Inside out

It took Nikhilesh Sharma only one play to establish himself as a theatre director.Shyam Rang opened at the Prithvi Festival, 1999. Four sh...

It took Nikhilesh Sharma only one play to establish himself as a theatre director.
Shyam Rang opened at the Prithvi Festival, 1999. Four shows later, the play and its director have been elevated to the ranks of forerunners in theatre.

Not exactly a poor show for a man who has had only one commercial success to his credit.
quot;When I was in NSD, I directed a Czech book called Romeo and Juliet and Darkness for the NSD Repertoire Company. But the first big play I directed was Kanupriya, which is an enactment of a long poem Radha8217;s soliloquy on her life and love. Then came Dil Ka Haal Sune Dilwala, a play with all the commercial8217; elements.quot;

The director seems to love old love stories isn8217;t Shyam Rang about the Radha-Krishna myth as well?
quot;The situation is something like this Radha and Krishna meet after 40 years of separation. They question their attachment and love why they parted, why they are still a mythical couple. They don8217;t know what exactly theirrelationship is. Meanwhile, Rukmini, Krishna8217;s wife, has a similar identity crisis. She8217;s known as Krishna8217;s wife, but Krishna is only Radha8217;s.quot; The play operates at the level of the personal as well as the larger social fabric.

What is the lure of this tale? Why does he keep returning to it?
quot;Their story never fails to move me. It is timeless. Radha is known to everybody. She8217;s the loknayika8217;.quot;n But does she and her love affair have a contemporary element?The subject is too close to Nikhilesh8217;s heart to even consider it a dated theme. quot;What8217;s not contemporary in Shyam Rang? Everything except perhaps the costumes and the sets. It is a story of love lost and immortalised. What8217;s old about that? Are you telling me that Shakespeare is irrelevant or that there are no Radhas and Krishnas among us? I don8217;t want to believe it. These are stories that are the closest to our hearts. We have grown up with them. And the basic purpose of a play is to touch a chord in the audience. Shyam Rang doesthat.quot;

With Gulzar8217;s lyrics, Ismail Darbar8217;s score and Javed Siddiqui8217;s script, the play has an excellent cast to boot Sachin Khedekar as Krishna, Lubna as Radha and Neha Sharad as Rukmini.

Interestingly, Nikhilesh never thought about studying theatre till one day 8230;
quot;One day, I realised I knew nothing about theatre. This happened after I had been directing public service plays for a while.quot; Directing Educational Development Programmes, at Jaipur his hometown, was abandoned. quot;NSD was my natural destination after that.quot;

Unlike most students, he chose directing not acting.
quot;It gave me an idea about all that goes into theatre.quot; Which is why he could direct a play like Dil Ka Haal Sune Dilwala, straight out of NSD. quot;The play raised many eyebrows but I thought of doing it on an impulse. I was watching Nawaz Sharief abusing India on TV. It killed me. I had to do something about it.quot; But in spite of singers like Abhijeet doing the score, the play based on India and Pakistanwas not a commercial success.

But that has not stopped him. Nikhilesh8217;s next play is equally controversial.
quot;My next play is about a schizophrenic, who is jailed after he kills his family. And during his imprisonment, he writes a body of poems. The play is based on his life and poetry.quot; It is a true story that happened in Maharashtra many years ago. Till then he can be seen on television serials like Kurukshetra and Saaya. As long as his heart is in it.

8211;SANJUKTA SHARMA