Purva Naresh walks us through her artistic journey and introduces Bandish20 - 20,000 Hz. By Aakriti Narang
She’s a complete package - a writer, producer, actress, production manager as well as a cinematographer. In addition, the immensely talented Purva Naresh can also play the mridangam and is a trained kathak dancer, so she choreographs the dances in her own plays. With her diverse talents, it is not surprising that her plays are replete with music and dance. Her latest venture, Bandish 20 – 20,000 Hz, will be performed for the first time on May 27 in the well-known Kamani Auditorium. A repeat performance will take place on May 28.
The lucknow-born Naresh’s interest in theatre, was sparked due to multifarious reasons. She says,“It’s the ability to present stories that are out of the box through this particular format which enticed me towards it. Theatre is also very dynamic, which I love. You can see the direct response and reaction of the audience sitting right in front of you. The dynamics and the economics of the format make you aware that the audience coming to watch your play is expecting something different each time, particularly in the form of entertainment. This format also gives you freedom to choose how you wish to establish contact with your audience. This can be done through dialogues, the themes you address or even the language used by the actors on stage. It’s a more exciting way to tell stories.”
Any creative venture is normally preceded by some stimulus that the creator found to be inspiring. The birth of an idea may be associated to some figure, object or concept that one respects and values. Naresh finds it difficult to pin down on just one. “It’s really hard to take one name. I’ve been a student of dance, music and film, so I have essentially grown up on the stage and have witnessed the development in the different techniques employed for story-telling. I would say inspiration has come from everywhere and anyone who has told a story or even worked in films.”
The family background helped too. Her parents influenced her and contributed towards her inclination towards arts. “My mother was a singer and my father is a Hindi poet. Seeing them, I realised that I had a passion for telling stories. I believe that inspiration comes from your environment and I was fortunate enough to have been in a really great environment. When it comes to the professors who have taught me at university, it would be really unfair to take one name,” she says.
The most beautiful feature of art and the humanities is their ability to bring about change and evolution in mankind’s ways of thinking. Art is the catalyst that plunges society forward to growth. It contributes to the elimination of bad elements in society. When asked about the impact that plays have on the minds of an Indian audience, Naresh responds, “Theatre definitely has an impact. In fact, any story-telling format leaves an impact on the minds of its viewers. The exact impact depends on the story that you’re telling. However, the impact by either film, television or theatre, is not sudden and does not become visible immediately. It’s not as if people wake up the day after they have watched your play and suddenly feel impacted.” She believes it is a slow process and the most a person can do is unlock something in the audience’s minds and then gradually let the magic of the work do its trick. “The impact has to come from within. Your work must be capable of unlocking some prejudice and thereby producing some change in the individual’s way of thinking. This will undoubtedly take time,” she adds.
But have her plays been able to leave the desired impactIJ Naresh says, “I consider myself as a part of the entire tribe of storytellers who are collectively trying to create an impact through their plays and stories in a broader sense. I’m not an isolated person trying to create one impact that is unique and individual to me.”
She believes that she cannot speak for her plays in isolation. “I am a part of a larger struggle, I’m a part of a process and I’m a part of the tribe. We are all trying to reach similar goals slowly and steadily by putting one foot in front of the other and thus moving forward,” she says.
It is intriguing to note that the frequencies 20 - 20,000 Hz included in the title of the play is the audio range within which humans can hear any sound. Naresh clarifies, “It must be understood that I did not include these frequencies to merely symbolise the generation gap between the two older and the two younger artists in the play. These frequencies have more to do with older artists recalling their past experiences in the form of flashbacks. The same experience will be interpreted differently when you are undergoing it in the present as compared to when you recount it in the future, when it has become the past. This colouring of the same experience in different shades can be likened to the range of hearing frequencies. As we grow older, our capacity to listen to very high and very low pitch sounds changes; the range decreases and so our understanding of the highest and lowest pitched sounds also become different.”
Although the internet does result in a greater audience and viewership, Naresh is unsure as to whether technology will lead to the decline of theatre. She says, “Technology leaves its mark on almost everything that it comes into contact with. It gives you the power to explain the choices that you have made with regard to your play. For example, this interview in itself is an example of technology. Technology will have a major impact on music and set design but I don't think it will ever become the be-all or end-all of a play,” she says. In fact, she does not mind the idea of her play’s first performance being posted online, which would result in more people watching it on their screens rather than actually coming to the theatre.
Naresh makes it a point to include Hindi in her plays so as to preserve the language from being forgotten and unappreciated. Another reason is so that she can reach out to the masses, as opposed to limiting her plays to the English speaking people. With regard to Sanskrit, she believes, “It is the mother of all languages but I am not the right person to write plays in Sanskrit because I don't know the language. I write plays in the language that I know best. Sadly, even if someone writes a play in Sanskrit, how many of us would understand itIJ I mean, part of my objective of writing plays is to reach out to as many people as possible, which would not be possible with Sanskrit.”