Theatre artist and director Aamir Raza Husain banks on entertainment in his shows. He tells Shrabasti Mallik that it is up to the audience to decode social messages
Art has always been a beacon to history, a representation of reality and a treatise on a civilisation. Yet an unequivocal definition of what it is and should be is nearly impossible — it means so many things to different people and often ends up becoming a veritable swirl of amorphous, fractured and unclassifiable imagery. But not so for actor and director, Aamir Raza Husain and his wife Virat Husain of Stagedoor theatre group. They are vociferous about what theatre is supposed to be. “Grandiose sets, exceptional acting, authenticity, a cast that matches each other, a constant’s effort to excel. We have been blessed with great audience because of the quality we put together. Nothing can beat a classic,” says Aamir, adding, “I know there is a lot of experimentation happening in Indian theatre right now but I frankly don’t particularly approve of it.” He strongly believes that theatre is a medium of entertainment. He does a play because he feels that the audience will like it.
With over 150 plays, under the Stagedoor banner, to his credit Aamir does not see the need to motivate the young generation to take interest in theatre acting. He explains, “I sell shows. It is not my job to encourage people to act. However if somebody comes to me, I take an audition before moving ahead. But I am a hard task master and my students are almost beaten, abused and scolded into perfection. I do not motivate people to participate in theatre; they come on their own,” he says. His motive is to tell a story in an interesting way and feels that people who are interested will come to see his plays, without motivation.
He recollects the time when he was performing The Fifty Day War on the backdrop of Kargil in the Mehrauli jungle. “The then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee came to see the play even when he was told that the government would not be able to provide much for his protection. It did not end there. There were many ministers who turned up to see the play and were motivated with patriotism,” he reminisces. When Aamir talks about entertainment, it is not just restricted to slapstick comedy but entertainment of the intellect. “To take a message from a play is entirely upon the audience. The director or the producer’s main concern should be to keep the audience engrossed, happy and entertained,” he sums up.
His recent play in the city was The Mousetrap, an adaptation of the Agatha Christie murder-mystery novel of the same name. It also happens to be the longest running play in the world and according to Aamir Raza Husain, is a tribute to actor Richard Attenborough (director of Gandhi), who acted in the original version of the play in 1952.
There are a few cities in the country that appreciate theatre as an art, he feels and goes on to cite examples of Chennai, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar and Delhi. “The scenario in Delhi is very sad. Even if we organise shows we are not able to advertise it, because the price of advertisement is so high in the leading papers,” he informs. Bhubaneswar, on the other hand, gave him and his group a warm welcome. For the people there, whose entertainment factor largely depends on occasional celebrity visits, music concerts and the occasional mela, theatre was something new. “The place where we put up our play had a sitting capacity of 600 and almost 900 people showed up. Few in the audience had never seen a play in their lives,” he says. Virat adds, “There were many who came to meet us backstage and thank us for presenting something engrossing and something which at the end of the day excited their intellect.” In the otherwise cultural city of Kolkata, theatre has a whole different meaning. “If we price our tickets at Rs50, there will be people outside the auditorium with red flags,” laughs Aamir. Chennai, however, is reviving the theatre through Madras plays.
He also shares with us the origin of theatre — the Western one, which is Greek classical theatre and the Indian one, which is recorded in the Natyashastra. “We are told that theatre originated in the court of Indra and the first actor was a person called Bharat and it was entertainment programme to celebrate the victory of theDevas over Ashura. The foundation of Indian and the Western theatre is entertainment. If you play around or diddle with that, your theatre will collapse,” he says. He also adds the history of the most popular theatre in Bengal — jatra. “They keep experimenting and improvising. First they used lantern, then moved to flood lights and now they use disco lights. But if the producer decides to preach through the jatra, people will stop watching,” he points out. He also gives the example of the most successful theatre in the world — of Ramlila which is done every year in every possible corner in North India with the same story, the same dialogues and sometimes, the same actors. The grandiose of it lies in the extravaganza of the entire festival. “If you replace theatrical Ramlila with Morari Bapu speaking about it, people will not watch. At the end of the day, it’s all about entertainment,” he points out adding the origin of the temple dance (in Bengal), which is considered the oldest theatre movement in the country. Without doubt, it was designed to lure in people to offer prayers but at the same time it was the entertainment factor which attracted the people.
Clad in a kurta pyjama teamed with gamcha, he talks about how theatre has come down to sending out messages, especially those of international importance — like saving the girl child, safe sex, women’s issues and issues of social significance.
But while trying to disseminate the messages through these methods, one kills the essence and fails to get it across. According to him, it not only de-motivates people, they end up making fun of it. “A message does not work until there is entertainment and the value of entertainment is the foundation of good theatre,” he rounds up.