I was absolutely impressed by the theatrical play Humare Ram today. It was the 233rd replay of the magnum opus which is all set to open on broadway next year. I caught up with Ashutosh Rana and Rahul Bhujjar backstage – and the meeting took me 35 years back in time.
In mid 1990, New Delhi was hit by self immolation attempts during the Mandal commission riots. I often visited Delhi from mumbai and was held up with traffic and work disruptions because of the riots. My friend Rajul Awasthi father Suresh Awasthi was the former chairman of the National School of Drama in the Delhi art district. He encouraged me to visit NSD to watch plays by young nsd students and this was my first exposure to theatre. It was in the early nineties that I met the new lot of theatre artists including Ashutosh Rana who I remember distinctly. The NSD was and is quite a wow place. Former chairpersons of the NSD have included Indira Gandhi, Anupam Kher and of course … the legendary Suresh Awasthi who introduced me to some remarkable cultural icons of India. These included Pupul Jaykar of Festival of India and the absolutely incredible painter GR Santosh who did tantric paintings.
I remember sitting one late evening sipping tea with GR Santosh when he told me his incredible story. GR Santosh was actually Gulam Rashid from Srinagar who fell in love with a Hindu girl Santosh Sagar who was related to Ramanand Sagar of Bollywood fame. The Sagar family wanted their daughter to marry a Hindu so GR converted to Hinduism and took on his wife’s name as his surname. Hinduism worked well for him and after a divinition, he took to tantric paintings. I once had a bad round of fever and he gave me one of his prized paintings to keep next to my bed as medicine. In a few hours I was healed. There are tales galore in NSD on the power of tantric paintings and a group of some nsd students made a lovely play on them.
But what I watched today at kamani takes indian theatre to an entirely new level. The use of large lcd screens as theatre backdrop coupled with smoke generated from dry ice and laser lights … combined to give an effect I have yet to see in any great theatrical production to date. Also congratulations to iit alumnus Deepak Singh who runs the Kamani theatre as a non profit trust and Rahul whose Felicity foundation has produced Humare Ram.
This is a must see.
Indian story telling is backed by outstanding stories. And tweaking these can yield even more emotionally bonding themes because we are familiar with the characters. Be it Lord Ram or Hanuman or the much glamourised Ravana played by Ashutosh Rana himself.