Palekar invokes Bombay HC judgment to uphold artistic freedom

KOLKATA: In a world where artistic expressions feel so threatened, a ruling of the Bombay high court way back in the 60s in favour of the performance of Marathi play Vasnakand' should be invoked again and again, said film and theatre personality Amol Palekar on Wednesday.
Palekar was in Kolkata to give the Kumar Roy memorial lecture at Gorky Sadan, organised by Bohurupee, the threatre group founded by Shambhu Mitra and Kumar Roy.The session was moderated by editor-writer Samik Bandyopadhyay.
Palekar's comment came at a time when recently released film ` Aligarh' is facing flak in several pockets of the country for the portrayal of a gay professor. `Vasnakand', one of the earliest plays in which Palekar had acted in, dealt with the topic of incest and was hence unable to get the mandatory censorship clearance.
Palekar spent the evening talking about the two biggest influences in his life -Badal Sircar and Shambhu Mitra. He went on to describe Sircar as one of the four pillars of Indian theatre, along with Mohan Rakesh, Vijay Tendulkar and Girish Karnad.
“Those were heady days when I had just started acting on the Marathi stage under the guidance of Satyadev Dubey . I was quite unaware of this whole revolution going on in the world of Bengali theatre till then. One day , Dubey sent me to watch `Ebong Indrajit' -a Badal Sircar play that was being produced by Shyamanand Jalan in Mumbai. My whole understanding of life and theatre changed after that,“ Palekar reminisced.
It was at the feet of Badal Sircar and Shambhu Mitra that Palekar found his theatre sensibilities firming up. “Till I saw `Ebong Indrajit', my world revolved around Ibsenian theatre and linear narratives. Badal-da gave me the right blow and explained how the third theatre had managed to move out of the proscenium arch,“ Palekar recounted.
It was another coincidence that Palekar got a chance to direct and act in `Vallabhpur', another play by Sircar, that Dubey got translated into Marathi. “Night after night we rehearsed and staged the play to packed houses till it became so routine that I started getting bored and suggested that to Dubey . To my utter surprise, he asked me to scrap the production and start a new one. But when I discussed the matter soon with Shambhu-da, he told me that instead of feeling bored, my job was to act in such a way that people would forget its creator and say `it is an Amol Palekar play'.Another completely new vista opened up in front of me,“ Palekar said in a voice seeped in nostalgia.
He rolled out one story after another about how plays by leading Bengali playwrights were routinely translated either into Hindi or Marathi and staged in Mumbai and Pune. Even in the state competitions, Bengali origin plays were a runaway hit, he said.
Recounting a unique interaction that he had with Sircar, Palekar said, “I had gone to seek his permission to get `Pagla Ghoda' translated into Marathi and to direct and stage it. He not only gave me his permission to do that but said that he was giving me the permission to even murder the play . This has remained an episode etched in my memory forever.“