A series of mindless meanderings," declares Padma Shri Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry, as she looks back on a decades-long journey in theatre. There was no “burning desire to be an artist,” no overwhelming need for artistic expression. And growing up as she did, in a middle class Punjabi family in Amritsar, this was only fitting. And then one day, she saw the legend Ebrahim Alkazi on stage. “I was spellbound,” she said. Her journey, as she recalls it, comprises an assortment of teachers, philosophies and domestic compulsions, fragmented even to her, even in hindsight, but one thing is certain - Chowdhry is one of the strongest voices in the contemporary theatre scene.
She manages to scrape together a few minutes for this interview, two days before she heads to Bengaluru. “I'm working on my latest production and we have had people coming in to see the rehearsals all day,” she said, by way of explanation. She will be in town this weekend for The License, which is being staged as part of EQUAL, Ranga Shankara's newest bienniale.
He had a completely different approach - music, improvisation, linking with one's traditional impulses.”From Alkazi, whom she describes as a “Renaissance, classical artist,” she developed her propensity for detail. “I moved to Bhopal sometime after I married and the idea of leaving Mumbai, where I did nothing but had a good time, was distressing!” Still, it was here in Bhopal that she found inspiration - and a new teacher, B.V. Karanth. “My degree from NSD got me a job at Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal,” she said. “Karanth was my colleague, but I saw him as a teacher. He had a completely different approach - music, improvisation, linking with one's traditional impulses.”
Her nostalgia for Bhopal after she moved to Chandigarh led her to founding The Company. Punjab didn't boast the same traditions as Bhopal and Chowdhry decided to create a combination of urban and rural actors from different backgrounds to put together a play. “Like many other urban artists struggling to find their own identity, I dipped into my cultural energies.” She came across traditional musicians, actors, ad libbers and female impersonators and worked with them all. “They represented a metaphor at the start, but those lines have dissolved and now we're a group of people working together.”
License - The Untitled Saga is one more culmination of her creative impulses, an improvised take on texts by Saadat Hasan Manto and Bertolt Brecht. “How did it begin? It was summertime and we were bored!” Chowdhry suggested a workshop which dwindled when participants left to visit their families during the holidays. “I was left with my own actors; we began exploring Manto and also Brecht, another writer whose stories I really enjoy.” Manto's License and Brecht's The Job had one thing in common, what Chowdhry describes as “the industrialisation of the body.”
In Manto's License for instance, a young woman arrives in Calcutta and hails a tonga. “She and the tongawallah fall in love instantly - they don't even make it back to her house,” Chowdhry explained. Their alliance is met with disapproval, the tongawallah is sent to jail, where he eventually dies. “His wife begins to drive the tonga and make a living for herself. One day, she is stopped by a cop who asks for her license. She only has the one that belonged to her husband.” The play, she says, defines the body not by gender but by the work we do - “That was the idea, it started there. The texts came later.”
The production appears to carry a distinct social message, although this was never the focus of Chowdhry's experiments with it. “Art is not a pulpit, I'm not holding a flag or preaching an ideologue. I feel uneasy with anything tha sounds like I'm giving a sermon. It's not a pulpit where you burn your bra or shout about how committed you are socially.” Inspiration comes from different places, she maintains - some are moved by what is outside of them, others seek fantasy. “It depends on where you are at a point in time. There's no formula, really. You make errors, come to terms with your uncertainties and take some risks!”
What: The License -An Untold Saga
When: April 9, 3 pm
Where: Jagriti Theatre, Varthur Main Road, Whitefield
