Every time she performs Ramayana on stage, Jalabala Vaidya gives a fresh interpretation to the epic and not repeat herself. She speaks to Saritha Saraswathy Balan about the journey of her life as a theatre artiste and how the cultural transformation took place for a girl born in london to the one reinterpretating the epic hero Rama
She has named her pet cat ‘Kaafi’ which is an important ‘raag’ in Hindustani Classical music. While we continued our conversation at Akshara Theatre, Kaafi came and sat on Jalabala Vaidya’s lap and stayed there till we were done.
Vaidya has a distinct style of doing things that reflects even in the way she has christened her cat. Now 80-years-old, she is still charming and from her serene voice to the elegant look, she is worth the adjective ‘class’. Vaidya will be on stage as ‘Dasaratha’ in the play Ramayana on the first day, today, of Old World Theatre Festival organised by the Old Class Theatre at Habitat Centre.
Till 2005, Vaidya played all the 23 characters in Ramayana all alone in stages. “It came up in my mind that I am not doing good as all the characters. That was when I included the students of Akshara Theatre. Still I don the role of Dasaratha when the play begins and there are other actors,” she says.
Vaidya has played Ramayana more than 2,000 times on stage across the globe. So how will she overcome the challenge of getting repeated over all these years. “Well, every time I act, I discover a new aspect, which I have not thought about before. This time I got a fresh understanding of the relation between Dasaratha and Kaikeyi. In spite of all the trouble caused by Kaikeyi, Dasaratha was in absolute love with her, when compared to his relation with other wives and was also physically more attracted to her. like this, I find innumerable little new insights in every character I play,” says the ace artiste.
Vaidya plays the characters in the Ramayana which was written by her husband Gopal Sharman, who died in June this year. Sharman altogether gave a different interpretation to the epic, which has been explored by the social and cultural scenarios of various periods.
In Sharman’s Ramayana, Rama and Sita stayed in forest for philosophical reasons. He analysed the psychological aspect of Rama, Sita and Ravana.
Vaidya adds, “In the Ramayana written by Gopal, all the characters are human, Hanuman being the only super natural character. He portrayed even Ravana as human and his act of abducting Sita as his obsession, not a horrible one as featured usually”.
“Ravana’s wife Mandodari is visualised by Gopal as a woman who has much power. Ramayana is a powerful epic. I have read Ramayana written by multiple authors, not just the one by him”, Vaidya says.
She continues, “There has been an attempt by the British to create a feeling of disrespect towards Rama as an anti-hero, as the one who abandoned his wife and all. After the uprising in 1857, there was a sense of unity among the various religious communities in India that made the British upset. Rama helped to sustain the united culture of a country. He kept alive the sense of self-esteem, of being themselves in the sub continent. It was amazing that we did not change the lessons out of disrespect to Rama, even after the British left,” Vaidya observes.
Transforming to an artiste came naturally to Vaidya who had acted in stage plays while at school and colleges. Her journey to the world of theatre began after her marriage.
“At that time, acting was not a profession . Then I chose journalism as my career. Sharman was the one who helped me return to the world of theatre,” she recollects.
Vaidya’s family returned to India from london while she was a child. How was the transitionIJ “We returned to India two years before India became independent. It was a cultural shock as I turn back now. My mother used to send me to school by bus and seeing people begging on the roadside and streets really shocked me. But the feeling was mixed with pride as my father was a freedom fighter.
I could realise the acceptance he received in the country. My mother, half British and half-Italian might have also gone through a tough time as she had to live in a foreign country”, she says.
Vaidya’s mother was a singer and she attributes her taste for art and writing to her parents. An author of the books ‘This is Full’ and ‘That is Full’, Vaidya has now completed writing ‘Gopal Sharman’s, the Ramayana for Our Time. Our Story from End to Start’. She reminds, “See this is the other way round, from end to start”. Asked about how she will be playing Ramayana now, when her husband is no more, she says, “It would be good, it would be”.