On one of the Delhi visits, while the Naya Theater troupe was staying and performing at Bal Bhavan, after the show, I saw Gobind Ram Nimbalkar in a corner. It was quite unlike him. Someone who would always be laughing or smiling, it was strange to find him weeping. I asked him what made him cry, he replied, saying that ‘Today my guru has died’. It was the day the troupe had received the news that Madanlal had passed away.
I never saw the legendary few on stage, they had already
left or passed away before I started watching Naya Theater plays. I hear about
Thakurdas, Madan, Fida bai,lalu ram. This bunch of actors together with Habib
Tanvir and Monica Misra Tanvir created the magic that came to be known as ‘Naya
Theater’. Gobind Ram Nimbalkar came much after Thakuram and Madan, the original
brigade of Nacha performers from Chattisgarh who decided to work with the city
‘saheb’- Habib Tanvir. Slowly, as the older brigade retired and left or died,
Gobind Ram became one of the main actors of the troupe. He played chor, kakadi
waala, Bottom and many other roles. Unlike Deepak Tiwari(in the 1990s when i
started watching Naya Theater, it was this actor who dominated the theatre ,
but then he left with his wife Poonam and Gobind baba took centre stage once
again), who, with his sharp eyes, long hair, authoritative walk, slim and
supple body was very striking, Gobind Baba as we called him was balding, he had
a bit of a paunch, he didn’t have a dashing gait. Normally you would probably
not notice him but if you looked closely, his round face had a charming smile;
his eyes were full of mischief. It was as if you were looking at a young child
smiling at you and then when he came on stage- he was something else
altogether.
I can’t think of anyone performing ‘Bottom’ after seeing
Gobind Baba do it. I can’t forget the sight when he would order the ‘paris’
(fairies) around or when he along with Ramcharan Baba who played Quince would
be arguing about how the play would be designed in terms of cast and actors or the
last move of ‘Chor ‘which all the actors whom I have seen play the character
have brought something of their own to - a scene where the Rani decides that she will
get Charandas killed- the ‘chor’ pleads with Rani- it is the turning point of
the play- this is the time when the audience realises that the ‘chor ‘is going
to die- the chor turns towards the audience at the end of this conversation, Gobind
Baba’s sad eyes haunted you for a long time after the performance. In ‘zahreeli
Hawa’ he would be very happy because it was one of those plays performed b y
Naya Theater where he didn’t have much to do. There was a scene where after the
gas leak in Bhopal, in a destroyed city, there is a song dedicated to nature (this
is what I could understand of it) which Nageen sings– while the song is being
sung, at one point Gobind baba had to sit up and ask –‘Phir ka hoees? He would
do that with a lot of flair too. Gobind baba in lots of ways was Bottom who had
to be the star always and so he did become for me even in Zahreeli Hawa.
He was a professional to the core- you learn a lot of things
by watching these greats work- playing Bottom was quite strenuous- the mask
needed to be handled which he would plan with great detail. Once we were
performing Agra Bazar at Ramjas College, the rehearsal had gone on for some
time. Everybody was going for lunch but Gobind Baba decided not to. Habib saab
asked him why he was not eating? Gobind Baba said- to keep my tummy
light...Habib Saab smiled , nodded and walked away. ( The best thing about Naya
Theater was to watch this amazing relationship between the actors and Habib
Tanvir, they would keep fighting with him over various things, but when it came
to the acting, they knew that Habib saab’s word is the final one ) During the
Habib Tanvir retrospective at Prithvi in 2004, didn’t see Gobind Baba drink at
all( unusual for the Naya Theater actors...if you saw Chait Ram do it , you
would never want to drink again) On the last day of the festival Prithvi
organised a get together with drinks, Gobind Baba told a few of us that he was
going to drink that night. We should just make him find his room, and so he
did, he drank like a mad man, we put him in his room and he was himself the
next morning. In another drinking episode, at Durgapur, we had three shows, we
had stayed there for about four days. Usually, after a long stay or stint of
shows was over I would gift ‘mausa’(Oh, I have to tell you about mausa too,
mausa is Amardas, the tabalchi in the theatre, he had turned an alcoholic, till
one day he found himself miss the rehearsal as he pulled himself out of a
drain, that day he came to habib saab and promised that he would never drink
again, he didn’t ,but for some beer once in a while) two bottles of beer. That
day, mausa refused to drink. I offered it to Gobind Baba, who obliged, and then
suddenly we were told that there was some miscalculation, we were supposed to
leave or we would miss the train, Gobind Baba did not want to leave the beer nor
did he want to miss the train. I told him – Gobind Baba ab chaliye nahin to
train choot jaayegi and he responded – arre train to chali jaayegi, hum choot
jaayengein, chalo chalo. But he did finish his beer before he left. Well, Naya
Theater became like a family, and the seniors would take care of you as their own,
losing Gobind Ram Nimbalkar is like losing a friend who would bring a smile to
your face and an elder who would look after you.
Just a few days back I heard that Gobind Baba had passed
away. He will be missed by those who had seen him perform and also by those who
knew him closely and who had travelled with him.
