Winners 2024

Facebook

Random thoughts about Theatre and META…

I love theatre. I love it because it teaches you about life; it teaches you to give, to be helpful, to understand the limitations imposed on you and yet do the best you can. It teaches you how to deal with medical emergencies, how to change clothes in record-breaking times, how to tiptoe like a ballerina so that no one can hear you and how to behave when someone forgets you (as a character or in life). To me, there’s theatre in life and there is, of course, life in theatre.

Someone once told me that a writers’ block happens when the imaginary people in your head stop talking to you. Looking at the Indian theatre scene today and how the META has evolved over the years, I can safely say that we don’t have that problem here in India. Yes, we have other things that separate us from the  global theatre scene – insufficient funding, dearth of performing spaces, lack of Government initiatives and some stock societal responses such as , “tumhaara play TV pe kab dikehga?” etc. But certainly the will, the passion and the ideas have never been richer.

I have been associated with META for many years now with plays like, The Interview, Baghdad Wedding, A Friends Story, Gasha and now Dhumrapaan. It fills my heart with immense joy and pride to see that apart from the theatrewallahs, there is another quarter that cares so much about our wonderful medium.

I feel that contemporary theatrical scene in India is very diverse and plurality is the thing that signifies it the most. By that I mean a lot of Indian theatre today is about real people with real problems. The plays have become less self-indulgent and have widened their base to interest the viewers. These stories are more inclusive and allow the viewers to feel like a part of ongoing narratives. This trend has brought a lot of marginalised sections on to the centre-stage.

Contemporary Indian theatre today has a lot of young, progressive and definitive voices. From Akarsh Khurana and Quasar Padamsee (Mumbai) to Neel Chaudhuri (Delhi), Mohit Takalkar (Pune) and Abhishek Mazumdar (Bangalore); we are blessed to have an ever-growing group of theatre practitioners who understand that our medium is a critical force that reveals and deals with our society’s hidden power structures, instead of simply giving up in the face of an overcomplicated world. Innovation and experimentation on stage is at an all-time high, and I only see the medium becoming better, bolder and more accessible to the common man.

In theatre, as in life, the unexplainable, the fantastic, the tragic, the comic, the absurd – all are routine occurences and that’s what makes it wonderful. I am happy I do theatre. That means that I live in a crazy fantasy world with unrealistic expectations. Thank you for understanding.

 

Adhir Bhat
Scriptwriter and Actor

Leave a reply

Facebook