Speech to centre-stage
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Natwa’s production of “Aurangzeb” has great political relevance. ROMESH CHANDER
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“Aurangzeb” will be on the boards again from October 6-9 and should not be missed
WELL PORTRAYED A scene from the play "Aurangzeb".
In the last few years theatre activity in Delhi has certainly increased, but theatre culture is still lacking. Apart from the National School of Drama and Sri Ram Centre, there are no other permanent repertory companies in Delhi. There are, however,
some well established theatre groups who pay their actors and other theatre professionals on per-show basis, and then, of course, there are scores of freelance actors, directors and theatre technicians who somehow manage to live off theatre. They are the real backbone of theatre in Delhi.
About two years back, some eminent theatre persons and highly dedicated people from the corporate world set up Natwa Theatre Society, “with the primary objective to professionalise the theatre scene in Delhi and generate employment opportunities for trained actors and other theatre professionals”.
Since its formation some 18 months ago, Natwa has certainly lived up to its promise of providing good theatrical performances in Delhi every three or four months by mounting five new productions running for 22 shows.
Natwa’s latest presentation is Indira Parthasarthy’s “Aurangzeb” in Shahid Anwar’s Urdu translation, and directed by K.S. Rajendran, one of our top directors in the country who teaches at NSD and directs plays mainly in Tamil, as he prefers to do theatre in his mother tongue and occasionally in Hindi/English when the situation demands. His “Panchali Shapatham” performed in Therukkoothu style with NSD students in 1996 was indeed a landmark event for NSD.
Indira Parthasarathy, I am told, has revolutionised modern Tamil drama. His play “Aurangzeb” though written in 1974, a few months before the Emergency, and offering among other things, a critique of the one nation, one language, one religion theory, has even greater political relevance today. The playwright builds his play around the war of succession that broke out among Shah Jahan’s sons when he fell ill in 1657. The main contenders were Dara and Aurangzeb. Shah Jahan’s two daughters Jahanara and Roshanara, supported Dara and Aurangzeb respectively. The emperor himself lent his support to his eldest son Dara, who was sympathetic to Shah Jahan’s dream plan of building a black marble mahal for himself on the other side of the Yamuna facing Mumtaz’s Taj Mahal.
The play selects, telescopes and fuses events to capture the fissures as well as the peaks of a period of history.
The play has as its theme the struggle of mutually contradictory dispositions of the various characters. In the end, Aurangzeb is left awaiting the judgement of history.
Current usage
As mentioned earlier, Parthasarathy’s “Aurangzeb” was originally written in 1974 and later translated into English by T. Sriraman, while Shahid Anwar further translated it into Urdu for Natwa’s presentation. Director Rajendran wanted the characters to come alive and create the period in a language not so much of the Mughals that was highly Persianised, but one in its current usage. Shahid Anwar’s Urdu indeed makes the characters come alive and helps to create the period. What is more, the actors speak Urdu as it should be spoken. The credit for this goes not only to Shahid but also to Ghufran Raghib who spent long hours rehearsing the cast.
Rajendran, feels that today Indian theatre is indulging more in technology-aided spectacles, installations and video art, or dance and music of traditional theatre. Plays of ideas and words have become a thing of the past. “In ‘Aurangzeb’ I have tried to return to words,” he says.
How true, for in Rajendran’s overall production design, the emphasis is on speech and its delivery.
The cast not only plays well but also speaks beautifully. Outstanding among the cast are Shrivardhan Trivedi as Dara Shikho, Mahendra Mewati as Aurangzeb, Sanjay Gautam in Shah Jahan’s role and Laxmi Rawat playing Roshanara.
“Aurangzeb” will be on the boards again from October 6-9 and should not be missed, for among other things it brings back the actor’s speech to centre-stage.
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