Truly Lahore
NARENDRA SHARMA
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The Bhoomika troupe’s performance at the Panj Pani Indo-Pak Theatre Festival will be hard to forget.
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Photo: Shanker Chakravarty
Love across the border Narendra Sharma shares his Lahore experience.
Our troupe Bhoomika was recently invited to participate in the 4th Panj Pani Indo-Pak Theatre Festival. It was organised and sponsored by Ajoka Theatre in collaboration with Lahore Arts Council in Lahore. The participation of some 16 to 17 theatre groups from India and Pakistan created a very enriching experience for all of us. Bhoomika was the only dance-theatre troupe from India. We performed the concluding event of the festival. Bhoomika presented the ballets ‘Fl
ying Cranes’ and ‘Antim Adhyay’ (‘The Last Chapter’) and received a standing ovation. It was a dance-theatre production of its own kind, and the Lahore audience enthusiastically accepted it. There was an atmosphere of great closeness and cordiality.It was during the 9th Bharat Rang Mahotsav of National School of Drama in January that Madeeha Gauhar, director of Ajoka Theatre, witnessed Bhoomika’s performance at Kamani auditorium. This was presented to mark my lifelong contribution to contemporary Indian dance. She also saw ‘Dukh Daria’, another presentation. That was when she contacted me and invited Bhoomika to perform at the Panj Pani event.
Fond memories
Back in 1945, I had visited Lahore and performed at the Open Air Theatre of Laurence Garden with the IPTA dance troupe, presenting “India Immortal” as a part of the freedom movement when it was at its peak. The troupe included a number of dancers, and Ravi Shankar as music director. I played the lead role of John Bull and got heckled by the audience, who shouted at me to leave India !
In the festival people talked about Lahore then and now. I recalled how it used to be so easy to reach the city in the old days, whereas now we had to pass a number of borders and check posts and walk long distances. Lahore has one of most beautiful campuses today, with three theatres, art gallery, puppet theatre, library, and a recreational centre in a single beautifully designed area that is unique.
Since all the theatre participants stayed at one place, it was a great joy to share each other’s enriching experiences in a very joyful atmosphere.It brought all of us very close. One of the highlights of the trip was meeting Uzra Butt, who was my dance teacher at Uday Shankar’s Almora Centre from 1940 to 1943.
Such experiences make us feel all the more strongly that it is high time India and Pakistan encouraged more such artistic exchanges, so that more people from both countries have the opportunity to share their thoughts and thus come closer. Bhoomika’s performance at this Lahore festival is not one that we will forget in hurry.
(The author is one of India’s leading Contemporary Dance choreographers, a direct disciple of Uday Shankar and founder of the Delhi-based Bhoomika dance troupe.)
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