Jhalkari! An interview with children's author,actor and theatre director Neha Singh
Congrats on your latest play!
Yet another woman’s oriented play. Is it a conscious decision or a
coincidence?
Very, very conscious decision! It’s funny that when a play
written, directed by men that has an all male cast is made, no one calls it a ‘male
- oriented’ play, but when a play directed by a woman that has several
important women characters is made, it's called a ‘woman-oriented’ play. This
just goes to show how deep seated our patriarchy and sexism is. I make plays
that have interesting and complicated women characters, I don't want to call
them ‘women oriented’ play, they are just ‘plays’ that have an equal
representation of women, where women are not sidelined to ‘mom, sister, lover,
wife, seductress’.
- Why
did the play have to be a musical?
It did not HAVE to be a musical. It was an artistic choice since I
love music, am a singer and have acted in several musical plays. I also wanted
to showcase the rich folk music of Bundelkhand through this play.
2.
What made the team decide to express
the play as a bilingual?
The play is set in two timelines and two contexts. One is the
1850s in Bundelkhand and the other is 2017 Mumbai. To keep the authenticity of
the characters in 1850s Bundelkhand I chose to use Bundelkhandi, and of course,
the characters set in 2017 Mumbai speak in Hinglish.
3.
How easy will it be for people to
follow?
Very, since Bundelkhandi is quite similar to Hindi. And music, of
course, transcends languages. The premise of the play is the revolt of 1857,
with Jhansi as the focus. Everyone is well acquainted with the revolt of 1857
and of course, the power packed life of Rani Lakshmibai. So it is very easy to
follow. In fact, we had several children in our opening show and they loved the
show as much as the adults.
My playwright Punarvasu has also composed some marvelous songs for
the play. The rest of the songs are from Bundelkhand. The trouble wasn’t so much
with composing as much as with getting the dialect and meaning of the folk
songs from Bundelkhand right. Punarvasu had written and composed one song for
Rani Lakshmibai that we changed to Marathi from Hindi since Lakshmi Bai was
married into the Nevalkar family, typically Maharashtrian. So, the translation
and getting the pronunciations right was the biggest challenge.
5.
The musicals in the recent past have
been extravagant and Bollywood style. You think Jhalkari will work with
audiences?
I think if the story and performances are good, it doesn’t matter
whether the production is extravagant or humble. Jhalkari works for those who
like an honest, well made and emotionally driven play.
6.
Tell us something about the cast of
your play.
Punarvasu, who is the playwright and also plays Raja Gangadhar
Rao, the King of Jhansi was perfect choice since Raja Gangadhar Rao who was a
great actor, singer and arts patron, so is Punarvasu. We weren’t friends before
we began working on the play together, but now after having spent six months
working on the script and research and making the play, we have become great
friends.
Kritika Pande, who plays Jhalkari, has worked with me as a
co-actor in Dohri Zindagi, which is my first play as a producer. She is an
acting graduate from FTII and is a very honest, talented and passionate actor
and a soulful singer.
Dipika Pandey, has been a close friend for the last two years. We
trained in the same Kalaripayatu class for more than a year and she is also a
fantastic contemporary and salsa dancer and a great actor. When I had to cast
for Rani Lakshmibai, I knew I could find no one better than her to play the
part, with her training in martial arts and dance.
Annapurna Soni is an acting graduate from the National School of
drama and is a marvellous actor, singer and percussionist. She also hails from
Bundelkhand and has a great command over the dialect. It was a blessing to have
her in the team since she trained the other actors in the dialect and also
translated the Bundelkhandi portions in the play that were written in Hindi.
She plays younger Jhalkari which was a challenging part but she did a superb
job.
NIshant Kumar is a passionate young actor who has years of
experience being part of the Sri Ram Centre Repertory in New Delhi and has
worked with many theatre directors. His honesty, vulnerability,acting and
singing abilities made his a perfect choice for Puran, Jhalkari’s supportive
and progressive husband who was also in the army of Rani Lakshmibai.
Madhur Khandelwal is a skilled and talented singer, guitarist and
composer and performs in several musical performances. Since we were making a
musical, Madhur was a great advantage to the team because of his musical
abilities. He managed to play the role of British Political Agent Major Ellis,
who was the gamechanger in the history of Jhansi to perfection while also
handling the entire musical score of the play.
7.
Why did you choose the Kalaripayattu
out form to be a part of the play? Tell us something about Kalaripayattu
training? Was it easy to find someone who could understand the
requirements of the play and incorporate the right moves?
