SCENESTEALERS
Communication is the key
KAUSALYA SANTHANAM
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Journalist by profession, Gnani has a passion for theatre with a keen interest in alternative cinema.
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CANDID: (Clockwise from left) Gnani, scenes from ‘Vattam’ and ‘Visaranai.’
“Sometimes when I’m travelling by train, people come up to me and whisper, ‘How do you have the guts to write so boldly on politics and personalities?,’” “Gnani” Sankaran recounts. “I reply ‘It is because you feel you have to come up to me and whisper,’” he laughs.
N.V.Sankaran’s columns on politics and personalities in popular Tamil periodicals have won him quite a fan following. But along with his involvement in journalism, Gnani, as he is popularly known, has been deeply engaged in alternative theatre for many years. Pareeksha, the theatre group he founded nearly three decades ago continues to present plays that “are for the middle class.”
Gnani was one of the founder members of the Koothu-p-pattarai repertory in 1976. “It was then a movement to revive Koothu, the traditional Tamil theatre form, and to evolve a modern idiom from these roots,” he says.
Communication strategies
“But we had differences with the Koothu-p-pattarai regarding communication strategies,” adds Gnani. “They thought that some day an audience would emerge that would understand their plays. This did not happen and the audience daubed all avant garde groups with the same brush. Also, more groups did not emerge, as expected, on the Tamil parallel theatre scene.”
External factors too prevented the growth of the theatre, explains Gnani. “The Government spends time and effort on events such as the Chennai Sangamam but not on the infrastructure to build the Tamil theatre.”
Among his recent plays he found ‘An Inspector Calls’ and ‘Vattam’ adapted from Brecht’s ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle’ especially fulfilling productions. Pareeksha plans to soon present the adaptation of a Vijay Tendulkar play at the Alliance Francaise as a tribute to the late playwright. Tendulkar’s ‘Kamala’ was staged by Pareeksha many times and remains one of Gnani’s favourites.
He feels the main reason for theatre not taking off in Tamil Nadu is because it is not part of school and college education. “ Children in fact think that a TV serial is Naadagam! There is also a disconnect between the audience and the group. There is no active agency to promote it or the play,” he feels.
Why did his group not succeed in its attempt to promote the theatre when they had an active line-up of plays in 2003 to celebrate Pareeksha’s silver jubilee?
“It was the result of being very ambitious and biting off more than we could chew,” he admits.” Only frequency of happenings can help build up an audience but the number of groups here are very few. It is in regions where cinema is not vibrant that the theatre flourishes,” he states.
Gnani has also been very much involved in alternative cinema. In collaboration with the Pyramid Saimira, he is a founder of the one-reel movement, to screen ten minute films on socially relevant themes, in the theatre before the main film is screened. He has also scripted and directed docu-dramas, documentaries and TV serials.
Gnani’s interest in the theatre goes back to his school and college days. But it became a passion for him after he attended the first modern theatre workshop conducted in Tamil Nadu by Prof. Ramanujam at the Gandhigram Rural Institute in 1977. Training conducted by Badal Sircar and Sankara Pillai were a further impetus. Much impressed with street theatre, Gnani started the group Veedhi in 1978. But it wound up a few years later.
Among his especially fulfilling productions are Na. Muthuswamy’s ‘Naarkaalikarar,’ Badal Sircar’s ‘Evam Indrajit,’ Prapanchan’s ‘Muttai’ and ‘Balu Yaen Tharkolaiseithukondan?’ based on Sircar’s ‘Bakhti Itihas.’ He also cites ‘Balloon’ as one of the revolutionary plays of Pareeksha.
“Komal Swaminathan who reviewed ‘Balu Yaen…’ called it a very powerful production,” he beams.
Why is Pareeksha not so visible today?
“Nobody is as visible as before,” he answers, “Even those in the mainstream. Life is so frenetic that visibility lasts only for a few seconds before something else demands our attention. In the media explosion, everything gets flattened.”
Though there are now more women actors than before, rehearsal space and suitable auditoria are the chief lacunae on the theatre scene in Chennai, he points out. “If schools and colleges lend their space for theatre groups to rehearse in, it will be a major form of support.”
So what is his identity today — journalist or theatre personality?
“My profession has always been that of a journalist. May be my part-time passion for the theatre has overshadowed my identity as journalist. But it is a passion that continues — I want to create a space for alternative theatre. I’m an incorrigible optimist,” says Gnani adding that he has bought land in Kuthambakkam, 30 km from Chennai to set up a cultural centre and train rural youth in communication skills.
Gnani highlights
Gnani was trained in the theatre by Prof. S. Ramanujam and G. Shankara Pillai.
Pareeksha’s first play was ‘Porvai Porthiya Udalgal’ by Indira Parthasarathy.
Pareeksha staged a play every week along with other groups, at the Narada Gana Sabha Mini Hall, Chennai, in the early 1990s.
Gnani has directed plays (adapted and translated) by Pinter, Brecht and Priestly, Vijay Tendulkar, Badal Sircar, and Ranjit Roy Choudhry.
He also directed and presented plays by Asokamitran, Sundara Ramaswami, Ambai C.S. Lakshmi, Jeyanthan, S.M.A. Ram, Aranthai Narayanan and K.V. Ramaswami.
The group has conducted workshops and campus productions.
K.S.
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