My Interactions with Habib Tanvir:Part VII

As I said earlier, Habib Tanvir was obviously focused at his production. He enjoyed and preferred working with actors who could perform. ( flattering myself) He would say that - I am not a great teacher. I like actors who bring something of their own to the work, that helps me direct them. But his other focus was that theater should be done in the spirit of almost a 'carnival', people had to have a lot of fun. Thus unlike the typical proscenium theater where blocking was sacrosanct , in Naya theater you could go up to him and tell him  that you would like to try something different, and he would almost always encourage you to do that. Of course, once the light design etc was done , it was expected of the actor to stick to the blocking.

This incident is about his making theater a bit of a 'carnival'. It was a professional relationship. You were expected to perform on stage. However, the personal relationships were equally important. So, we were at Bonn in Germany for his retrospective. There were some five plays that we performed at Bonn. I was still in the mould of a typical urban actor. What is the need of saying 'hi' ? When my entry comes I will go on stage. Habib saab had come into the auditorium, everyone went up to him to say 'jai shankar' ( naya theater greeting) He asked everyone how they were, if they were rested, had eaten, who drank how much the night before etc. I did not walk up to him to greet him. Normally, I didn't think a director would make much of it but not habib saab.

In the middle of the rehearsal I saw him walking towards the back of the auditorium where I was sitting. I thought maybe he is just trying to check the sound and the volume, so I remained where i was and then I saw him walking towards me. That made me nervous. He walked up to me and said 'Hello Himanshu' , I said 'Hello Habib saab', he said 'Is everything alright?' I said 'Yes, what made you doubt it'. He smiled and said 'Well, you did not come to greet me, so I thought maybe something is the matter'

I realised, it was important for him to meet everyone , ask them some questions- relevant and irrelevant so that he got a sense of what was going on with each actor of his. The carnival had to begin with some fun and then it had to continue in the same spirit. I made it a point after this to always walk up to him and say 'hello'.