The Gentle Giant

Though I met Ebrahim Alkazi for the first time in 1992, what I had read and heard about him could have easily filled a book. He was, and ...

Though I met Ebrahim Alkazi for the first time in 1992, what I had read and heard about him could have easily filled a book. He was, and is, an institution. And like with all great things, he was surrounded with his own share of myths and folklore. When he came back to India in the early 8217;90s, after more than a decade, there was a whole new generation of actors and directors who had grown up hearing anecdotes, and some fearsome tales, about this towering figure of Indian theatre whose students included, Naseeruddin Shah, Vijaya Mehta,Om Puri and Om Shivpuri.

So, when he decided to start the Living Theatre Academy in 1992, I was one among the many who applied. This academy was meant for people who weren8217;t novices in theatre and though I had a fair amount of experience by then, I went for the interview with knocking knees. The audition too remains a blur in my mind 8212; I just went in, read my lines and fled. And this feeling of awe and fear has never really gone away even though in the next three years, the28 of us 8212; 15 in acting and the rest in direction 8212; spent nine hours with him each day. He was no tyrant. In fact, he turned out to be the antitheses of all that we had heard. His gentle face and patient manner broke the fear psychosis I had. And Mr Alkazi took genuine care of us, realising that if he had to mould us professionally he would have to start from the personal handicaps that everyone has.

And though we couldn8217;t believe our luck in being taught by this great man, his desire to teach perhaps outmatched our desire to learn. He wanted to create a generation steeped in culture and three years later, I emerged with a completely different outlook to the world.

Mr Alkazi has a saying that, quot;Good theatre starts in the toilet.quot; You needed a clean mind and a clean body to learn well. And in class, he got attention without having to raise his voice, ever. You could feel the intense focus of everybody in the room, it was almost tangible. We would sit surrounding his desk and the classroom walls were madeof mirrors which gave him a 360 degree view of what was happening. It was not possible to pull a fast one on Mr Alkazi in class. Once he had asked us to do a critique of a play. A wise guy submitted reams of paper filled with eloquent criticism compared to half a page by someone else. The first guy got back his paper with remarks on each paragraph from this and this page of this and this book8217; and so on. That Mr Alkazi had read enough to know all sources of that borrowed criticism is not what impressed us 8212; it was his insistence on originality. Something, he said the that half-page essay had.

We didn8217;t concentrate just on theatre. Having studied fine arts, he knew that the theatre of each era moved along the lines of the painters and sculptors of that time. All arts were covered in the three years thereAt the end of three years, Mr Alkazi ended up giving all 28 of us a scholarship. Every expense of ours was paid for from his own pocket. This was the extent of his commitment. Unfortunately, the LivingTheatre Academy had to be closed after one batch due to infrastructural problems. Even now, the thought of meeting him, scares me a little. I remember when he used to give me a lift home 8212; I lived in the same direction 8212; every night he had to push back my shoulders and tell me to relax. But I couldn8217;t relate to him without being aware of the giant he was. This five-ft tall man towered over all of us. And he continues to do so.

Ebrahim Alkazi is the 1998 recipient of the Tribute To a Living Treasure8217; series of The NCPA and The Times and Talent Club. A photography exhibition, tracing his years in theatre is on at Piramal Gallery, NCPA till Dec 29. Time: 11.00 am to 7.00 pm.