Chutney Rushdie

8216;8216;Every pickle-jar contains, therefore, the most exalted of possibilities: the feasibility of the chutnification of history; the g...

8216;8216;Every pickle-jar contains, therefore, the most exalted of possibilities: the feasibility of the chutnification of history; the grand hope of the pickling of time! I, however, have pickled chapters. Tonight, by screwing the lid firmly on to a jar bearing the legend Special Formula NO.30: 8216;8216;Abracadabra,8217;8217; I reach the end of my long-winded autobiography; in words and pickles, I have immortalized my memories, although distortions are inevitable8230;8217;8217;
8212; Saleem Sinai, the narrator of Midnight8217;s Children.

THE stage production of Salman Rushdie8217;s Midnight8217;s Children may not have the cacophony and luridness of Andrew Lloyd Webber8217;s Bombay Dreams but its script is vivid in magic and masala. Twenty-three years after publication, Rushdie8217;s dream of seeing his book enacted will come true when the curtain rises on the play presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company in collaboration with Columbia University and the University of Michigan at London8217;s Barbican Theatre on January 18.

Leading the cast is the who8217;s who of Britain8217;s Asian actors. The lead role of Saleem Sinai has gone to Croydon-born Zubin Varla, who has played Romeo Romeo and Juliet, Caliban The Tempest and the title role of Roberto Zucco. 8216;8216;To bring Saleem to life is very challenging,8217;8217; says Varla. The nervousness in his voice betrays his anxiety about Midnight8217;s Children.

Also in the cast are Shaheen Khan, Sirine Saba, Pushpinder Chani, Kish Sharma and Antony Zaki. As there are about 100 characters, each actor will play at least five roles, sometimes even more. 8216;8216;It8217;s a lot of hard work that requires discipline,8217;8217; says Tanzania-born Khan, whose credits include the Gurinder Chadda films Bend it like Beckham and Bhaji on the Beach.

The rehearsals are conducted with military precision: The team assembles in a studio in Clapham, in south London, around 9 am everyday, and rehearses non-stop till six in the evening. One of their greatest moments came when Rushdie arrived to watch the rehearsals. Khan confesses to being a bit 8216;8216;nervous8217;8217; when the author arrived. 8216;8216;He was very generous with ideas and gave us advice that put a different balance in our roles,8217;8217; says Khan. Kami Derweish, also a part of the cast, was impressed with Rushdie8217;s 8216;8216;active and childlike eyes, mischievousness, wit and energy.8217;8217;

Rushdie himself is almost ecstatic about the stage adaptation. 8216;8216;I8217;m delighted that Midnight8217;s Children is to be staged by the RSC, and to be working again with director Tim Supple. He made such a brilliant version of Haroun and the Sea of Stories a couple of years ago,8217;8217; he says.

But then, it8217;s been a long wait for Rushdie. The plans for dramatisation of the Booker of Bookers date back to 1997, when the BBC proposed a pound;4.5 million serial. But the government of India refused filming permission because 8220;the storyline contains references that could spark tension between Hindus and Muslims8221;.

Undaunted, Rushdie got together with RSC director Supple and dramaturge Simon Reade to work on the stage adaptation of Midnight8217;s Children in July 2001. Drawing on the screenplay, which Rushdie had prepared for the BBC, Reade and Supple superimposed their dramatisations of discrete scenes within the book. Together, the three men shaped and refined the script, and Rushdie embellished specific scenes. Within six months, they had a working draft of the script, which was further refined through read-throughs, workshops, and, ultimately, rehearsals.

For Supple, the dramatisation of this monumental tale of tangled humanity was not very easy. 8216;8216;What8217;s difficult is finding a theatrical language that matches the book,8217;8217; he told The Sunday Express. 8216;8216;We hope the production will be as inventive, contemporary, sweeping and engrossing as the novel itself.8217;8217;

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With 8220;big slabs of language out8221;, as Supple put it, the big challenge was the depiction of the colossal events that moulded relations between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The director8217;s solution: a multi-layered approach. In the first layer Saleem recounts his family saga to his lover Padma. In the second, Saleem and Padma step into the historical events that take place in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh between 1915 and 1978. This is where artists play multi-roles. For example, Derweish not only plays the role of the modern day mafioso, the big daddy Ghani, he is also plays C-in-C, modelled on the Pakistani dictator Ayub Khan. 8216;8216;Playing five roles in such a large ensemble is a great experience. This is a wonderful production,8217;8217; says Derweish.

In the third layer, the play uses a large film screen and cinematic language. 8216;8216;Short scenes, short speeches, sharp, quick edits move from one act to another, and a soundtrack, with music and songs, take you from place to place and era to era,8217;8217; says Supple.

To shrink the time span, depict the hoary history of the sub-continent and portray the strenuous complexities and confrontations of class and cultures require an imaginative approach and Supple and his enthusiastic team seem to have accomplished it, if the rehearsals are any indication. But then the final verdict will be passed by the audience, for which the team must wait rather nervously.