BANSI KAUl (1949-2021) : A DOYEN OF INDIAN THEATRE

                                                                          (Bansi Kaul)

BANSI KAUl (1949-2021) DOYEN OF INDIAN THEATRE

                                             

‘What a struggle it was
 to awaken
  the life in those people,
  to break up
  the crusted
  deposit
  of lies,
 that weighed

  on their lives.”  ( Bulgarian poet Nikola Vaptsarov )

 Born and brought up in the Kashmir valley, Bansi Kaul wanted to become a painter. However, with his joining the National School of Drama in the early 70’s he was groomed to be a dramatist under the tutelage of Ebrahim Alkazi, the doyen of Indian theatre. He started his career with NSD’s Repertory Company and was also in the faculty of the school for many years, before starting his own theatre group in 1984. Kaul was a director of Hindi theatre and the founder of Rang Vidushak, a theatre group and institute based in Bhopal. He did classics and modern plays, Indian and Western, and with equal ease in Punjabi, Tamil, and even Sinhalese. He served as artistic director of Shri Ram Centre, 1981-2. He also composed music for some of his own productions. Kaul would always say:-

“For the stage artist, the Proscenium Barrier (in theatre the arch separating the stage from the auditorium, through which the action of a play is viewed) must be broken in the mind first, rather than the body. The idea of breaking down one’s mental fourth wall is what draws the audience into the performance. As a result, a bond is formed between the performers and the audience. Using movements and gestures, the actors must be able to cut through the space of the performance to create the space of the theatre.”

He excelled in the field of direction, and music, though designing remained his first love. A brilliant stage designer and a theatre director known for evolving a new idiom of clown theatre, Bansi Kaul took the road less travelled. Unlike the other theatre giants who rose and shone in Delhi, Kaul called Bhopal his Karam-Bhoomi. Modernity to him meant reinventing. He did not believe in picking up a form and 'imposing it on urban theatre.'When a modern man creates something, he said, he goes back to his past with consciousness. You see much more in your childhood now than you had seen in it earlier. You can so redefine a 'traditional' form, it is reborn to you.  What he did at Rang Vidushak was to go back to non-theatre forms and give them recognition.

Kaul directed and produced over 100 plays throughout his career, with some of his notable plays including Aala Afsar based on Nikolai Gogol's satirical play The Government Inspector, Kahan Kabir based on the collected works of poet-saint Kabir, and Sidhi Dar Sidhi urf Tukke pe Tukka an adaptation of Chinese folktale "Three promotions in succession". Most of his plays were based on the Nautanki style of street theatre. Other notable works included Mrichakatikam, Raja Agnivarna ka Pair, Agnileek, Veini Samhaar, Dashkumar Charitham, Sharvilk, Pancharathram, Andha Yug, Khel Guru Ka, Jo Ram Rachi Raakha, Aranyadhipathi Tantyamaama, Zindagi aur Zyonk, Vatan ka Raag, and Saudagar. He would always say:-

“Theatre should entertain, it should not confine itself to smaller issues. It must have the capacity to confront human agonies. Do not try to get from theatre what you want to achieve from a poster. Theatre is not slogan-mongering. It must analyze society. It should leave a visual impact.”

A Padma Shri (2014) and Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee (1995), Kaul was the designer and show director for the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony (2010) and art director for the Khajuraho Festival (1986 and 1987). He was also the recipient of the 2016 Rashtriya Kalidas Samman for Kahan Kabir. He received the 1994 Shikhar Samman from the Government of Madhya Pradesh, and the 1995 Safdar Hashmi Award from the Uttar Pradesh Sangeet Natak Akademi. His contribution to Indian theatre can be summed up under various broader segments as under: -

DEVELOPMENT OF COMEDY THEATRE

“Laughter celebrates the minuscule cosmic interval between birth and death. In laughter, I see celebration and protest at once. It becomes a force to cut through every form of negativity. Therefore, laughter must be celebrated! “…. Bansi Kaul

 Rang Vidushak was born in 1984 from the ideas of Bansi Kaul and his team of artists. They were dedicated to developing another form of art where laughter was the new celebrative language. The vidushak, the fool or jester, ruled. His wit flowed from folk and tribal expression, rituals, song, myth and folklore, games, jokes and riddles. Kaul, the group's designer-director, has documented the acrobatic, storytelling, and martial art forms of the Hindi belt in developing an actor-training methodology applicable to Vidushak theatre. He studied the skills of acrobats, jugglers and hawkers, storytellers and jokers, and even fishermen and beggars, employed. He had incidentally lived with acrobats for three years. He brought street clowns and their laughter to the centre stage.

