Theater
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Hey Ramu,
That was an excellent post. Going back to the Prithvi memoirs must be really nostalgic.
I too am a regular visitor of the theatre. The overall ambience of the theatre and the aura it castes on my mind is really magical.
Recently I was their for the ‘Writer’s Bloc-2′ Festival and believe me I had the best time of my life. I had never ever been a part of any festival that showed plays of such high character and that too so many in a lot. My favourites were among the ones I watched were ‘THE EPILOGUE’ written by Maya K. and directed by Rajit Kapur and ‘MAZYA VAATANICHA KHARA-KHURA’ writen by Manaswini Lata Ravindra and directed by Satish Manwar.
I wish the Prithvi theatre continues its tradition of being the glorifying diamond in the crown of Indian Theatre and Bombay too.
Thanks Ramu…as always it’s a pleasure reading your writings…
On a side note..
About Mock Funeral…that’s something that’s practiced to some extent I guess….:)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_funeral
One recent movie ( and a good movie) was The Weather Man..which had such a ‘living funeral’ scene…
Awesome post Ramu. I guess i need to copy this statement” Awesome Post Ramu” and save it somewhere…for every article you write is just as mindblowing as the previous ones. Your articles makes me want to be in Mumbai and be associated with theatre…
Asmit: Thank you for your eMail. In February, there will be poetry at Prithvi. Thought you would be keen.
FRI 16: Vivechna from Jabalpur will present Gulzar’s Poetry
SAT 17: Prabodh Parekh (the Socrates of Four Bungalows) will present Poetry of Repression for the entire day
SUN 18: Ideas Unlimited will present a sampling of Gujarati poetry
MON 19: There might be a film screenings about a poet (Il Postino?)
TUE 20 and WED 21: Akvarious Akarsh, Akash Khurana, Naseer and Co would present poetry
THU 22: Sampurna Chatterjee and other poets will read from her new book of poems
FRI 23: I may do something small with Kabir and his dohas
SAT 24: Tu based on Rumi’s ruminations (in Marathi) 11am & Ekjute and Nadira Babbar in the evening
SUN 25: Kitab Festival, which would be all day - and see a lot of celebrities read and exchange notes
MON 26: Vikalp will screen films @ PT
TUE 27: We’re trying to invite the fire-brand, Dailt poet, Sambhaji Bhagat. Lets see.
Hope to meet you (and everyone else) for one of the above!
Completely agree with OM. Thats it. BTW, why dont u write more often ? I guess, busy with theatre.
^:)^^:)^^:)^^:)^^:)^^:)^^:)^ As usual.
Ctrl C + Ctrl V [Chaitanya]
Sometimes even the sky is empty……HOPE FLOATS
Hey Ramu…
Thanks a lot for this….I am indebted…
Actually i am very much interested in poetry. I myself have been composing them since my school days.I compose in all the three languages( hindi, MArathi and English). Never read any good poetry though, but sure have heard a lot - Gulzaar saab being my favourite ( actually havent listened to anyone else’s than his ). And I dunno who wrote those ghazals which Ghulam Ali sung. I admire him too as much as I do Gulzaar saab.
Well, if you have read Anurag’s post on John Abraham, I replied to it with a poem of mine. This might sound a bit childish but couldnt really resist myself from putting that here.
Tonight the music is louder than ever
The guitar gets jazzier…
No strings attached
Drums roll like rain hitting housetops
Tom to tom and snarred…
The piano strikes at complete base
And i stand geared…
TO sing life to my soul
There’s no flute today
No soft touch
No soothing note
Grab, clutch
To survive the drowning boat
The violin shrieks at its highest pitch
High time for the timely stitch
Sleep was the thorn
Now is the time to change
Now’s the time to switch…
( Feeling so embarrassed… he he )
:-s
It is titled, “TIME TO CHANGE”
Fgt to put the name…Sorry!!!#-o
thank you for poem, asmit. its sweet.
the INFO (below) may interest you!
Contests for writers at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2007
As we said in our last post, Caferati is collaborating with KGAF’s Literature and Writing Festival to conceive and manage several contests for writers.
SMS Poetry will be back for the third year in a row.
Flash Fiction returns after its successful debut last year.
A new contest melds flash fiction with graphic novels, to give you Graphic Flash, stories told with visuals, but in a limited canvas.
And, in a first for Bombay, a Poetry Slam pits performance against each other, live.
Deadline
Submissions for all contests must be in by midnight, 4th February, 2007. There will be no extensions of deadline.
Contest details
We haven’t put the submission form, sponsor details or jury names online, but will do so soon.
Themes
We want to give contestants as much time as possible to work on their entries, so please go to http://www.caferati.com/contests to check out the contest Themes and start thinking.
Please pass the URL around. Thank you.
We’d be immensely grateful if those of you who run blogs and personal websites would care to link to the contests. We have no budget to promote the contests, and we count on our newsletters, Caferati members and our personal email lists to pass the word. So any help you give us automatically qualifies you for inclusion in our wills.
Considering we got over 120 entries for Flash Fiction last year, and around 100 for SMS Poetry (despite a dodgy Indiatimes submission process) in the six days that the contests were open, by the simple expedient of spamming all our friends, we’re not doing too badly.
Updates
All updates on these contests will be only via this newsgroup, Caferati Contests. (So if a friend has forwarded this to you, and you intend to participate, please subscribe to getcha updates fresh and hot.)
(Please note that the Google Groups default subscription method is “No Email.” We’d advise you to change that to “Email” unless you’re willing to check the Groups page for updates. The other options, “Abridged Email” or “Digest Email” don’t make sense, since this a one-way newsgroup that is very unlikely to post twice in the same day. All those choices will do is ruin our nice formatting and give you ugly, naked links and suchlike. Stay with “Email.,” we say. And that goes for this newsletter too)
The Festival runs from the 3rd to the 11th February this year, and there are Literature and Writing events every day mostly in the evenings. The official website should have the schedule up soon, and we’ll also be posting it to Caferati’s message board and blog.
–
And for those of you who live in and around Bombay, you might be interestd in this.
Fiction Writing Workshop at Kala Ghoda
Please see http://kgwritingworkshop.blogspot.com/ for details. There have been some minor changes to submission methods. Please contact kg.writingworkshop@gmail.com with your name, contact details, names of some writers you admire, and a fiction writing sample of 500 words.
Revised Deadline: 25th January
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Hey Rama, this is a good thing you’ve started here. I will be off on the dream tour soon, so I will not be able to follow your murmurings as much as I’d like too. But keep going buddy, all the power to you!- Joy
Super duper to hear from thee. I was fortunate to be invited to PFC by Oz - and the one and only Chaitanya, who is an apro Mithi-bhai.
All the Best for the Midsummers tour. Bottoms Up.
Hey! Joy it was an absolute pleasure meeting you at the velocity shoot of no-smoking….Astalavista in Buena Vista …..hope to see you more on the big screen…..