Abhishek Majumdar’s style of theatre occupies a respectable space in the art world. His well-known plays, The Djinns of Eidgah , Rizwaan , Gasha , Thook and Kaumudi bear the director’s and playwright’s signature style as they explore, in-depth, various contemporary issues. His work has earned him recognition and a number of awards, among them The Hindu MetroPlus Playwright Award, and more recently, the first Shankar Nag Theatre Award.
Abhishek’s brand of theatre isn’t merely about performance, it’s an academic enquiry. “I am generally of the opinion that theatre is like going to a University. Theatre, for me, is like a thesis and each play comes out of research.”
Abhishek adds that every play requires a different research process. Kaumudi , for example, consisted of various strands, including a story—set in a theatre of Allahabad in the 1960s—of a relationship between an ageing father, who slowly loses his sight, and his ambitious son, with the dominant framework being that of The Mahabharata. Abhishek says: “ Kaumudi didn’t involve interviewing anyone, but required a study of The Mahabharata , reading Jorge Louis Borges’ essay, Blindness and Anand’s Malayalam novel Vyasam Vigneswaram . Whereas, something like Gasha and Djinns of Eidgah took us to Kashmir and involved interviewing people, other than studying about Kashmir. I think there is also something of an individual research, which for me happens at the subject level. And then there is a collective research. There are people like Subhashim Goswami, the dramaturge, Abhijeet Tambe, the musician, Irawati Karnik, Sandeep Shikhar and Payal Wadhwa, the scenographer who build on that research. And it is from all these processes that the play emerges. It is the same with the actors. Our rehearsal process is exploring more in terms of the acting language. Doing new exercises, and then performing it.”
When it comes to translating the research into a play, how does Abhishek ensure it doesn’t overwhelm the story? “All art form, I think, is memory. It’s about how we remember something, as opposed to how it is. The research needs to be long enough for it to start coming into the writer’s or director’s memory. And the crux is the imagery you get from it. ”
His plays depict definite perspectives, and out rightly question notions such as caste and social discrimination. Kaumudi .“I want the audience to get the story. My job is to communicate and not necessarily to change one’s viewpoint. It is a reality which we often don’t communicate outside the theatre.”
Abhishek says he has several reference points in theatre, and his influences are varied. “I grew up watching a lot of Bangla theatre. But mostly my reference points have been in Classical music, because my family is into classical music.”
He says the band Indian Ocean played an important part in shaping much of his artistic outlook. “I met Susmit Sen during my college days. He used to take me to their practice sessions. And that was a huge influence on me. It was when I was studying at XIM in Bhubaneswar that I decided that I would do theatre. We formed a theatre group. I got excited by it because I thought this is where I can create my own syllabus. ”
After studying at National Institute of Technology at Tiruchirappalli, Abhishek came to Bangalore, and joined Mahesh Dattani’s workshop. “There came a point when I had to choose between a scholarship to study economics and pursuing theatre. I chose theatre.”
Abhishek eventually studied at London International School of Performing Arts. He adds it was after meeting Sandeep Shikhar that he decided to start Indian Ensemble.
Asked if a section of theatre is mainly done for the market, Abhishek says: “That’s a simplistic way of looking at things. I remember Anmol Vellani once saying that there are two kinds of art. One kind of art gives back to society something that it generally wants to believe in, what is basically affirmative art. The other kind of art questions society, and how we live and what we do. I think that’s the fundamental difference, really. Unfortunately, in India the government hasn’t invested enough in the theatre. If it did, both kinds of theatre would be commercially viable. People think if you do a bedroom farce, the audience will watch it. But I am absolutely certain that if there is a bedroom farce and a Ratan Thiyam show simultaneously, the latter will have a lot more audience. Ultimately, artistes shouldn’t make art thinking about the box office.”
Abhishek’s most memorable play was Pratidwandi. The play was adapted by him from Bengali writer Sunil Gangopadhyay’s novel by the same name. “I hadn’t watched Satyajit Ray’s film version when I adapted this play. I was the youngest in the group which comprised a huge cast. I remember the day it opened.The lights came on and the actor delivered the very first dialogue….the feeling I got then…is indescribable.”
