There was no major turning point that steered the course of her life towards theatre. Shaily Sathyu was born into theatre. Her parents, M.S. Sathyu and Shama Zaidi, were actively involved in theatre at a time when it was rallying a social change. Shaily's parents with veterans like Dina Pathak, A.K. Hangal, Utpal Dutt formed the core of IPTA, one of the most dynamic performing art movements in India that emerged in the 1940s and 1950s in Bengal and spread to other parts of the country. “Theatre was a natural thing, it stayed as my passion even with growing up,” recalls Shaily, speaking of the years that moulded her sensibilities. She was in Bangalore last week to stage “Suar Chala Space Ko”, a children's play by her one-year-old group Gillo.
“I spent a lot of time with my parents at rehearsals. By the time I was eight or nine, I had started chipping in with backstage work, costumes and designs,” says Shaily who has been the co-ordinator for the Mumbai IPTA chapter. “Till 1984, I was mostly accompanying my parents and at times joining the crowd scenes when they needed kids! For instance, in ‘Bakri' and ‘Safaid Kundali'. When IPTA started its Balmanch, we got into it more seriously.”
Shaily went on to study architecture, but gave up half way to work with children. “I was working on the outskirts of Lucknow, with a group of architects, reviving an old palace. An NGO was running a school for the children of Lakimpur village, and I was so drawn to those kids, that every evening after work. I would tell them stories, read to them, sing with them… it was very fulfilling. That's when I decided I wanted to work with kids.”
Shaily took ample time to test the ground: she did her homework to get a feel of what kind of work was being done, what more had to be done, what was the aspect that interested her, so on and so forth.
“Theatre is only one aspect of what I want to do with children. I am into curriculum planning, teacher training, apart from being a consultant for schools,” explains Shaily, who wants to reach out to children through children. She loves working with smaller children for she feels their responses are “spontaneous” and not “conditioned”.
“I was very clear what I wanted to do when I started Gillo,” she says. “I don't like to hammer values into a play. I believe in not-doing-the wrong-thing mode more than forcing the right thing down your throat,” she adds.
Growing up with a group like IPTA taught Shaily to value human relationships apart from right politics. “It was never by indoctrination, as much as seeing it as a way of life, as it was practised by many people. Everyone, from the chaprasi to the top person, was the same. They were my first lessons in social commitment.”
Through Gillo and its small 15-minute productions, often performed at school assemblies, Shaily wanted kids to laugh and have loads of fun, with the message always being subtle. “You know when we did our first play, ‘Barsoraam Dhadaake Se', people would come up to me and ask, ‘so what's the message?' Does one ask a writer what the message of his work is? Then why ask us? Should we at the end of every scene hold a placard and say, ‘The message is…' If there is no irresponsible representation, isn't that message enough?” an agitated Shaily says.
Not that such questions have stopped coming her way, it's only that she is now better armed to handle over-zealous adults.
It's impossible for theatre to be a defining voice like it was in pre and post-Independence period. “We are a nation of sharp, diverse, multiple voices, more than ever before.” As a nation if we do not move in a single direction, it's impossible for theatre to have a single, integrated vision.
Moreover, Shaily feels that one cannot escape the fact that theatre has moved from the realm of activism to entertainment. However, as an afterthought, Shaily says, “it's not fair to make such a comment. Because in the grassroots where a lot of theatre is happening, it is still a social tool. Unfortunately, what gets represented in the media is a lot different. So, theatre is also about perception.”
“I'm very clear,” she says “I want to do only Indian stories – indigenous. Through adaptations or translations. I want to use Indian visuals and iconography. It's important to occupy that space, for our own good, and I wish to be there…”
