"To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain, and play with it!"
– Charlie Chaplin
Bisharad Basnet too was able to play with the pain he endured as a kid. And now his world is full of happy faces. Through his ‘Laughter Calling’, a clown-play based on Anton Chekov’s short stories, Bisharad makes people laugh their heart out. “I lost both my beloved uncle and grandfather at a crucial period of my life. I was depressed a lot,” he says. But a theatre workshop on clowns altered his life. “Initially, I hesitated to attend as I did not want to do any circus. But my friend persuaded me and the 10-day residential workshop worked wonders. I cried a lot and laughed a lot. At the end of the workshop, I was so relaxed and felt light. Then, I realised my responsibility and decided that nobody in this world should be unhappy,” he says.
Dressed in outlandish costumes with distinctive white-face makeup that includes the traditional red nose, Bisharad’s expressive eyes and more pronounced smile speak volumes about his ability to pull people out of their troubles. “If you think clowns always spoil the tricks and mess things up, then you are wrong. There is method in their madness. It is all to provide a relief to your stress-filled daily routine,” he says.
Born to a Nepali mother and Indian father, Bisharad was never a brilliant student. A mischievous child that he was, Bisharad liked to freak out with friends and that proved to be his nemesis when he and one of his friends were accused of breaking a fan in the classroom and sent out of school in Daltonganj, a small town in Jharkhand, where his father worked. It created an indelible scar in the mind of Bisharad and he moved to Nepal to finish his schooling. In a dilemma whether to continue studies or choose a job, Bisharad happened to hear an interview of Naseeruddin Shah and it turned his attention towards theatre. He headed straight to National School of Drama in New Delhi to join theatre studies. He was so ignorant that he did not know about the educational qualification and experience required for the course. “It was a critical period, my father was on the verge of retirement and I was badly in need of a job to support my family. Then, I decided to go to Mumbai to pursue a career in theatre. All I had at that time was just Rs.10000 given by my mother,” he recounts.
Life was not a bed of roses when he landed in Mumbai. Nurturing dreams of achieving big in theatre, he made several futile attempts to join theatre clubs. “There were a lot of things which I was not aware of. I met a lot of people. Theatre was purely commercial. They did not want newcomers,” he says. Then he started selling books on roadside. “I badly needed money to attend theatre workshops. It gave me enormous confidence and I shed my inhibition. In those days, I was a regular at Prithvi Theatre to watch performances. I also obtained discounts to attend workshops,” says Bisharad.
He was mentored by best teachers like Niranjan Goswami, Late Pandit Satyadev Dubey, Late Veenapani Chawla, Ashwath Bhatt, John Basford, Claudio Calvija and Rupesh Tillu and many more. “I heard names like Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavsky for the first time. His technique of method acting inspired me and I started learning the nuances of the art. But wherever I went for auditions, they gave me just 15 minutes to prepare for a performance. Then I realised there is no time to think and act. It has to be more spontaneous,” he says.
At the same time, he happened to attend the Ashwath Bhatt’s workshop on clowns and that altered his equations. “It was a big eye opener for me as I fitted in every sense for the clown act,” he says. He feels clown is like a kid, more active and creative. “Clowning is something very real. When a clown comes on stage there is a comedy and it is not made up. Clowns don’t fake and they do it for real. When I slip over a banana peel it should be real where the error evokes instant laughter,” he says.
As he wanted to pass on his knowledge to the next generation and to help those aspiring to make it big in the field like him, he started the Acting School of India modelled on National School of Drama. The school provides platform for people to come and learn the art and come out with their product at the end of the course. “I ask newcomers to attend the three-day workshop, which will concentrate on basic training where they will understand their responsibilities as an actor. If they find it useful then I recommend them to attend the seven-day camp and then to the intensive six-month course,” he elaborates.
Bisharad converted it as a mobile school and travels across the length and breadth of the country organising workshops and shows. He conducted his workshops and performances here in association with The Helen O Grady International Drama Academy. He is also exploring the therapeutic effect of laughter. “I make it a point to visit schools and involve teachers in my work. Interaction between kids and teacher will be more if teacher adopts clown techniques. I educate elementary teachers so that they can be one with their wards and understand the world of children better,” he says.
Bisharad is also part of Clown without Borders and he has evolved his own project Clowns at Work to perform shows for orphanages and NGOs. He also collected funds for Nepal Earthquake victims.
He is now working on his next production ‘Helmet’, which will be a comic adaptation of Shakespeare’s iconic tragedy Hamlet. “Definitely it will not be a tragedy. A clown is always in the present even if the action that takes place on the stage is in the past. He comes out of the action whenever he wants and makes a comment. I tried to explore this aspect and make it more interactive. I will be the narrator and the audience will also be part of the action,” he says.
What is Clown Doctor?
Clown Doctor is also known as hospital clowning. It is a programme in health care centres or hospitals involving visits from specially trained clowns, who are called clown doctor, a trademark name in several countries. Their visits help in lifting the patients’ sagging morale. A clown doctor attends specifically to the psycho-social needs of hospitalised children. In some hospitals they also visit adults. The atmosphere is full of fun and laughter and can help children forget about the illness and the stress for a moment. Clown doctor uses techniques such as magic, music, storytelling and other clowning skills to help children deal with range of emotions they may experience while in hospital such as fear, anxiety, loneliness and boredom.
