Istmat Apa ke naam - (In the name of Ismat Apa). Her real name is Ismat Chugtai.
"Vivek there is a play and Nasserudin Shah is playing it", my friend shouted from the next room. I ran shouting "Kidhar?".
Bookmyshow, bookmyshow, bookmyshow.
Fuck, the tickets are gone.
This was 3 weeks prior to the play at Rangashankara, one of the most famous theaters in India, in Bangalore. How could have I missed that?! Sigh. I was quiet for the next 3 hours, didn't say a word, shocked by the irresponsibility of not even being aware. Anyhow, I had to make this sunday productive, I walked out, got the Sunday Times. As I was flipping pages, the huge ad, (apart from all other ads on all pages) said - "Theater Festival in Bangalore". I went back to bookmyshow, saw the other list of plays held for the 9 day festival. Decided on a couple with my friend and thought would be worth it so booked for "Piya Behrupia", directed by Atul Kumar - A humorously rewritten musical of "The Twelfth Night", an original by Shakespeare. It was on the 26th of Oct, the inaugurating play for the festival.
I had been to Rangashankara before, to watch - what turned out to be a "puppet" drama. Thanks to my friend, who suggested it would be a great "play" and I blindly trusted him. He later owed us beer for doing this. On the 26th, we reached the venue and had to collect the tickets at the counter, so we walked to the kiosk. Just as we were doing so, I accidentally asked, just-in-case, if he had tickets left for "Ismat Apa ke naam". He swiftly pulled out the last two tickets and showed it us. THE LAST 2 TICKETS. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH YAAAAAAAYY.. We obviously bought them. :) :) . Fck, we gonna see "Nasseruddin Shah - live". YaY. I was finally happy - really, it was okay if I hadn't had dinner, I was suddenly feeling full.
Rangashankara is a very beautifully hand crafted, theater by various beings, now managed by Saket Trust, with only one mission - to keep the theater culture alive. This mission was envisioned by Arundati Nag, in memory of her late husband Shankar Nag. Bold lady. She took the stage on the inauguration of the first play. That is when I learned, the theater was built completely by donations and greatly generous people who designed and built the theater. I must say, it felt as if it were the most posh, expensive pieces of architecture and organization who came together to built it. She took time to mention, each and everyone who had contributed to build that piece, including Herman Kardon, who had donated their auditory systems for playing background scores. The stage and the room is designed so well that no one playing a role on stage needs a mic. The walls and floors are designed for sound reflection to keep the voice audible till the last row.
The musical started.
Great play - Dramatic.
The play finished.
Sunday the 9th arrived, we had planned to go a couple of hours early and stand at the beginning of the queue to get the first rows. To our surprise, when we reached, the queue already had about 50 people. hah. Nasseruddin Shah. The audience seemed quite mature with these aspects, well experienced with "coming elary", "knowing the right people", "how much tea to sip before plays" and "wearing kurtas or khakhi only", "talking in low volumes" kind of things. Obviously we seemed quite out of order for such occasions. A bag, jacket and sport shoes - still wonderstuck about Nasseruddin Shah only. Others seemed as if it were an everyday activity.
Okay, truth be told, we were excited, but weren't drooling like wannabe fans. We were normal okay. Finally, they let the queue in, people were slowing getting on the stairs, most of them were 40+. We took 3 steps at a time. Luckily, we found empty seats in the 1st row, almost center. Happy. Didn't move my arse an inch. Perfect. Nasseruddin's team i.e. his wife (Ratna Pathak) and daughter (Heeba Shah) had been invited by Arundati to perform as a gesture of honour on Shankar Nag's birthday. They were well versed with it obviously. It was being staged for the 300+ times all over India. Nasser had practically lived the play - partially. Ismat Chugtai, was a feminist writer of her times - all in Urdu. The play was simply a narration of 3 of her works in a very direct way.
The Play
3 monologues played each by Heeba Shah, the second by Ratna Pathak and the third by the great man himself respectively. Narrated brilliantly while being the character. I was trying to imagine how and what Ismat would have thought about while they were narrating and acting it out. Her thoughts were very idealistic and obviously wasn't practical and widely accepted by people during that time (around 1920s and 1930s). Ratna Pathak narrated the story of Lihaaf (The Quilt) - that stirred quite a lot of controversy. It was about a female having a like for other females, despite being married. Very well acted. Heeba played "Chooyi Mooyi". Naseeruddin played the third - can't recall the name - where he was a man with a loving wife but always was doubtful about her love for him, but they end up together in the end.
