The stage darkens and the light is focussed on a woman in a green sari. She is in a television studio for an interview regarding the success of her English novel. The interview is canned but as she prepares to leave, a television screen comes alive.
Then starts a conversation between the woman, Manjula Nayak, and her doppelganger – her conscience, her psychiatrist, her counsellor…. The scenes are from Girish Karnad's one-woman show 'Bikhre Bimb', which he directed and scripted. And the woman is veteran theatre person Arundhati Nag.
The artiste was in Thiruvananthapuram for the staging of ‘Bikhre Bimb' in connection with the National Theatre Festival. Excerpts from an interview.
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Working with Girish Karnad is a pleasure. It is rare that an actor gets to work with its playwright too. The set, which resembles the interiors of a television studio plays host to me as Manjula. She is a successful debut writer being interrogated by her own image on a projection screen [TV], until she unravels to a point where it is difficult to tell the difference between her real and cultivated images. In fact, the image on TV is like a co-star. That 45-minute shot of me on TV was done in one take. She upstages me; a classic case of an actor upstaged by her own image. [Laughs] The character is the mastery of the playwright; it is not a gimmick. She is a ‘total' character.
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It started out by auditioning for a play in school [in Mumbai]. They needed someone who could speak good Hindi. As I had spent my early years in Delhi and as I was fluent in the language, I got the part. Our play won a prize. One day while walking my dog in the park, I met my co-star of the play.
He mentioned IPTA [Indian People's Theatre Association] and took me to one of their rehearsals. One of the directors who saw me standing in the background shouted: ‘You, the girl in pigtails, can you act?' and I responded ‘I don't know, but you can teach me.' Thus began my affair with theatre. Theatre persons such as Shaukat Kaifi, A.K. Hangal and Shombu Mitra were my mentors. M.S. Sathyu's ‘Khalid ki Khala' was the first play I staged with IPTA. As I was the youngest member in IPTA, I was spoilt. Theatre was a game to me then.
The realisation that I wanted to make a career of being a theatre artiste came when I was 18. I knew I was good at it and I enjoyed the challenge of becoming the various characters I played. I was consumed by a desire to learn and I had the fortune of getting good roles.
Multi-lingual actor
Being a theatre person you have to learn the language the play is set in. I learnt Kannada doing various plays in that language. In fact, I started my tryst with Kannada theatre with Girish's ‘Anju Mallige', 30 years ago.
In the movies, you can fool the audience if you can't speak the language; you can't do that on the stage. Also when you are on the stage, the lines become your own, part of your dictionary. I would love to learn Malayalam next and perform in the language some day.
Staged favourites
A personal favourite would be the adaptation of Ibsen's ‘Ghosts,' ‘Atheet ki Parichaiyiyaan,' where my late husband, Shankar Nag, played my son. I also enjoyed ‘Tokhaar’, the Gujarati adaptation of Peter Shaffer's ‘Equus’. Then there is the Marathi play ‘Gidhade’.
Theatre vis-à-vis the small and big screen
I had a ball when I did my first TV serial, probably the first serial on Indian television, ‘Haji Aavti Kaal Che,' as TV had just come to India.
I commuted to the set on the local train and people would give up their seats for me and would pry for what would come next on screen. ‘Paa,' the movie I did recently with the Bachchans, was a good experience. Big B is a man who is dedicated to his work.
The role etched out for me in ‘Paa’ was a good one. There is a trend of theatre actors doing works for movies and serials. This could be because they do not waste time, they are professionals. They deliver their lines, and in their roles. However, the disadvantage of being a theatre actor on the big screen is that you are all over the place. Being in front of the camera requires you to pose and deliver lines and emotions at various angles of shots. In theatre you are free; the stage is your world; you are the king.
Ranga Shankara
Ranga Shankara was built in Bangalore in memory of my late husband. It is also a realisation of his dream to have a theatre space of one's own.
We do lots of theatre work here and we also have a children's wing ‘Aha’, that brings theatre to children. In five years Ranga Shankara has conducted 2,000 performances in about 19 languages.