I am no technology freak but when I listen to Gauhar Jaan’s thumris on YouTube, I realise what I could have missed if Gauhar hadn’t realised the value of recording one’s voice in 1902. One of the foremost exponents of thumri and dadra, Gauhar inspired the likes of Begum Akhtar to take up singing. However, time doesn’t spare anybody and the memories of Gauhar also came under its wheel. Now theatre director Lillete Dubey has brought Gauhar to life all over again through a play. It explores the passion of Gauhar for music and life. “In those days, when elaborate exploration of raga was a norm, singing for two minutes, the duration that the technology allowed, was considered a disrespect for the art form, almost blasphemous, but Gauhar said she will sing and went on to record 600 discs ending each one with a refrain ‘I am Gauhar Jaan’ (again a requirement of technology because the recordings were sent to Europe),” says Rajeshwari Sachdev, who is playing the title role.
Lillete says the play is “inspired” by Vikram Sampath’s biography of the legendary classical singer. “I wanted to mount a play where music is central to the theme,” says Lillete whose theatre company is known for mounting original English plays written by Indian playwrights. “When Mahesh Dattani (who has written the play in English and Hindustani) came up with idea, he said we would use the original recordings of Gauhar. But the quality was so poor that I felt we will do injustice to Gauhar if we use them. I wanted to show her in her full glory and decided to go for live music.”
One of the favourite actors of Shyam Benegal, Rajeshwari is known for her sterling performances in films like Suraj Ka Satvan Ghora , Triyacharitra and Sardari Begum, Rajeshwari describesGauhar as a flamboyant character. “She knew around 20 languages, composed in multiple languages and sang in multiple languages. I am an actor who can sing but still it was a big challenge for me. I hope I will improve as we go along,” says Rajeshwari citing “Ras Ke Bhare Tore Nain” as her favourite.
A version of it was used in Satyagraha . Lillete says this is usual with Gauhar’s composition. “Even well-established people in the music world wonder, Oh! Was it her composition!”
Reflecting on her flashy side, Rajeshwari reminds that Gauhar used to earn Rs.3000 for a concert. “It was huge money in 1902. So she would splurge.” From throwing lavish parties for her cat to paying penalty worth Rs.1000 a day to take her four-horse driven carriage to Victoria House in Calcutta, Gauhar did it all, unapologetically.
For Lillete, Gauhar was a modern, feisty woman devoted to arts. “Unlike most, she learnt from different gharanas and sang in brijbhasha and Kannada to English. Her face was there on the post cards and matchboxes and her popularity was spread up to Europe.”
For a courtesan, it must be something. Perhaps at that time, analyses Rajeshwari, these were the only women who were that much educated because they devoted themselves to the arts and culture. “If the rajas and maharajas wanted to sit with them and talk to them they must have some intellectual capacity to engage them. It is their distorted portrayal in popular culture that changed perceptions over the years. They were not just entertainers. Yes, they belonged to a social hierarchy wherein they were not getting married and many of them were emotionally vulnerable.”
Gauhar was no different and the emotional chaos provides the layering to the play. “Every successful woman has to pay a price. You can’t have it all. She was feisty and strong-willed but she was emotionally vulnerable as well. As an artist and as a woman I can relate to her emotional upheaval,” says Lillete. Both Rajeshwari and Lillete feel that Gauhar kept looking for a father figure in her male friends. Her father, an Armenian dumped her Hindu mother who went on to marry a Muslim and converted to Islam.
Angelina Yeoward became Gauhar Jaan and her mother shifted to Calcutta under the patronage of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. It provided Gauhar a rich cultural background but it shook her emotionally. “Perhaps the man she loved – Gujarati actor Amrut Vagal Nayak – died early and the man she eventually married – her secretary – duped her. I won’t hold anybody responsible. She was older than him and the kind of money she had could turn anybody greedy,” says Rajeshwari. “Here we have taken some dramatic licence because nobody knows what happened behind closed doors,” says Lillete.
At the end, she was at the patronage of Maharaja of Mysore, who paid her Rs.500 a month which included expenses of her musicians. “For an artist, who performed in Delhi Durbar in front of King George V, it was nothing. It broke her,” sighs Rajeshwari.
Among the cast, Lillete says Zila Khan (she plays the older Gauhar) is her wild card. “She is known for her singing. Here I have tried to make her act as well.” As for the scale, Lillete says she is not trying to make it a Bajirao Mastani. “That is where theatre is so liberating. The suspension of disbelief in theatre is very high. We have tried to bring the spirit of the times. Pia Benegal has designed the costumes. Then it is the sound of sarangi and sepia lighting that will take you seamlessly from Azamgarh to Calcutta via Banaras. Also, I am taking the play to different parts of the country and with an elaborate set it is not possible.” And the kind of response the play is getting, Gauhar must be snubbing her nose somewhere….
(“Gauhar” will be staged this Thursday at 7.30pm at the Siri Fort Auditorium and at Epicentre, Gurgaon on Friday)