"Vivek there is a play and Nasserudin Shah is playing it", my friend shouted from the next room. I ran shouting "Kidhar?".
Bookmyshow, bookmyshow, bookmyshow.
Fuck, the tickets are gone.
This was 3 weeks prior to the play at Rangashankara, one of the most famous theaters in India, in Bangalore. How could have I missed that?! Sigh. I was quiet for the next 3 hours, didn't say a word, shocked by the irresponsibility of not even being aware. Anyhow, I had to make this sunday productive, I walked out, got the Sunday Times. As I was flipping pages, the huge ad, (apart from all other ads on all pages) said - "Theater Festival in Bangalore". I went back to bookmyshow, saw the other list of plays held for the 9 day festival. Decided on a couple with my friend and thought would be worth it so booked for "Piya Behrupia", directed by Atul Kumar - A humorously rewritten musical of "The Twelfth Night", an original by Shakespeare. It was on the 26th of Oct, the inaugurating play for the festival.
I had been to Rangashankara before, to watch - what turned out to be a "puppet" drama. Thanks to my friend, who suggested it would be a great "play" and I blindly trusted him. He later owed us beer for doing this. On the 26th, we reached the venue and had to collect the tickets at the counter, so we walked to the kiosk. Just as we were doing so, I accidentally asked, just-in-case, if he had tickets left for "Ismat Apa ke naam". He swiftly pulled out the last two tickets and showed it us. THE LAST 2 TICKETS. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH YAAAAAAAYY.. We obviously bought them. :) :) . Fck, we gonna see "Nasseruddin Shah - live". YaY. I was finally happy - really, it was okay if I hadn't had dinner, I was suddenly feeling full.
Rangashankara is a very beautifully hand crafted, theater by various beings, now managed by Saket Trust, with only one mission - to keep the theater culture alive. This mission was envisioned by Arundati Nag, in memory of her late husband Shankar Nag. Bold lady. She took the stage on the inauguration of the first play. That is when I learned, the theater was built completely by donations and greatly generous people who designed and built the theater. I must say, it felt as if it were the most posh, expensive pieces of architecture and organization who came together to built it. She took time to mention, each and everyone who had contributed to build that piece, including Herman Kardon, who had donated their auditory systems for playing background scores. The stage and the room is designed so well that no one playing a role on stage needs a mic. The walls and floors are designed for sound reflection to keep the voice audible till the last row.
The musical started.
Great play - Dramatic.
The play finished.
Sunday the 9th arrived, we had planned to go a couple of hours early and stand at the beginning of the queue to get the first rows. To our surprise, when we reached, the queue already had about 50 people. hah. Nasseruddin Shah. The audience seemed quite mature with these aspects, well experienced with "coming elary", "knowing the right people", "how much tea to sip before plays" and "wearing kurtas or khakhi only", "talking in low volumes" kind of things. Obviously we seemed quite out of order for such occasions. A bag, jacket and sport shoes - still wonderstuck about Nasseruddin Shah only. Others seemed as if it were an everyday activity.
Okay, truth be told, we were excited, but weren't drooling like wannabe fans. We were normal okay. Finally, they let the queue in, people were slowing getting on the stairs, most of them were 40+. We took 3 steps at a time. Luckily, we found empty seats in the 1st row, almost center. Happy. Didn't move my arse an inch. Perfect. Nasseruddin's team i.e. his wife (Ratna Pathak) and daughter (Heeba Shah) had been invited by Arundati to perform as a gesture of honour on Shankar Nag's birthday. They were well versed with it obviously. It was being staged for the 300+ times all over India. Nasser had practically lived the play - partially. Ismat Chugtai, was a feminist writer of her times - all in Urdu. The play was simply a narration of 3 of her works in a very direct way.
The Play
3 monologues played each by Heeba Shah, the second by Ratna Pathak and the third by the great man himself respectively. Narrated brilliantly while being the character. I was trying to imagine how and what Ismat would have thought about while they were narrating and acting it out. Her thoughts were very idealistic and obviously wasn't practical and widely accepted by people during that time (around 1920s and 1930s). Ratna Pathak narrated the story of Lihaaf (The Quilt) - that stirred quite a lot of controversy. It was about a female having a like for other females, despite being married. Very well acted. Heeba played "Chooyi Mooyi". Naseeruddin played the third - can't recall the name - where he was a man with a loving wife but always was doubtful about her love for him, but they end up together in the end.
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