Ebrahim Alkazi and his secular approach to theatre

The traces between private and skilled blur, interact and intertwine at each flip of the web page in Amal Allana’s biographical novel Ebrahim Alkazi: Holding Time Captive, which traces the quintessential identification of the daddy of contemporary Indian theatre — Ebrahim Alkazi. “You can’t talk of my father on a personal level alone, because his work was an intrinsic part of his life,” says Amal, Ebrahim’s daughter, who took practically 10 years to provide you with the guide that finds its roots in a 2016 exhibition titled The Theatre of E. Alkazi. “I never quite started out to write a book as I had never written a book before; it all started with the exhibition,” she shares, touring our thoughts by way of a copious assortment of Alkazi’s images and artworks present in a tin trunk, which she chronicled to chart the trajectory of her father’s works. Before making their means into the guide, these contents could be displayed at yet one more exhibition The Other Line (2019) showcasing over hundred drawings and work of the theatre doyen only a yr earlier than he died on August 4, 2020.

“We were in New York in 1999, when my father agreed to my request of interviewing him. We put up a static camera and I started asking him questions. Looking back, I would have asked him many more questions, which I later never got the opportunity to,” says Amal, justifying the dialogues that run parallel to the narration of occasions that contributed to the making of Ebrahim Alkazi. She attributes the conversations cited within the guide to a lot of Ebrahim’s associates — thespians, writers, critics and members of the Progressive Artists’ Group — and his spouse Roshen Padamsee. “I spoke with them too. The book is not the telling of a tale, I am making it alive, I am making scenes. I am a theatre director and I have an instinctive feeling to convert everything into a play or a scene. That was the best part about writing this book; it was like I was writing a long play,” she says describing the guide’s literary type.

Ebrahim with Amal Allana.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Amal inherits her love for theatre from her father, additionally his curiosity in numerous inventive mediums of artwork. She was the chairperson of the nation’s premier theatre instructional institute National School of Drama (NSD), which was based in 1959 and Alkazi was invited to head it in 1962. She based Dramatic Art and Design Academy (DADA), New Delhi, along with her husband Nissar Allana, in 2000. Amal additionally runs Art Heritage Gallery. “I draw from him the whole discipline of theatre, looking at theatre as part of many art forms, the idea of drawing from world traditions (and not just India) and of being inclusive,” she says. The author in her emphasises on the final little bit of the above-mentioned quote — she fervently unfolds the layers of Ebrahim’s cultural, nationalistic and creative identification, ranging from his roots in Bombay because the son of a migrant from Saudi Arab.

Roshen with Nissim Ezekiel and Baloo in London, 1949
Courtesy: Alkazi Personal Archives
| Photo Credit:
Alkazi Personal Archives

“Despite the fact that Alkazi was not an Indian by parentage, being the son of a Saudi Arab immigrant, his sense of belonging to India only intensified over the years. His parents left for Karachi after Partition, but he remained in India. Also, I was named Uma; there was no question of Hindu and Muslim. My mother wore a bindi. You couldn’t tell that she is a Muslim or Khoja – those were different days, we grew up in a society, a family where there were no differences. My father’s friends were Catholics, Muslims, and Hindus, no one was looking at anyone’s religion. We have to understand that as Indians we come from a very rich past and the richness comes from it being syncretic,” she explains, including that the guide means to expose the youthful technology that there was one other lifestyle.

The guide evolves with extra nuanced citations of Ebrahim’s creative and educational endeavours, constructing on his youthful days — his love for literature, craving for an Indian identification which stands validated by a Parsi man whereas attending Gandhi’s Quit India rally, and his initiation into the world of theatre after assembly Sultan Padamsee (whose sister he later married). After Sultan’s demise, he leaves for London to examine artwork however finally ends up enrolling for theatre at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art solely to return to India later. “Alkazi, being the man of his time, was imbibing the art trends of ’40s, like Gesamptkunstwerks, where many art mediums such as poetry, painting, writing and theatre were being combined with one another to make one total, integrated piece of art. You had Picasso and Henri Matisse designing theatre sets. So, when Ebrahim came back to India, he invited M. F. Husain to design the set of his first play Murder in the Cathedral. Then artists like Vasudeo S. Gaitonde and Akbar Padamsee designed sets for him too,” she provides.

Murder within the Cathedral by T. S. Eliot, dir. E. Alkazi, set design by M.F Husain, Theatre Group, Bombay, 1953
Courtesy: Alkazi Theatre Archives
| Photo Credit:
Alkazi Theatre Archives

Amal’s guide tenders yet another fascinating facet of Ebrahim’s disposition — of taking folks together with him. He not solely bought his father to sponsor Nissim Ezekiel’s journey to London, but additionally had FN Souza for a flatmate at his lodging at 38 Lansdowne Crescent. “He was always inviting artists from different fields to collaborate with him. This led to him conceiving of integrated theatre courses that included a study of dance, mime, literature and the visual arts in his Bombay years. Later, these ideas were developed to create a more detailed syllabus for a three-year course in theatre studies at NSD. He was also keen on housing the institute in Rabindra Bhawan, to share the space with Sangeet Natak Akademi, Sahitya Akademi and the Lalit Kala Akademi,” says Amal.

Alkazi with former NSD college students, together with Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri, at a reception in his honour in Bombay
Courtesy: Nadira and Raj Babbar
| Photo Credit:
Nadira and Raj Babbar

Alkazi resigned from NSD on May 11, 1977. In her guide, Amal states: “It was not the virulent critics, not theatre people, nor his own beloved students who prompted him to take the final step. It was his realization that the pettiness of those in power could not find it in themselves to support his brand of futuristic schemes. Tremendously pained that this, in fact, was the new harsh reality, he said of a moribund bureaucracy: There is a lot that our commissars of culture in the last 20 years have to answer for, and history is not going to let them off lightly. They have vitiated the national cultural scene with their pettiness and paranoia; their own embittered frustration; their sickening hysteria. They have crammed the akademis and other cultural bodies of the government with incompetent, servile functionaries; they have reduced them to dismal, arid, fetid charnel houses of culture….”

Amal believes that the dearth of monetary assist to Indian theatre has eclipsed its recognition, which isn’t a lot the case with different artwork kinds. “What’s worrying at the moment in the art world is that the threat does not only come from political thinking on free expression. It also comes from the fact that art has over the last decade become a commodity, an investment, where the market defines what is good art or fashionable art. It’s the opposite in theatre. No one earns from theatre. Yet, one hears of sporadic incidents where certain plays have been censored,” she says, whereas reflecting on the character of artwork content material.

Poster of Hamlet by Shakespeare, dir. E. Alkazi; Alkazi as Hamlet, Theatre Group, Bombay, 1947
Courtesy: Alkazi Theatre Archives
| Photo Credit:
Alkazi Theatre Archives

She is pushed again to the post-World War II period when artists in Germany went underground. “When someone tries to stifle you, you find new ways of expression. It births innovation which can spur a new movement. In theatre too there are so many new plays, by small groups, like the ones we saw at the recently held Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards. Like this we need more private people and of course the government to support theatre, which is a very expensive activity. We are a bit like the farmers,” she feels, and means that the federal government should subsidise theatre. “We have a lot of talent in our country, and so many issues to talk about and discuss. Theatre is the correct medium for these conversations,” she indicators off.