Jalabala Vaidya spoke to Ila Sankrityayan about some of the anecdotes associated with Gopal Sharman
Gopal Sharman was the name that has given a new meaning to contemporary theatre. He even wrote books, poetry and made films. His works were steeped in his understanding of the classics, the epics, the philosophy, music and poetry of India. But his style of writing was very individualistic and very contemporary. There is really no one to match his theatrical writing. The dialogues of his plays were like poetry, and dense with meaning. His understanding of the human character was extremely insightful. Music was a very important part of his artistic expression and he composed and sang music for all his plays.
Words are far less to describe his endeavour and it was a great loss when the founder and artistic director of Akshara Theatre passed away on June 16 at the age of 81. While recalling his earlier days, his wife Jalabala Vaidya shared that he wanted to be a magician and a carpenter in the beginning. She reminisced, “Gopal wanted to be a magician when he was a boy. He was fascinated by making the unbelievable appear real. He roped in his younger brother, Shree, as his partner.
Magic led to his lifelong love for carpentry. He needed small wooden boxes with false bottoms to hide things like playing cards. These skills he learnt playing truant from school at a nearby carpenter’s shop. But he had another passion, swimming and boating in the Gomti River, where he became college captain of these sports at University. But his profound passion was for words. He read Dante and James Joyce, while the Upanishads and Vedas became a part of him through the regularkathas his doctor father and learned mother held regularly at their home with erudite speakers elaborating on the shastras and epics. At the same time he attended the Bhatkhande Music Institute in lucknow, whose alumni include Begum Akhtar, Talat Mahmood, Anup Jalota and many more where his remarkably beautiful singing voice was trained in Hindustani Classical music.”
She continued further revealing about his journey as a theatre person and said, “So, by the time he was in University he had assimilated all the elements that went into his creative work and made him the genius who wrote The Ramayana, hailed as ‘India’s Gift to Broadway’ by the New York Times.”
His career in journalism began in the early 60s. He turned to theatre because of a strange set of circumstances which became the major turning point in his life: Gopal Sharman wrote a column under the pseudonym Nachiketa in a daily newspaper. It was a very erudite and philosophical column of prose and poetry. “Unknown to him, one of the staunch followers of the column was President S. Radhakrishnan.
Due to eye surgery, the President could not read a few of the columns, so he asked a friend to locate the author of the column and invite him to Rashtrapati Bhavan to read out the latest pieces. The friend was very surprised to find that Gopal was a young North Indian, as he had expected to see a venerable and scholarly South Indian as the author! But Gopal was nervous of reading to the President so he asked me to read out the writings. I read it out in a dramatized style and the President and his friends who heard it were so impressed that he declared this presentation should be performed for the public, and himself arranged the first show at Azad Bhavan. The show was a collection of Gopal’s stories and poems and was called Full Circle. There were several diplomats present at the show and they invited Full Circle to be performed in their countries. This led to a major tour of Europe and ended with shows in prestigious theatres in london, where he was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company to createThe Ramayana - his magnum opus. His plays span a range of classic, satire, comedy, contemporary drama and poetic,” shared Vaidya.
He had studied music for many years under Narayan Vishnu Patki and was a brilliant singer and musician. He composed music for all his plays and television programmes. His renditions of classics such as Ganapti Vandana, Shri Rama Chandra krapalu bhajaman, Ai Giri Nandini, Sankat Mochan etc., are simply amazing, and his contemporary compositions are equally superb.
Vaidya and Gopal Sharman were asked to make a television series called India Alive for Doordarshan in the mid 80s. It became a very popular series. “And that is when Gopal learnt the art and craft of filmmaking. He was extremely tech-savvy and he quickly learnt everything about the technical and artistic aspects of film-making. His documentaries such as My life Is My Song, The Kashmir Story, Gitanjali and The Sufi Way are unique and path-breaking,” added Jalabala.
One of the most important achievements in his life - other than writing and directing 14 plays, three books, dozens of television programmes and documentaries and his beautiful music compositions - was building the Akshara Theatre, which is today a landmark in the city’s cultural life. He did not just design every aspect of it but literally built it with his own hands - from the woodwork to the stone carving to the electrical wiring to the acoustical treatment.
Of course, Jalabala Vaidya was his artistic partner and soulmate who shared every inch of this journey with him.Though some of the phases in their life were full of turmoil and difficulties as she recalled, “There have been many difficult moments - perhaps too many! One very difficult moment was when the cast we had collected for The Ramayana’s london premiere walked out on us. But Gopal always found a solution to our problems and he recast The Ramayana into a one-woman performance based on the style of the katha, and that ultimately became a huge success and received so much international acclaim.”
For Jalabala the most memorable moment for her life was meeting him at link Magazine. “Probably the most memorable moment of all was when we first met in the editorial office of link Magazine, situated where Pioneer is now, and as our eyes met it was literally love at first sight. We sometimes talked about it over the nearly fifty years we spent together. Was it recognition from a past lifeIJ,” and she was lost for a while with her eyes blinking as if trying to hide her tears.
She concluded by sharing few the memories, “There were so many memorable moments. In England, driving back from Essex University, the sun setting while Gopal sang Ae mere pyaare watan from Kabuliwala. The first theatre performance in Rome at the Teatro Goldoni, the beautiful 17th century building off the Piazza Navona, with an audience liberally filled with red-gowned cardinal. The first night of the Broadway season of the Ramayana, when gifts poured in all day and the audience in the evening had famous people in it like Arthur Miller. The first night opening of the Akshara Theatre, full of drama, both on stage and off!” and he wrote a poem for me, A woman not made: she happens, like..”
And here she ended while going to prepare for the tribute to Gopal Sharman that is to be staged today in whichJalabala Vaidya and the Akshara Repertory will perform short excerpts from
The Ramayana, let’s laugh Again, and a poem and a song or two. Along with that there will be screening of short film. Then patrons like Ram Jethmalani, Rajiv and Geeta Chandran, Papa CJ, Sudhamahi Regunathan, Sir Rob Young, Anil Diwan and others will share their memories with him.