Kolkata Centre for Creativity’s AMI Arts Festival reached a theatrical high with two mainstage productions from Mumbai, both on illustrious personalities of 20th-century music: The Company Theatre’s Taking Sides, about the German classical conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, and The Hoshruba Repertory’s Main Pal Do Pal Kā Shāyar Hun, about poet-songwriter Sahir Ludhianvi. Both plays drew upon first-hand accounts—of Furtwängler’s diary recording his interrogation, and of Ludhianvi’s reminiscences at various times.
British dramatist Ronald Harwood wrote Taking Sides in 1995, depicting the post-World War II investigation of Furtwängler, suspected of collaborating with the Nazis, as a humanitarian debate on the timeless conflict between art and politics. Notable and immediately relevant precursors come to mind like Ariane Mnouchkine’s Mephisto (on the Nazi co-opting of stars) and, to the live accompaniment of a full symphonic orchestra, Stoppard’s Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (on Soviet abuse of human rights). Harwood posits the delicate balance between a powerful artist’s choice or priorities in Germany and the interrogator’s righteous determination to find him guilty, constantly making us cogitate both sides. At the end we continue to wonder what exactly Furtwängler did in shades of grey, and whether he did enough for the right cause or could have done more: very difficult to judge in hindsight.
Atul Kumar, known for his colourful comedic prowess, directs this model of chamber theatre gently and thoughtfully. In his first acting stint under his own direction, he shows exemplary restraint as the protagonist. Opposite him, contrapuntally (see photo), Sukant Goel portrays the American Major without any ear for music as a proactive whippersnapper. They receive complementary performances from Kashish Saluja, his more refined lieutenant, and Lyra Dutt, his secretary, both sympathetic to Furtwängler. Two witnesses from different perspectives round off the cast.
In Main Pal Do Pal Kā Shāyar Hun (coproduced by Art for Causes), director Danish Husain collates two separate scripts by lyricist-professor Mir Ali Husain and dāstāngo Himanshu Bajpai respectively. Structurally, the format resembles Hoshruba’s Habibnāmā, where Habib Tanvir gave an interview that remained unfinished; virtually the same happens here. A narrator, Vrinda Vaid Hayat (centre stage), prompts Sahir Ludhianvi at his desk (stage right) about his life and career, while singers and musicians in a broadcast studio (stage left) listen and intersperse his songs. But Danish makes the imaginary lines of demarcation fluid, spatially and in characterization too, for the band in the studio effortlessly take on other roles as required by the narrative.
Significantly, Danish emphasizes Ludhianvi’s themes rather than personal life: his socialistic lyrics created songs that we cannot imagine in Bollywood today; that music (arranged here by Shantanu Herlekar) and the present variety seem to come from two completely opposed art forms. The songs gain an extra dimension delivered by Rutuja Lad, whose crystalline renditions in her very first appearance in this production make us lose all sense of time, freezing the story. As for love, Danish upholds the quote by Ludhianvi’s friend, Pakistani poet Ahmad Rahi, that he loved his mother above all else. So, Amrita Pritam enters the play very late—a wise decision because Mildly Classic’s Ek Mulāqāt had already staged that relationship sensitively. Danish’s interpretation of Ludhianvi (photo, with Rutuja at left) includes a wry humour, sometimes sliding into a look or two straight out of Habibnāmā!
18 December 2024