BY SHAILJA KEJRIWAL
Chief Creative - Special Projects, Zee Entertainment Enterprise Limited (ZEEL)
Exactly 25 years ago, January 1, 1989, a man was killed on the streets of Jhandapur, Sahibabad for performing a play. It was a politicallymotivated murder, and to me, a fresh college student in Kolkata at the time, it seemed absurd, macabre and shocking. But what left a profound impact was a black-and-white photograph of his widow and comrade, who returned to the very same street just two days later and defiantly completed the play.
The man was Safdar Hashmi and the play was Halla Bol. I never knew Safdar Hashmi, nor had ever seen his plays, but what struck me at that moment was the power that theatre could wield, the impact it could have in questioning dominant ideology and status quo. Artists, poets and writers are the conscience-keepers of a nation. But in recent times, TV and cinema have tended to be just about entertainment.
The 50- plus heroes spread their arms to flying dupattas in foreign locales, while women with their heads covered smile demurely at home. All this while, farmers die, rapists are let free, the environment goes from bad to worse, scams happen, as do mujras at political rallies, domestic violence, price rise, water scarcity, floods, warlike situations....but our art, or at least the absolute majority of it that reaches mass audiences, does not mirror society anymore.
The entertainment space is dominated by marketers and cooked-up focus groups who over the chai, samosas and freebies offered to them, have become smart enough to say what the researchers want to
hear and that is ‘status quo’.... which is exactly what theatre questions...and fortunately always has.
But since television came into the homes of people and at a pittance, the number of people going to the theatre shrunk. Theatre-going seemed expensive when compared to the virtually free 24/7 entertainment beaming into homes. Theatre properties turned into cinema halls/multiplexes and very soon, the artiste’s voice was silenced.
Then I happened to see something at the NCPA. It was the play Skylight, something that I had seen being performed live in London. Only here, it was on the screen. The theatre was packed and I saw the audiences enjoying the filmed play on screen as much as I had enjoyed seeing it live. A stray comment by a member of the audience was my Eureka moment: ‘At least, we get to see such a wonderful play even if we cannot go to London’.
In my excitement, I rushed to Zee MD Punit Goenka, someone who always gives me and my crazy ideas an indulgent hearing. And I said, “Can we bring our 5000 years of legacy to the people? Can we take theatre to the people even if we cannot get people into the theatres? Can we take Jaywant Dalvi’s Sandhya Chaya into people’s homes? Can we introduce Vijay Tendulkar’s Khamosh Adalat Jaari Hai to millions of homes? Can we get Vijaya Mehta’s genius of Hamida Bai Ki Kothi across screens? Can we talk about real stuff? About domestic child abuse, about the plight of a Dalit woman, who has to cry at funerals to survive? Can we laugh at the brilliant satire by Ranjit Kapoor (the writer of the cult and my all-time favourite film Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron)? Can we revive the Parsi theatre tradition with Laila Majnu, can our Gen Next be exposed to the Nautanki tradition? Can we do modern plays dealing with the reality of the failing institution of marriage, or an Internet romance that turns sour and sad on meeting? Can we???”
And Punit said YES! He was willing not to go to marketers and focus groups! More power to him! And just like that, Zee Theatre was born - theatre at a screen and time of your choosing.
Feedback: shailja.kejriwal@zee.esselgroup.com
