Indian Peoples Theater Association (IPTA) convention in Indore on October 1-2
refreshed some old and –mostly, but not all- fond memories of my association
with the leftist theatre movement. Himanshi Rai, a pillar of IPTA in Madhya
Pradesh, was predictably there.
Out association is three decades old: once it
was thick but slackened with time. Period. We met during IPTA meet but could
not spend as much time together as both, or at least I, desired. Nevertheless,
I was delighted and nostalgic throughout the day after our meeting.
A part of my IPTA years in Jabalpur got spent sowing the wild oats. Born
romantic—Scorpions are known to be so—I would get easily drawn to girls. Being
reasonably handsome helped. That said, I was by no means a lecherous liability
on IPTA.
Although never considered fit enough for any post in the organization
for reasons I am yet to fathom, my commitment to the IPTA movement was 100
percent till I was part of it. Ideologically, I guess, I was less wavering than
many, if not most, of my colleagues. Yet, I had had enough (not necessarily all
valid when I look back) reasons to get disillusioned. But that was then. Today,
I sorely miss the IPTA days.
Somehow, this foolish longing flickered in my heart that
someone in the Indore IPTA convention might call me on stage as an old hand in
the movement to share experiences. I was mentally prepared for that. But who
would have cared? Back to home by my cycle from the convention, I spent hours
ruminating the tumultuous years in the IPTA. The organization in Jabalpur was, in fact,
Vivechana, the theater group founded in 1974. Both were synonymous since 1980
when IPTA was revived.
IPTA’s revival is attributed to many persons, timings and
factors. But I would like to believe with fair amount of conviction that the
revival was conceptualized in the Progressive Writers Association’s (PWA’s) national
convention in Jabalpur
in 1980.
Late AK Hangal and Kaifi Azmi were there. Since Hangal is not a
writer, his presence in the PWA jamboree could only mean he had some other, more
important, agenda than writerly discussion. In his obituaries , the nonagenarian
actor, who died a few months ago, was widely hailed as reviver of IPTA,
though nowhere was it mentioned where
the revival plan materialized.
I was a young, idealistic youth then, bubbling with energy. Fresh
in the company of communists and overflowing with revolutionary ideas, I was an
enthusiastic volunteer in the PWA convention which was, more or less, Gyan
Ranjan show. He was, characteristically, managing the show from behind the
curtains as chief organizer. We all were at his back and call.
We had a separate group discussion on how to revive IPTA. I
don’t remember whether Himanshi Rai was there or not. I had yet to know him. He
was posted, I believe, in a Durg branch of Dena bank. Anyway, the plan to revive
IPTA was put in place. Since Vivechana was already doing precisely what IPTA
was supposed to do, formality of forming IPTA was not called for in Jabalpur.
However, sense of association with a movement pioneered by
the likes of Balraj Sahani, Kaifi Azmi, Sajjad Zaheer and, of course, AK Hangal
gave a district impetus to Vivechana’s theatrical activities. We vociferously descended
from proscenium to the street with vigour. Vivechana had the distinction of
staging street play in early seventies when the genre was little known. There
was some play authored by Shashank which was staged out on the street. Probably
its title was Panchwa Sawar. But street theatre was yet to come in vogue as a
potent weapon of social awakening.
It was a time of organizational churning in Vivechana too.
To go into that makes no sense now. I don’t know where Dr SB Patel and Dr
Prabhat Mishra, the two old guards of Vivechana are. Dr MG Pateriya, another
old guard, is, unfortunately, no longer
with us. Gyan Ranjan had more important works to do in Pahal and PWA.
So, the mantle of Vivechana fell on younger generation. By
this time, Himanshu was back from Durg to Jabalpur. Arun Pandey was
not a veteran but he was one of the most active members in the group. Both Arun
and Himanshu had keen interest in running the organization, unlike performers
such as Tapan Banerjee , Sita Ram Soni, Raj Kumar Kamle, Alok Chaterjee and ,
lastly, me. We gladly facilitated and celebrated ascension of Himanshu and Arun
in the Vivechana hierarchy and hailed it as the harbinger of a new chapter in
the organization’s history. The transition was not smooth as was only to be
expected.
Around this time, Bharat Bhavan was taking shape. Vivechana
was poorer by three good artistes—Alok, Ganga Mishra and Raj Kumar Kamale.
Alakh Nandan, our sole director, also joined Bharat Bhavan repertory.
Vivechana’s loss was Bharat Bhavan’s gain as subsequent years resoundingly
proved. The vacuum thus caused made roles of Himanshu and Arun more important. Himanshu
took the organization, Arun direction.
Badal Sircar’s Juloos, of which I have discussed in one of
my previous blogs, was the mile stone in revamped Vivechana. Two new street
plays—Raja Ka Baaja and Machine—stormed the street theatre with the kind of
kinetic energy the people of Jabalpur
had never seen before.
Both were originally Alakh Nandan’s direction. He still
had love left for Vivechana in the initial days of his shift to Bhopal. Today’s
generation will find it impossible to imagine how we would perform street plays
and collect money , throwing sheet for people to throw coins on.
Then Tapan took upon himself the
responsibility of directing Hari Shankar Parsai’s immortal creation, ‘Inspector
Matadin Chand Par’. The play when staged on street created a massive storm. Its
fame spread far and wide across the country.
Soon enough, the play became a
cult of sorts in street theatre movement. The original play had Alakh Nandan’s inimitable
touch, though Tapan’s hard work can not be discounted.
I and Arun had visualized a paunchy, laggard, stereotype police
inspector as protagonist. But Alakh cast Sita Ram Soni for the inspector’s
role. Soni, a gangly but lithe artiste with amazing sense of comedy timing proved
better choice than we thought. The
gamble paid off. For street theatre, speed is the name of the game. I was cast as
narrator for reason only Alakh Nandan knew. By the time I dissociated with the
street play its had already been staged more than 300 times , in Jabalpur and elsewhere.
Later, we adopted Juloos too as street theatre.
Oh, this blog has got too big. I stop here. Will write about
IPTA in next blog. A lot needs to be shared, irrespective of whether any body
cares to read it or not.
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