Since I have trained in Kalaripayatu under my fantastic teacher
Arpit Singh, I knew I had to showcase this martial art form in Jhalkari, since
its a play about warriors. Kalaripayattu is the oldest martial art in the
world, and several other martial arts across the world are derivatives of
Kalaripayattu. In fact, Kung-fu, is Kalaripayattu, mispronounced. It is a form
from Kerala that involves balance, flexibility, body control, breathing and
grace. The advanced levels include stick fighting, sword fighting and fire
dance. I didn’t have to look far because Arpit Singh is a fantastic teacher and
is himself a theatre actor and director. When I shared my ideas with him, he
was on board completely and trained the actors from day one of the play making
process and also choreographed the battle scenes and the training scenes in the
play. Dipika assisted him in the training and the choreography.
8.
Why is the emphasis on the cast
wearing ‘gender neutral’ costumes?
Because that's how the women of Rani Lakshmibai’s Durga Sena
dressed. I don't think they could afford to or had the time or inclination to
wear regular saris and jewellery and make up and heels when they were busy
fighting the enemy. :)
9.
Are you happy with the way the play
has turned out? Anything you could have added but couldn’t because of the
time constraints?
I am very happy with the way the play has turned out since it
captures the lives and times of people that made the ultimate sacrifice so we
could live in a free country. The research part of the play took the longest
time since we couldn't afford to have our facts wrong. We travelled to Jhansi
and met various historians and folk artists, we visited the fort of Jhansi, the
museum of Jhansi and also met the Vice chancellor and professors at the
Bundelkhand University. We travelled to Jhalkari’s village, Bhojala, which is a
few kilometres away from Jhansi and visited her house and her family. When we
witnessed the sound and light show at the fort of Jhansi, we had goosebumps
because we were transported to that era. I think our visit to Jhansi
really made a difference to the play. It is a musical with twelve lovely
songs that capture the Bundelkhandi way of life. The battle scenes with swords,
spears and urmis are quite thrilling. Most importantly, it humanises the heroes
that so far have always been part of our history textbooks or statues in public
parks and also brings to the spotlight many unsung heroes.
10.
There is a sudden interest in the
revolt of 1857. Kangana Raut’s next movie is on Rani Jhansi. Your
play also features Jhalkari Bari. Did the character or The revolt of 1857
fuel the play?
The character. I did not know about the women like Jhalkari Bai or
Motibai or Sundar-Mundar, or Ajeezun Bai of Kanpur or Begum Hazrat Mahal of
Awadh, and so many like them, who fought so bravely and laid down their lives
for us. It is a pity our textbooks don’t talk about these women. It is the
women who fought in the revolt of 1857 that captured my attention. Also, the
times we live in, where every little comment or action is connected to
nationalism and many artists are being labelled anti national, when communities
are being polarized in the name of religion, it is important to look back into
our history and see how our own heroes came together, discarded religious and
caste based identities and fought as one for their pride and freedom. The
revolt of 1857 was a people’s revolt, not the revolt of a particular religious,
or caste based community.
11.
There has been a lot of effort in
bringing this play to life – Kalaripayattu, trips to Jhalkari’s village,
recording of original tracks.... Is this a natural process of creation for
every play?
Yes, I like to do thorough research for my plays and books. For me
the process is more important than the product. I believe in immersive
processes where you eat, drink, sleep your art and cannot think about anything
else. I don't think short cuts take you very far. I have also learnt this from
my directors like Manav Kaul, Gagan Dev Riar, Sophia Stepf, who leave no stone
unturned when making their plays. God is in the details.
For Colourblind, a
play about Tagore directed by Manav Kaul, we read almost every poem, short
story, novel written by Tagore, learnt his music, learnt Bengali, visited
Shantiniketan and Kolkata. For Ishq aaha, a punjabi musical based on the love
legends of Punjab, directed by Gagan dev Riar and Sukant Goel, we learnt almost
40 punjabi folk songs, watched and listened to Punjabi folk singers, read the
original text written in Gurmukhi. Being part of these plays as an actor helped
me realize the importance of an immersive, honest and heartfelt process.
For my first play as a producer, Dohri Zindagi, we went to
Borunda, a small village in Rajasthan, which is where Vijaydaan Detha wrote
this story. We met his family, met the women of the village, understood their
culture, their songs and stories and that’s how we made Dohri Zindagi.
12.
You had zeroed in on a
courtesan and warrior as the subject of this
play. What tipped the scale in Jhalkari’s favour?
My training in Kalaripayattu and the vision of having live combat,
stick fighting and sword fighting onstage performed by women actors seemed very
thrilling. Having said that, Ajeezun Bai’s story is also extremely inspiring
and beautiful. My next play might be about her.
If you
are in Mumbai, book your tickets on www.bookyourshow.com
To
invite the team to your neighbourhood/city/town for a performance
Contact:
Dhruv Lohumi at dhruv.lohumi@gmail.com or
09833609661
We have a special show coming up at Harkat Studio, in
collaboration with Choiti Ghosh’ Sunday Oasis Arts Program for children on the
7th of January at 11 a.m.
We have our next full fledged show coming up at Over act studio,
190, Aram Nagar Part 2 on the 19th of January at 8.00 p.m.
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