In the rough and tumble of life in big cities, we often forget what balm it is to be surrounded by melodious music and positive thoughts. Rest comes to mean a seat in the bus, luxury a Metro ride and, to reach home of an evening and dump oneself in front of the television the epitome of relaxation! In this scheme of things, entertainment becomes synonymous with the latest action movie or the machinations of characters in daily soaps. But given a chance, we all tend to flower in response to recreation of a more soothing kind, and that is what Akshara Theatre, run by veterans Gopal Sharman and Jalabala Vaidya, offers for three evenings starting this Thursday, with a presentation of 25 poems from Rabindranath Tagore's English translation of his “Gitanjali”.
Directed by Jalabala, with recorded music composed by Sharman, the performance also features live accompaniment by Mubarak Khan and Bundu Khan Langa, traditional musicians from Rajasthan from the family of Hayat Mohammad Langa with whom the couple have been long associated. The adorable nine-year-old child artiste Iqbal Langa will also be on stage with his uncles, his powerful voice and impish delight sure to capture the hearts of the audience. “I kidnapped him into the production,” says Jalabala.
Reciting the poems, besides Jalabala, will be Lakkan Naqvi, another old friend of the Akshara family, whose love for poetry made him an obvious choice. The rest of the performing team, reciting as well as sometimes singing, dancing and enacting the poems, comprises young Akshara actors Shaily Priya and Shubham Vaish, along with the Sharmans' grandchildren, Nisa Shetty, Dhruv Shetty and Yashna Shetty.
At the rehearsal in the tiny Akshara theatre built lovingly and nearly single-handedly by Sharman decades ago, Jalabala's mobile face is suffused with joy and gratitude as she begins with “You have made me endless…” It is reminiscent of the expression that lit it up just moments ago as her husband described his recovery from serious illness recently, giving the credit to her nursing and the skills of his physiotherapist.
Some 21 of the selected poems were performed years ago by Sharman along with a Japanese actress at an event to mark the golden jubilee of diplomatic relations between India and Japan. It was then that he composed the music, using sarod, sitar and other instruments. “I used to sing with the orchestra,” he explains. “I would sing the swaras, not the words, and then recited the poems so as not to colour them.” For this performance, though the format has been changed and he will not be on stage, the concern for keeping the focus on the poet's words remains.
Jalabala explains her motivation. “When you are just reciting 25 poems, how do you give the sense of the poetry? They are very simple poems — at least his (Tagore's) translation. They are very honest…” The themes are based in the Advaita philosophy that is to be found across the Indian subcontinent, she notes, adding, “But here in Tagore it is simply and very humanly expressed.”
Two of the poems, which Naqvi recites, have not been set to a background score, says the director, because they are “so truthful”. Their mood — immersed in a devotion shot with the acknowledgment of some hidden sorrow or shame too deep to articulate — is different from that of the rest of the selection, she points out.
But, as Keats famously told us, truth and beauty are one and the same. So, whether the secret sorrow of a grievous loss or the bliss of knowing there is a hand to guide us, these evenings of Gitanjali will resonate with inner melodies.
