This was a very different style of inducting an actor in a play- simply tell him to enter stage as a character!!!Happened to me twice. Once in Mumbai when I was supposed to return back to Delhi after the show of 'Agra Bazaar' but my train ticket did not get confirmed and I had to stay back.And then again after Habib saab had passed away and a retrospective festival of his plays was on at 'Manav Sangrahalaya' Bhopal.
Normally an actor goes through various rehearsals before going on stage but as I mentioned before, for Habib saab theater and his show were most important and yet he would keep experimenting without compromising the quality of his show. So, after my bit in 'Agra Bazar' ( one of the plays which was part of the festival)at the Prithvi festival in 2004 I was supposed to return to Delhi. I could not for the reason mentioned above.
The problem now was whether I would be allowed to stay with the troupe as my work was over and both the theater and the organizers knew that I would be going back. I was quite new to the theater then, so I was nervous. I walked up to Habib saab and asked him if he would mind that I stayed longer in Mumbai. This was at Horniman circle in Mumbai.(He was not in the best of moods that day) A show of 'Kamdev ka sapna' was about to happen in about three hours. He said, 'good you are staying, I have a problem, that just got solved'. So, in the play(sapna a translation of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream), during and at the end of the play performed by the 'villagers' for the royal couple which has just got married, there are six characters watching who make some quips about the play and actors. I was to be one of them now. I was told that I didn't need to speak any lines as my character's lines will be taken by the other actors who are on stage and who knew the lines. ( These were sharp cues, you could not do it just like that) I should just sit there and enjoy the performance from up close. Which is what I did.
The initial entries though looked simple were complex and the costumes were difficult. The Naya Theater actors explain the entries and exits very simply ' go from here, go there, then turn, then sit and keep sitting and reacting'. Believe me , I was more nervous doing this than anything else, this was not how I ever went on stage apart from the informal skits we performed for house at school.
Needless to say I throughly enjoyed the experience and after the show Habib saab told me ' This time you were allowed to keep laughing, but next time you better know your lines.'
The second time I was paradropped on stage was after Habib saab had passed away and a retrospective of his plays was taking place at 'manav sangrahalaya' Bhopal. That day a show of ' Jis Lahore nahin dekhya wo janmya hi nahin' was to be performed.
Now I come back to the first part of the series where I had mentioned Chait Ram style of drinking. The night before the tribal dancers from Bastar( Bison Horn) called me and offered me 'mahua'. This is not an honor easily received. Since I was Shalini's husband who was like a part of them, I was also accepted. They had called Chait too. They offered me and I had it with Chait, in Chait Ram style. Nothing happened!!!I had another small helping , again in Chait Ram style. See, we were all very emotional then. We were working in 'Naya Theater' after both Habib Tanvir and Moneeca Misra Tanvir had passed away. Needless to say, they were hugely missed. It was a long festival, we were talking about them, remembering them, laughing, crying and all this as a festival was on. Usually my drinking indiscretions don't happen but this night was different.
'Manav Sangrahalaya' was a government organization, and since the government has money, we were hosted in a hotel. Shalini and I were sharing a room. By the time I got back to the hotel, the mahua hit me. At that point, I could go off to sleep and nothing would have happened but then I heard some noise from another room. I could hear Ram talking about Habib saab. And then I also heard 'mausa'.( just to remind anyone who is reading this that mausa is Amar Das, the tabla player for the troupe, he has been with the troupe for ever, every time you meet him he says- now I want to go back home, I am tired, but he never goes back home. I haven't seen him now for a long while and I fear that like Chait he will probably go without me being able to meet him. Mausa and me were also friends. I enjoyed teasing him and he loved the attention he received. When teased by the younger lot he does all the drama- laughs at himself, then screams at us, then shows that he is angry, then complains to the others that today the younger lot has no respect for age and then get back to provoking the younger lot to tease him.) When I got to know that mausa is also there, I told Shalini that I will just go and see him, sit there for a bit and then come back and sleep. Since I was not going on stage the next day, I could allow myself a late night. Unlike the Naya Theater actors, I would go off to sleep early when I had to be on stage the nest day.
Once I reached that room and saw a beer bottle in mausa's hand, I began to tease him - repartees came. I did nothing but soon I don't know how I found a glass with whisky in my hand, which soon went to my lips, whisky entered my system and whisky and mahua formed a lethal concoction in there, which went to my brain. I finally left that room at 4 in the morning. I am told that for about three hours I kept telling those present Habib saab stories and it was quite a performance. Maybe it was Habib saab's revenge. There were times that I would refuse to drink with him or go absolutely quiet when he would be talking or would be in a mood to talk about something. At night I think I vomited a few times and woke up in the morning with a bad headache. Shalini had already left for the auditorium.
I reached the venue at about 4 in the evening. As I reached there I was told by Ram that I had to go on stage as a refugee in the beginning- as part of the crowd and then again as a rioter. Being part of the refugee crowd was easy. We had to enter from one of the wings , go down the stairs into the audience, walk towards the stairs at the other part of the stage , go up and exit playing post partition refugees. Very powerful opening to the play and I enjoyed being a part of this crowd but the riot scene which was otherwise fairly worked out had to be timed. I had to kill someone with a knife( fake one of course). This had to be timed so that it happened in the middle of the stage. We rehearsed once or twice in the space behind the auditorium and then I had to do it. I t happened quite smoothly. I killed with finesse. So, that was about being paradropped on stage the second time in 'Naya Theater'.
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