When a journal completes half-a-century of its existence, it is an occasion to celebrate. A celebration is all the more called for if the journal came into being as a personal initiative of a pioneer and managed to not only survive but also thrive without financial assistance from the government and its various institutions. Hindi quarterly “Natarang” is one such journal that is devoted entirely to theatre. It’s the only journal of its kind not only in Hindi but in all other Indian languages as well.
Poet-critic Nemichandra Jain, universally known as Nemiji, founded the journal in 1965 and brought it out singlehandedly with complete dedication till his demise on March 24, 2005. Since then, his son-in-law and well-known poet-critic Ashok Vajpeyi, and daughter and Kathak dancer Rashmi Vajpeyi have been editing it.
Over the past five decades, “Natarang” has published more than 85 original scripts of new plays, thus boosting the theatre scene and making it richer and livelier. Moreover, it has also contributed a great deal to the evolution of a critical language of theatre, thus reinforcing its theoretical foundations.
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In the process, it has stayed away from showing preference for ‘traditional’ or ‘modern’ theatre.
For Nemiji, Indian theatre was one integral whole and he always had a holistic view of the arts and its development.
On its golden jubilee, “Natarang” came up with a joint number (97-98) that focused on eminent theatre personality B. V. Karanth. It’s truly a collector’s item and offers a panoramic view of the genius of Karanth – his acting, contribution to theatre and film music, love for Hindi and its literature, penchant for developing regional theatre in Kannada and other Indian languages, his unique vision as a director, and his legacy as a cultural visionary.
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During the early 1980s, I too came into close contact with Karanth through my friend Prasanna, who had by this time emerged as one of the formidable new directorial talents on the theatre scene.
I had met Karanth earlier around the time he was chosen to succeed Ebrahim Alkazi as Director of the National School of Drama. Vijay Mohan Singh, a well-known fiction writer and literary critic who had studied with Karanth at the Banaras Hindu University, had introduced me to him and I was greatly impressed by his simplicity.
The Karanth special number reminded me of a similar special issue (74-76) of “Natarang” that focused on its founder-editor Nemiji after his death.
It was also a collector’s item and had all the big names of the Indian theatre. The issue opened with a long poem on Nemiji written by the doyen of Malayalam theatre Kavalam Narayana Pannicker followed by an evocative article by him.
Those who contributed their articles on Nemiji and his contribution to developing a critical idiom of theatre, included the likes of Habib Tanvir, Vijaya Mehta, Shambhu Mitra, Kunwar Narayan, Rajinder Nath, Mohan Maharishi, Bhanu Bharti, Ramgopal Bajaj, Narendra Sharma, Govind Vidyarthi, Asghar Wajahat, Vijay Mohan Singh and Nirmala Jain.
It also carried a very informative and intimate interview with Nemiji’s wife Rekha Jain who herself had made a name in the field of children’s theatre.
I had the good fortune of becoming Nemiji’s student for a short while when he was teaching drama at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and drawing up a blueprint for the establishment of a Centre for Arts and Aesthetics.
In view of our work culture and academic bureaucracy, it was not surprising that his plans continued to gather dust for more than two decades and a School of Arts and Aesthetics came into being after nearly 25 years.
I was in awe of Nemiji although he was a very soft-spoken man whose face was always lit up by an understated smile. To me, he was one of the seven legendary poets who were featured in “Taar Saptak”, the historic collection of poetry edited by Agyeya, and about whom Muktibodh had proudly stated: “Marxvad maine Nemiji se seekha” (I learnt Marxism from Nemiji).
Nemiji was one of the founders of IPTA and had played a historic role in the setting up of the NSD too. He singularly evolved a critical language in Hindi to understand, analyse and communicate the art of theatre.
It is a befitting tribute to him that “Natarang” is not only continuing but has also been put up on the internet, thus being available to its pan-Indian readership.