For many years, Bansi Kaul single-mindedly worked for the establishment of a resource centre for comedy theatre. He had been striving hard to start a “Repertory of Clowns” as he always felt that performances of such satirical humour would cure lots of ills in society. He strongly believed that through Naqqal. Amli, Bhaand and Narrative Singing, India has a strong tradition of comedy; however, these were not developed and fell prey to feudal obscenity. He would always explain the importance of laughter in the formation of his group 'Rang Vidushak' in Bhopal. Followed by a combination of his workshops and major plays like - Kahan Kabir, Wo jo aksar jhapad khata hai, Neeti Manikaran ki, Hasyarasayan, Gadho ka Mela, Ritu Gurjari, Darji ki Anokhee Biwi, Saudagar, Sidhi Dar Sidhi urf Tukke par Tukka, Deputy Collector, Zindagi aur Jonk, equally important is his works with children, police, prisoners. Through his works, he explored the politics of laughter and studied riddles and myths across Indian traditional folk tales, including clowns, or Vidushak, into the central figure of his works.

 In an Interview with Shamsul Islam of The Pioneer, Kaul has said this:-

 “Unfortunately in our country, no work has been done in the field of comedy theatre. The laughter which is a basic instinct of human life is non-existent or suppressed. I firmly believe that only that society can face the worst crisis of life and death and survive which does not lose sight of humour, satire and inherent liveliness. Due to the repressive feudal environment all around, humour/satire was always forbidden. In the name of comedy what was practised was vulgarization, which suited the rulers well. Where other Afro-Asian countries have strong traditions of mental humour, we have none. From China to Turkey we find a character, Mulla Nasruddin. He is a commoner, a simpleton who not only exposes the feudal dehumanisation and religious fundamentalism of the ruling classes but also pricks the backwardness, hypocrisy and degeneration of common people. The stories of Mulla Nasruddin, not only greatly entertain but also have morals in them.”

 Eminent theatre person GS Channi recalls this:-

 “He was three years senior to me in NSD; we would call him Bansi da. He specialised in stagecraft. His contribution towards vidushak (clown tradition) is tremendous. Bansi da worked with people on the sidelines and yet managed to be a national figure. Whatever he touched was transformed.”

 Ariana Ross, CEO of Story Tapestries Inc. has this to say about Bansi Kaul:-

 “It is through the laughter and tears of our tales that the lessons of life are learned.” For nearly three years I studied and performed with Bansi Kaul and his troupe Rang Vidushak in India. Bansi Kaul’s plays wove together music, dance, acrobatics, and laughter. He used traditional tales and historical facts merged with political issues to highlight who and what needed to change for people to work together and rise above their circumstances. I witnessed how to craft powerful stories that create the space for people to listen, laugh and cry – all at the same time. Through that experience I learned about inequities and discovered the power of the arts, and humour, to act as a catalyst for change.”

 

A MASTER OF STAGECRAFT

He was a master in any segment of stagecraft; be it scenic design, stage machinery, lighting, sound, costume design or makeup.  He introduced fresh concepts in stagecraft. He was conscious of the fact that theatre in India has benefited from a dominant religion (Hinduism) that encouraged it through staging of Ramayana, Mahabharata and even ritual performances. He was a master in planning the internal architecture of a theatre, auditorium, audience space and the stage consisting of a performing area and backstage. He also did innovations for open-stage performances. He made innovations in the use of music to carry forward the story and assist performers. Techniques of Chinese, Japanese, Turkish, Russian, Singaporean and many other countries were introduced and amalgamated into stagecraft by him. This author was told that one could discuss anything about stagecraft as enumerated in Bharat Muni’s Natya Shastra with Bansi Kaul. His stage set design would produce maximum impact within minimum means. Through the beautiful inclusion and blending of Indian architecture and painting in his work, he created a new idiom for the stagecraft. 

Building on his training in stagecraft, he worked as the art director for the 1986 and 1987 Khajuraho Festival and also for the Festival of India in China, Switzerland, and the USSR. He was one of the lead designers and an associate show director for the 2010 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony. Speaking about his mandate, he would say that the requirement was to bring Indian culture and themes to the event, without letting Bollywood come across as the "only cultural identity of the country. Theatre personality Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry says this about the magical stagecraft of Bansi Kaul:-

 

 “I worked with him during my days in Bhopal. Once I was doing a folk tale and somehow the stage setting was not to my liking; I told him that it did not seem coherent and he said, Abhi baandh dete hain. I thought he was kidding. But, lo and behold, he asked for a rope and managed it all.”

