Noted painter and theatre practitioner Vijay Soni, popularly known as Viko, died in New Delhi on Sunday after battling Parkinson’s disease for nearly 12 years. He was 76.
Viko emerged on the Delhi theatre scene in the mid-1970s after travelling to study the innovative theatre methods of Europe and America in the 1960s and early 1970s.
He honed his craft as a theatre director during this time at Theatre Laboratory of Jerzy Grotowski in Wroclaw, the Odin Theatre in Stockholm, the Bread and Puppet Theatre and the Living Theatre in New York.
From 1974-1987 he participated actively in the avant garde theatre movement in India, directing plays and conducting workshops in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana on the invitation from the Culture Ministry and art councils of the respective States, besides founding and running his own theatre group, Theatre Ensemble, here.
He is remembered for directing and choreographing several dramatic plays using the powerful method of Grotowski to convey symbolical meanings through controlled physical movements of actors.
Viko’s most acclaimed productions include Andhere Mein (1975), John Bull (1976), Lanka Adhiraj (1980), Sari Raat (1986) and Wajid Ali Shah (1987).
Andhere Mein , a largely non-verbal play built around the famous long poem by poet Muktibodh, conveyed a vision of society haunted by violence. The play was performed more than 100 times in Delhi, Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, Chandigarh and Bhopal.
John Bull , a full-length historical play by Azghar Wajahat set during the 1857 uprising, was first performed as play in 1976 and subsequently made into two-part TV show for Doordarshan under the title Farmaan .
Lanka Adhiraj , a play by P.S. Vasudev interpreting Ramayana in modern terms of statecraft and warfare, won the Sahitya Kala Parishad Award in 1982 garnering six first prizes for direction, choreography, stage design, lighting, costumes and acting. Exhibited just post-Emergency, one of the leading actors in the play was modelled on Indira Gandhi, eliciting rave reviews.
Viko won yet another Sahitya Kala Parishad award in 1986 for Badal Sircar’s psychological play Saari Raat .
The last play he directed was P.S. Vasudev’s Wajid Ali Shah in 1987. The play revolves around the last Nawab of Oudh as the patron of cultural heritage in times of political deceit. Its uniqueness lay in its rendition in Kathak style of dance accompanied by well-known musician Pandit Panchanan Pathak.
Though remembered more as a theatre director, Viko was also a fine abstract painter. His works were exhibited in Warsaw, Copenhagen, Aarhus, Stockholm, Delhi and Mumbai.
Renowned art critic and former Lalit Kala Akademi secretary, the late Richard Bartholomew, wrote in the 1970s that there are very few works that deserved mention among the new crop of artists that were exhibited at the Lalit Kala Triennale in 1975.
“ Painting by Bhanu Shah, the black and white painting by Aravinda Chakravarty, recent work by Nareen and the lovely poetic abstractions by Viko Soni.”
Viko is survived by his social activist wife Aanita Soni, two daughters and three grandsons. He will be cremated on Tuesday at 4 p.m. at the Lodhi Crematorium.
