How Habib Tanvir forged his own unique path in theatre

To make theatre that was genuine to its cultural milieu and historical past whereas additionally being completely fashionable, each in content material and kind — this was Habib Tanvir’s life’s achievement. His theatre was exuberant, festive, celebratory, humorous, shifting, considerate and reflective. It was progressive and secular, and since it was created by a person with a Muslim identify, it was reviled and attacked by Hindutva forces. He labored with rural actors to create performs that appealed to audiences far past the agricultural. In the historical past of Indian theatre, Habib Tanvir was a singular presence.

Born in Raipur in 1923, he went to Bombay to pursue a profession in movies in the mid-1940s. But the decisive affect on him on the time was his entry into the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), the place he met and befriended artistes resembling Balraj Sahni, Dina Gandhi (later Pathak), Zohra Segal, and M.S. Sathyu. The left-wing perspective of IPTA was to stick with him all through his life, despite the fact that he forged his own unique path in theatre.

The movie trade disillusioned him. It worshipped cash, not artwork. He got here to Delhi, the place he joined Hindustani Theatre, the place he met Moneeka Misra, a theatre director skilled in the U.S. They fell in love and bought married.

In 1954, Habib Tanvir wrote and directed his first masterpiece, Agra Bazaar, on the life and artwork of the plebeian 19th-century poet Nazir Akbarabadi. It was an astonishing manufacturing, for 2 causes. One, the protagonist Nazir by no means seems in the play — as a result of no biographical details about him was obtainable, at the same time as a big corpus of his poetry had survived, handed on orally from era to era. Two, Habib Tanvir requested residents of Okhla village on the outskirts of Delhi to behave in the play — his first try and make theatre with rural folks.

From Habib Tanvir’s play Charandas Chor by Naya Theatre. Staged in December, 2019 as a curtain- raiser to the primary state Conference of Network of Artistic Theatre Activists Kerala (Natak) in Ernakulam.
| Photo Credit:
THULASI KAKKAT

A scene from Habib Tanvir’s play Mrichchakatika.
| Photo Credit:
The Hindu Archives

Soon after, he left for Britain to get formally skilled as a director, on the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA), and the Old Vic. He was in his thirties, with over a decade of theatre work underneath his belt. What he learnt in Britain, most of all, was what he wanted to reject — the overly regimented theatre of the time, practical in a photographic type of approach, about middle-class life. He longed for the free-flowing, pleasant, irreverent theatre that he had loved as a baby in Chhattisgarh. He returned to India and got down to discover rural actors.

The first lot of six rural actors he picked got here with him to Delhi in 1958. They had been all kind of unlettered, however masters of the Nacha, the agricultural theatre of Chhattisgarh. They acted and danced with abandon, sang melodiously in their open, robust voices, had been masters of farce, and will additionally transfer you to tears. With them, and with Moneeka as his companion, he based his own firm, Naya Theatre, in 1959. They produced play after play, touring the nation extensively, however whereas his performs of the time had spark, actual success eluded him.

Habib Tanvir watches a rehearsal
| Photo Credit:
Sudhanva Deshpande

It was befuddling. Why had been these nice actors, who had been so pleasant once they carried out in the villages, so stiff and inflexible on the city stage, he puzzled. It took him 15 years, from 1958 to 1973, to determine it out. He was forcing them to talk in Hindustani, a language that was alien to them, and he was ‘directing’ them, telling them the place and easy methods to stand, the place and when to maneuver, what gestures to make use of. When he melded collectively three rural farces right into a single play in Gaon ke naon sasural mor naon damad (‘I’m the son-in-law and My in-laws’ home is my village), he requested his actors to talk in Chhattisgarhi and improvise their strikes.

It was magic. With their tongues and our bodies unshackled, the actors had been magnificent. Remarkably, city audiences, most of whom had no familiarity with Chhattisgarhi, embraced the play. A string of hits adopted, many recognised as masterpieces of contemporary Indian theatre — Charandas Chor (Charan the thief), Mitti Ki Gaadi (Sudraka’s The little clay cart), Bahadur Kalarin, Shajapur Ki Shantibai (Bertolt Brecht’s Good particular person of szechwan), Hirma ki amar kahani (The immortal story of Hirma), and Kamdev ka apna, basant ritu ka sapna (Shakespeare’s A midsummer evening’s dream).

Habib Tanvir, an artiste-activist, he dedicated to the values of secularism and social justice
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Habib Tanvir was a formidable mental with deep insights in regards to the Natyashastra and Indian performing traditions, a complicated aesthete who soaked up influences from everywhere in the world, and a citizen-activist dedicated to values of secularism and social justice.

“In India, the economically poorest are the culturally richest, and the economically richest are the culturally poorest,” he would usually say. He devoted his life and his artwork to uplift the tradition, and the voice, of India’s poorest. And he did it with unparalleled verve, magnificence, and pleasure.

Sudhanva Deshpande is an actor, director, and organiser with Jana Natya Manch. He has co-directed two documentaries on Habib Tanvir.

Session at Literature pageant

Sudhanva Deshpande’s session at The Hindu Lit Fest, 2024 is titled ‘Recalling Habib Tanvir: Excerpts from the film and a talk’. It might be held on January 26, 3.15 p.m. at Sir Mutha Concert Hall, Harrington Road, Chetpet, Chennai.