 In a review of a retrospective of his works Rang-Bansi (Colors of Bansi), newspaper The Hindu wrote this:-

, "As a designer, he (Kaul) treads two worlds – the designer of mega-events with plenty of resources and the designer of the theatrical productions suffering from utter paucity of funds." And he excelled in both jobs."

 SANSKRIT PLAYS

 In India, early theatre was intertwined with Hinduism and Buddhism, the two major religions of the subcontinent at the start of the Common Era.  Sanskrit theatre was popular in India from around the first century AD through the 1400s. Like both Greek drama and Shakespearean drama, the productions required minimal sets and props, often relying on pantomime to mimic things that were not actually on stage. The productions were well-wrought, often including stage technicians, costumers, makeup artists, and conductors, as well as a director, the sutradhara, who would introduce the play at the beginning. Most Sanskrit dramas could be expected to have certain types of characters, including the noble hero, or nayaka, whose adventures the audience followed. His love interest, the nayika, was a major character, as was the jester or clown figure, the vidushaka.

Bharata's Natyashrasta carefully laid out the conventions and characteristics of drama, as well as the concept of Rasa, which explained how elements of a dramatic work played together and elicited a response in the audience. Rasa operated on the principle that certain elements, character types, and plot conventions could elicit certain predictable responses and interpretations. These interpretations could be experienced by the audience and explained. Bharata likened the dramatist to a chef, where a knowledge of the ingredients and flavour patterns could be inferred and understood by both the creator and the person eating the food. Sanskrit playwrights, by manipulating these elements, could achieve their desired effects.

Tragedy is forbidden in Sanskrit drama. Except for a very few plays, almost three hundred or so plays have ended on a happy note with conflicts being resolved. Even a play like Bhasa’s Urubhangam which concludes with the sad demise of the protagonist, does not advocate any cynical worldview as is seen often in Greek tragedy. Sanskrit drama regards existence as orderly and predictable. Conflicts in the plays occur only when the order of life is disrupted by individuals and finally, such attempts are redirected in order to ensure that the characters take their ordained places and peace is restored. Inspite of its great and glorious tradition, Sanskrit theatre was put on the back burner as Muslim rulers came into power in India. The Muslim rulers were more in favour of dance and music and thus started the deterioration of this classical form of Indian Theatre.

 Bansi Kaul has done tremendous work in producing ancient Sanskrit plays in different Indian languages. “I resort to Sanskrit classics because these plays are a powerful indictment against religious hypocrisy, totalitarianism and social injustice. Today Sanskrit language may be a tool in the hands of Brahminism but in history, Sanskrit literature always had a great legacy of challenging whatever was unjust. It made fun of kings, even gods. Kalidas is a great pro-woman playwright, and had the guts even to deny the occurrence of Mahabharata in his play Panchratram.” He feels sorry for those who treat Sanskrit as part of some religious heritage since it suits fundamentalism. While referring to the great revolutionary content of ancient Sanskrit- drama and literature he reminds one that Brecht borrowed immensely from ancient Sanskrit classics. 

 SOME EXPERIMENTAL PLAYS

The list could be long but let us focus on some major plays directed by Kaul. Tripurai Sharma’s play ‘Bargad’ was directed by Kaul for the Sri Ram Centre Theatre Repertory. He turned it into a musical play and described the production as a kind of “musical realism”. Through this play, Kaul made the audience believe t that, though life is cruel, it is naked but it is also beautiful. Poverty is bad to look at yet poor people are beautiful. The play had immense humanism.

 ‘Qisse Soojh Boojh Ke’ ‘is another play worth mentioning over here. Staged by Sanskar Rang Toli, Kaul used wit as the strength of the play. In most of the productions of Kaul one saw an elaborate design to provide authentic background for the action on the stage. But in “Qisse Soojh-Boojh Ke” the action takes place on a bare stage with the subtle and minute formations upstage on the screen which keeps on changing with each scene to give an intricacy to the backdrop, retaining the main focus on the action and performers.

