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Enter, the body
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For theatre person Neeraj Kabi the body is a machine and acting is all about aligning body, mind and voice
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PHOTO: MURALI KUMAR K.
DIFFERENT APPROACH Neeraj Kabi: ‘The actor should have no ego, fear or complex’
For actor-director Neeraj Kabi, acting is choreography of layers. The Mumbai-based theatre practitioner, who was in Bangalore at the Ranga Shankara summer workshop “Summer Express” for children, says: “Art is a creative response to certain memories.”
Conducting workshops since ’96, he finds that his speech and voice sessions with children helps them open up their centre of memories, that inhibit their freedom, free their stubbornness and make them realise that they are their own cause of their inhibitions. “The process is a struggle and not result-oriented,” he maintains.
“The emphasis on acting is physical as the body is a machine. One should not try and act, one should listen and respond.” He feels that theatre is all about aligning the body, mind, voice and breathing as the body should be kept out of the machine. It is all about balance of the system. He feels: “The actor should have no ego, fear or complex.” Then, on many levels, the importance of movement and physical expressions becomes Ayurveda, according to Neeraj.
“Acting is not about announcing speech, not simply talking.” He continues: “Theatre is not about assigning roles and saying, ‘Okay, you be the old man and you the drunkard.’”
For him, Shakespeare is universal. “You can do what you want with the script, play around, custom design for any city but it is difficult to do the same with Samuel Beckett.” Neeraj was intrigued by “Hamlet” and “Macbeth”. “There is so much said in a few lines.”
And Neeraj has “Indianised” the works of Shakespeare using a collection of martial artists, dancers and actors with story-telling and paintings.
“I don’t believe in training actors to become dancers, but rather fuse the art forms together.” But, he says that training in all art forms is a must to understand the difference. “It is important for children to respond to different mediums.” Neeraj has used Kalaripattayu, Bharatnatya, classical paintings, Yakshagana in his rendition of Shakespeare. Neeraj, who has been conducting both adult and junior workshops at Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai, a founder-director at Pravah and Theatre, has conceptualised and directed both original and adapted scripts.
Having participated at the National School of Drama festival and Kala Ghoda Festival, in 2006, he enjoys exploring traditions with English writing. He admires Ratan Thiyam whom he considers a master, Veenapani Chawla of Adishakti for combining physics and theatre and also Naseeruddin Shah. He finds German and French theatre “fantastic”. Neeraj Kabi concludes: “Life is but a walking shadow”.
AYESHA MATTHAN
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