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THE RIGHT STAGE Reoti Sharan Sharma rues that there are no takers for original plays

“Plays should be able to generate audiences, not money.” It is not often that one hears such calls in these days of crass-commercialisation of mass culture. No wonder these words come from one of the veterans of Hindi and Urdu theatre, Reoti Saran Sharma, who has been conferred Sangeet Natak Akademi award for 2007 for his contribution to Hindi theatre (dramatic literature and performance). Sharma recounts his long and chequered career as a playwright and theatre organiser.He was the pioneer in radio plays in All India Radio. Writing since the 1940’s, he has written over 150 radio plays which were broadcast by Akashwani in the national programme, and some of them were translated into all the Indian languages. Asked about the challenges of writing radio plays, the octogenarian replies, “They are much more natural for a playwright. It also gives freedom for the listeners. Every listener can choose to identify with the characters in a play in his own way.”

Having been among the earliest theatre personalities to found an amateur theatre company in the national capital in post-Independence India, Sharma was also hand-picked by Kamladevi Chatopadhyaya. She made him take over the reins of the Bharatya Natya Sang in 1974, which is now the Indian chapter of International Theatre Institute (ITI).

Apart from writing in Hindi and Urdu for the stage and AIR, Sharma has been one of the first and very successful television playwrights too. His serials like Phir Wahi Talaash and the Great Maratha among many others have become household names.

However, Sharma is disappointed with the contemporary amateur and experimental theatre in India. “Mainstream and popular theatre have been ignored; though it is that which provides bread and butter to the actor.” . He feels that in the name of experimentation, theatre has lost its popular appeal. “We can’t make people laugh. Plays should give them something for laughing and weeping. What we have now is a disembodied theatre.”

Sharma had also spearheaded India’s cause at the world congress of ITI for more than two decades. In the context of the place of Indian theatre at the global stage, he rues, “across the world, the State subsidises theatre. Here amateur theatre has been progressively losing its support”.

Sharma is critical of the exclusive nature of experimental theatre and eloquent on its limitations. “There should be experimental theatre, but the experiment is like an egg. It should not be a bad egg; out of it should comes a chicken, a live one.”

The winner of the Ghalib Award and Sahitya Kala Parishad Award, Sharma feels concerned about the dwindling theatre audiences.

The veteran playwright blames the State and the authorities for not promoting original dramatic scripts. “There are no takers for original plays”, he laments. Calling for a rejuvenation of the conditions of the theatre production in Delhi, he comments, “Popular theatre is not debased theatre. Bharat Muni invented drama so that people can see and enjoy it.”

The author of stage plays like Na Dharam Na Iman, Deepshikha, Andhere Ka Beta had also campaigned successfully against pricing of theatre tickets and censorship of dramatic scripts. At the twilight of a long career, he feels that the dramatist is being ignored, “NSD and others, in the process of imparting theatre training, have exiled the author,” he concludes.

SANJAY KUMAR

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