The face behind the paint
VIJAY PADAKI
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The late B.N. Narayana fondly known as Make-Up Nani in theatre circles straddled the Kannada and English theatre worlds comfortably. It was his birth anniversary on November 3
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PHOTO: V. SREENIVASA MURTHY
FROM SHAW TO SUDRAKA B.N. Narayana fondly known as Nani had an impressive knowledge of Western theatre traditions
On November 3 the theatre community in Bangalore commemorate the birth anniversary of B. N. Narayana, better known as Nani in the Bangalore theatre scene. My Kannada theatre friends asked me to put together a short sketch on Nani; about his association with the English language theatre. I feel privileged taking on the task.
Most Bangaloreans know that although I have associated myself with Kannada theatre on and off (and readily) over all these years, my home turf has always been Bangalore Little Theatre, allegedly an English language theatre group. No matter that in its earliest years there were personalities in the group like BC, Nani, Vimala Rangachar, Shivaram, T.N. Seetharam, C.R. Simha and Srinath, and stalwarts like Suresh Heblikar, R. Nagesh, Shankar and Arundhati Nag later on, BLT is still categorised as "English Theatre"!
I am beginning with this observation because when I came to Bangalore from Madras in 1960 I was attracted to this newly formed group for the simple and beautiful reason that it was a truly Indian drama group that had chosen to perform in the English language. And people like Nani strongly upheld the essentially universal and non-parochial character of the theatre. The great divide between Kannada and all things non-Kannada is the product of unholy forces of later years that has benefited none. Would it surprise the reader to know that the most popular songs in the green room parties of BLT in the '60s and '70s were in Kannada?
Nani happened to be one of the founder members of BLT, but he was a theatre person first, a BLT person next. His knowledge of Western theatre traditions onstage and techniques backstage was impressive. He contributed as intelligently to a Shaw as he did to a Sudraka - incidentally, two of the earliest plays of BLT in which I got to see Nani at work.
Nani at work - an absolute delight for youngsters working with him, although somewhat of a nightmare for the producer. "Nani, Nani, when do we get the set?" "Don't worry, don't worry, it will be ready!" There would be no visible sign whatsoever of the barest raw materials or any construction activity for the set till the evening before the first dress rehearsal. (We had the luxury of two dress rehearsals then.) Then it happened. Soon after the cast filed out, the crew would swing into action, work through the night and have the sets and props ready by five in the morning. The first cup of hot tea at the corner chaiwallah was really the one that brought the greatest cheer. My first performance for BLT was in Teahouse of the August Moon. I did my homework hard, mastering a mid-west accent for the part of the mixed up Captain of the US occupation forces in Okinawa. Nani then took over and went to work on me with his make-up kit - ginger hair, ruddy cheeks and all. The English press had duly commented on the new American actor in Bangalore! I had quite forgotten about this. It was Nani who had filed it away carefully in his memory box.
Nani loved to remind people how much older he was than them. "I am ten years older than you". I think he was secretly also saying to himself "... and I am still fit!" He was rather preoccupied with this idea in his later years. It could be comic too. I invited him once to give a group of newcomers an introduction to the basics of make up. It was a two-hour session. He spent the first half hour demonstrating warm-ups to remain fit, and then went on to anecdotes of past productions. In the last half hour he returned to the topic and managed to pack in a lot of masala on character make-up. And left the group gaping.
Once, soon after my return from Ahmedabad, we talked about a script idea over a couple of drinks. We were reminiscing old times and, as anybody who knew Nani will understand, he had an extra large bag full of anecdotes. Then the idea hit us. Why not a play in which the principal characters are all old theatrewallas (mostly has-beens!), whose dependence for their survival is on the daily dose of GOD - the memories of Good Old Days? We never did get down to producing that script.
On another occasion we talked about the possibility of a bilingual production of Brecht's play Gallileo. Playing on the Sanskrit-Prakrit divide in ancient times, we thought we would address the Angrezi complex in our society today by getting the nobility in the play to speak in English and the janata to speak in Kannada. Galileo would be the only character to speak both languages. Some day, some time I hope the idea gets picked up for action.
If we come to think about it, this was really typical of Nani. Over buzz sessions with friends, liquid fuel keeping the buzz going, he succeeded in planting all kinds of new ideas in their heads. Many did take off into actual projects. If they did not, it was still a memorable evening.
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