 He adapted from Gogol's ‘Inspector General’ in Nautanki style, as a milestone production. His other major directorial works include Pinam tinnum satirangal i.e. 'Corpse-devouring Customs' in 1978. This was based on the story of Duryodhana dishonouring Draupadi in Tamil, Mrinal Pande's Hoihai wahijo Ram rachi rakha i.e. 'That Which Ram Hath Ordained' in 1981, and Rasiklal Parikh's Sharvilak in 1989 were also important. Kaul was the art director for B. V. Karanth's famous Kannada film.

His last production,’Paglaye Gusse Ka Dhuan’ (about the displacement communities go through under duress) in 2019 was for the Lucknow based Bhartendu Natya Akademi. The play was based on the works of Kashmiri poets and addressed the topic of the Exile of Kashmiri Pandits during years of militancy in the state.

 Two plays that earned him name and fame are, ‘Kahan Kabir’ (based on the collected works of poet-saint Kabir) and ‘Sidhi Dar Sidhi urf Tukke pe Tukka’  (an adaptation of the Chinese folktale "Three promotions in succession).

 He learnt the basics of the difficult but very significant tribal performance style after he directed Ek Gaon ki Bhali Aurat, a Hindi adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's famous play,’ The Good Woman of Setzuan’. The play received rave reviews in the print and electronic media.

HIS LAST LETTER TO FRIENDS AND WELLWISHERS

 Bansi Kaul was deeply disturbed by what his own community had to face in the Kashmir valley. He brought the pain and suffering of his community indirectly in some plays broadening the context for ipan India viewers.  Kaul wrote an emotional goodbye to his friends and loved ones just before his death thanking them profusely for all the love and attention he received from them from time to time. Some paragraphs from this letter are as under:-

 My very dearest friends!

(1)“My best wishes and love to all of you… to all those performers from across the country who have the cultural events I designed the most amazing spectacles… and to every person I have met on this journey called life. I have not been able to thank all of you for your good wishes on my birthday. I have been unwell and have been diagnosed with cancer of the brain as well as the lungs. Yet I am sure I will pull through and that we will soon meet again. “

 (2)

“We are in times where displacements are the rule… displacements from physical spaces, nature, and natural sounds, from cultures, from one’s own family and friends. Scenes of daughters and sons carrying their aged parents across the country to a safer place during the lockdown, and children falling asleep on suitcases being rolled along are etched in my mind. All these painful experiences must be stopped. This can happen only when there is a sense of general well-being. Lal Ded says:-

“In the midst of the sea, with unspun thread, I am towing the boat; would that God grant my prayer and, ferry me too, across…”.

(Lal Vakh. No. 23)

We all need to hold a single rope to tow the boat of goodness, peace, mental and physical well-being, gratitude, kindness, and magnanimity across the sea of life.

So, dear friends… killing, hating, plundering, and cheating… all in the name of belief and faith will bring nothing. All of us must love each other, which can happen only if you get rid of hatred. The act of throwing a stone of hatred at someone has its repercussions. It will rebound. The hurt ultimately comes to oneself.

(3)

“And so, we must make more and more friends to make the world a better place to live in. We need to pave a strong, durable long-lasting path for the coming generations. Let’s give them a better world. When we say we are 60% young India, let us not forget that after twenty years or so there will be a 100% old India! We must start thinking about this… and think fast. There must be a sense of collective strength. Strength can only be in togetherness, and in togetherness there are memories.”

 Kaul was married to theatre artist Dr Anjana Puri. Dr. Anjana Puri is an exponent of Theatre Music and is a teacher and music composer at Rang Vidushak, Bhopal. She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2016. She has composed music for around 40 plays with eminent theatre directors such as Bansi Kaul, B. Jayashree, K.S. Rajendran, and Tripurari Sharma, among others.

 Bansi Kaul lost his battle against cancer and breathed his last on 6 February 2021, in Delhi. The untimely and sad departing of Kaul left many of his admirers in the gloom. He was 71. He was a simple man, affectionate and helpful to one and all. He had many productive years ahead. According to Bansi Kaul, human issues in this world revolve around Food, Love, Beauty and Freedom. Kurdish poet Sherko Bekas also believed so. One can feel this in his poem ‘Separation’.

 (Separation)

 If they deprive my poems
of their flowers,
One of my seasons dies.
If they deprive them
of my beloved,
two of my seasons die.
If they deprive them
of their bread,
Three of my seasons die.
If they deprive them
of freedom,
my while year dies

and I with it.

(Avtar Mota)

 

 

( This essay is a registered copyright material published in  Avtar Mota's  book, 'Kashmir; Men Matters And Memories'.   )

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