Rang-Bansi, organised by Abhinav Rangmandal in Indore this past week, is a significant step towards organising retrospective of Bansi Kaul’s four most talked about productions. In fact, this kind of experiment was displayed in Delhi as part of Nehru Shatabdi Natya Samaroh in 1989 by Sangeet Natak Akademi featuring 15 masterpieces by great Indian theatre practitioners, including “Kallol” (Bengali) by Utpal Dutt and Habib Tanvir's “Agra Bazar” (Urdu). Two decades ago Abhinav Rangmandal did the same experiment by staging Habib's six plays at Ujjain. The connoisseurs of the arts of the Indore city gave tremendous response to this six day festival, experimenting to recapture the joy and excitement these productions evoked years ago when these were premiered. It was also an event to celebrate the four decades creative journey of Bansi Kaul, making Madhya Pradesh his home, establishing Rang Vidushhak in Bhopal and enriching contemporary Indian theatre as a director.
The convenor of the Rang-Bansi and the president of Abhinav Rang Mandal, Sharad Sharma struggled to raise funds for an event of this scale. His request for financial assistance to the government of Madhya Pradesh remained unanswered. Thanks to the support of National School of Drama, Delhi, Indore Police Department and the theatre lovers of Indore, it was possible for the organisers to make the festival a grand success. The collections from ticket sale was Rs.73,000. This is something unprecedented, especially in the Hindi belt where ticketed shows are few and far between.
Recipient of Padma Shri, Bansi Kaul has won several awards, including the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. He reached the acme of his art the hard way. Starting as cinema poster painter and later painting natural scenery for heavy trucks, he graduated from National School of Drama, engaging himself on exploring the possibility to innovate a vibrant theatre form based on traditional and folk elements. He has also studied the art of wrestlers, acrobats and kabaddi players. He has fascination for circus clowns. As a designer par excellence, his talent came to national attention with his presentation of “Khel Guru Ka” at Natya Samaroh 1984 organised by Sangeet Natak Akademi as part of experimental works seeking inspiration from the traditional and folk theatre forms to evolve contemporary Indian theatre idiom. The production was based on Maach style of Ujjain with wrestling and acrobatic elements. Bansi is also famous for designing cultural festivals of national and international repute like Bharat Mahotsav in Russia and Commonwealth Game in India. As a designer, he treads two worlds – the designer of mega events with plenty of resources and the designer of the theatrical productions suffering from utter paucity of funds.
The Rang-Bansi opened with the staging of “Saudagar”, an adaptation in Hindi by Shrikant Kishore from Bertolt Brecht's “The Exception and the Rule”. The play reveals the class conflict in a capitalist mode of production. A merchant kills his innocent worker in cold blood. The court acquits the murderer. The design is gaudy and costumes are colourful which create dazzling visuals. The dominance of design weakens the political message of the play – antagonist conflict between the ruling class and the oppressed masses.
This is followed by “Zindagi Aur Zonk”, an adaptation by Rajesh Joshi of Amarkant’s popular short story. The central character is Rajua, an anti-hero-incorporating the elements of the life of tramp, clown and an eternal parasite. He enjoys life in all situations with a strong will power to survive. For the local people he is a butt of ridicule, an object of hate and exploitation. There is mystery about his birth place, parentage and the same mystery continues to shroud about the rumour of his death and sudden survival. It illustrates the callousness of society and man's innate will power to survive even in the most brutal conditions. Kanhaiyalal Kaithwas creates an outstanding portrait of Rajua which evokes strong fillings of laughter, hate, sympathy and enigma.
Bansi's third play that featured at the festival was “Kahan Kabir”. This is a brilliant dramatization of the philosophy of Kabir, the social and religious conflict of his time, the cruelty of the ruling class and the arrogance of those who propagate religious bigotry. Written by Rajesh Joshi, the play opens with the clash of different religious sects to claim the body of Kabir. Everybody claims him his own religious mentor and teacher with a view to capitalise his popularity. The conflict is resolved metaphorically to stress the point that Kabir's message is equally relevant to all mankind irrespective of religious differences.
Music composed by Anjana Puri, who also leads the chorus in rendering Kabir's verses, is the soul of the production. The choreography, the dramatic action and music are all blended into an artistic whole.
Adapted by Rajesh Joshi from Chinese folktale “Three Promotion in Succession” included in an anthology of folktales by Liu Baorui, “Seedi Dar Seedi Urf Tukke Pe Tukka” is a comedy that has element of farce, acrobats, wrestling and music with colourful costumes and painted faces of the performers. Anjana Puri's music and stylized movements ensure fluidity of dramatic action. Anjana sings in a mellifluous voice leading the members of the chorus, who occasionally participates in the action. The play is centred on the rise of Tukku Dhakare, an unlettered young man belonging to a Nawab family. Inspired by an astrologer, he dares to participate in the examination conducted for the selection of high civil servants. As luck has it, he is declared successful with high grade and assigned to preside over the highly qualified officers who are asked to work under him. The source of fun is acting style by the entire cast headed by Uday Shahare who is a clown, a wrestler and a fool but always a winner. The way Uday delivers his lines in typically Bhopali Urdu accent is another source of hilarious moments. With his sheer luck and wit, he outwits his highly educated rivals but his Tukku is magnanimous who forgives his conspirators doing their utmost to expose him. Another comic performance is given by Harsh Dond as the good-for-nothing Nawab. His caricature of foolish Nawab dethroned by his rivals in a jiffy imparts vital comic rhythm to the production.
As part of retrospective experiment Manch Rang Manch, Amristar presented Shahid Nadeem’s “Bullah Shah” in Punjabi under the direction of Kewal Dhaliwal, a dynamic theatre director of Punjab. Imaginatively designed with huge drapers hanging upstage with folk motifs painted on them aesthetically, the production projects Bullah Shah’s quest for spiritual attainment. The festival concluded with a presentation of “Court Martial” by Abhinav Rangmandal, Ujjain under the direction of Sharad Sharma, founder-president-director of the group. Written by Swadesh Deepak, the play was discovered by Sahitya Kala Parishad and staged under the direction of Ranjit Kapur about two and a half decades ago at Shri Ram Centre, Delhi. It should be treated as a modern classic in the history of contemporary Indian theatre for its dramatically compact structure, meaningful dialogue and severe indictment of class and caste tyranny perpetrated by army officers on hapless subordinate ranks belonging to lower castes.
