An Ode to Bhaaji

Having started his tryst with theatre in 1978,after joining Singh’s Amritsar Natak Kala Kendra,Dhaliwal worked with him for 10 years. In those years,terrorism was at its peak and despite threats,Singh managed to stage more than 250 shows every year,most of them in villages to promote Hindu-Sikh unity. “He was fearless and had no qualms about taking the names of terrorists,” says Dhaliwal.

Though Singh wrote more than 200 plays,only 15 were published and the rest remained as handwritten scripts. “I used to act like a photostat machine for him. I would make copies of each script using carbon paper and distribute to actors. Over the years,I have been collecting and filing all the scripts that bhaaji wrote,’’ he says.

As a tribute to Singh,Dhaliwal and his theatre group,Manch Rang Manch,published all these plays in Punjabi and released them in seven volumes,titled Gursharan Singh De Natak. The eighth volume,titled Sade Samay Da Lok Nayak,is Singh’s biography,charting his theatre journey,also including interviews and articles written on him and some rare letters.

Dhaliwal presented the volumes to Singh a few months before his death. “He was very proud but was concerned about the money I had spent on getting them published,’’ says Dhaliwal,who is now busy translating these volumes to Hindi. He is also writing a book called Alvida Bhaaji,as a tribute to Singh — including all articles and tributes written after his death — to be released next month.

While Dhaliwal moved to NSD and later formed his own theatre group in Amritsar,Singh came to Chandigarh. But their relationship grew and thrived. Dhaliwal feels Singh’s plays should reach the future generations. “They document the history of Punjab — political,social,financial,cultural and ideological,’’ he says.

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