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Journalism of Courage
Rajev paul is on his toes as he rehearses at the National Centre of Performing Arts for the play Wedding Album, a day before its premiere. The popular television actor is returning to theatre after six years. More than the comeback, Paul is awed by Lillete Dubey, the play8217;s director whom he calls 8220;sweet Hitler8221;.
The reasons for the oxymoron are obvious. Dubey is a tough taskmaster. She wields her baton with an intimidating fetish for perfection as she readies the actors for a repeat take. And yet, she is effervescent.
The sets of her play8212;her 23rd direction8212;is characterised by organised chaos, vivid props and contagious energy, similar to the backstage drama this correspondent witnessed before the 15th anniversary celebrations of her Primetime Theatre Company almost two years ago. The celebrations entailed staging the company8217;s landmark productions8212;Womanly Voices, 30 Days in September, Sammy and Dance Like A Man.
For Wedding Album, Dubey has teamed Primetime regulars Amar Talwar, Suchitra Pillai and Raaghav Chanana with new entrants such as television actors Neena Kulkarni and Paul. At 10, that8217;s a big cast for Dubey who8217;s known to keep her team small.
Dubey interrupts our chat with a shout for another take. A stickler for time, she tells this correspondent, 8220;You are the first person to see a complete rehearsal of my play before its launch.8221; Sharing this honour is Dubey8217;s husband Ravi who is also present on the sets.
Dubey, who is an actor herself, prefers not to act in the plays she directs, including Wedding Album. 8220;I step in only when I don8217;t find the right actor or if the right choice isn8217;t free. Even in Dance Like A Man, I stepped in just a month before it went on stage,8221; she says.
Wedding Album is a landmark for Dubey. It is the first play written by theatre legend Girish Kanrad that she8217;s directing. But while Karnad8217;s pieces are mammoth historicals, Dubey8217;s signature is predominantly simple, contemporary family stories. 8220;We8217;ve been talking of collaborating for a long time. He had even suggested that I should direct his play on Tipu Sultan. But it had a huge cast and the logistics are a nightmare if you travel with your plays,8221; she says.
But his Wedding Album, exploring how 8220;weddings did more to divide families than unite them,8221; hooked Dubey. 8220;I wanted it to be my next after Sammy, but since it wasn8217;t ready, I did Kanyadaan instead, last year. Though it8217;s sharply observant and intelligently conveyed like any Karnad play, its setting is contemporary India,8221; she says.
The play, about a wedding in a middle-class Brahmin family of Dharwad, comes with contemporary ingredients8212;Internet sex chats, pop spiritualism, adolescent crushes, arranged marriages with NRI grooms and the making of current television soaps.
Kulkarni, who had acted in the Marathi edition of Karnad8217;s cult play Naaga Mandala in the Nineties, says, 8220;Lillete has done a good job of bringing to the fore the difficult layers in Karnad8217;s writing. Though I have played a hassled mother before, I have three volatile outbursts in this play, none of which is identical.8221;
Gujarati theatre veteran Utkarsh Mazumdar, who plays Kulkarni8217;s husband in the play, echoes, 8220;It8217;s a rich play that unfolds like a collage of pictures, each telling a story of its own.8221; nbsp;
Dubey8217;s daughter Ira, who is the production8217;s assistant director and plays the lead woman protagonist, Mridula, says, 8220;A good play8217;s hallmark is that after it ends, the audience still wants more. Nothing in Wedding Album is black or white. Each character has ambiguities and some tracks are unresolved.8221;
As Ira coordinates actor dates and gleans Dubey8217;s tips scribbled on a sheet with diligent professionalism, her mother8217;s shout8212;8220;Action8221;8212;instantly transforms her into a small-town girl with pre-marital anxieties. 8220;It8217;s difficult to juggle, but the 8216;warm-up8217;8212; a backstage ritual in which actors form a circle and pray minutes before the curtain rises8212;takes away my headaches related to production such as lights, sounds and other nitty-gritties,8221; she says.
A day after the premiere, we ask Dubey about the response to Wedding Album. 8220;It was a packed theatre. The audience was crackling with laughter that had Girish, who flew in for the premiere from Bangalore, return with ample glee,8221; she says.
Dubey is now gearing for a countrywide showcase with her team in Chennai, Delhi, Chandigarh, Bangalore and Hyderabad till July. Quiz her on what after Wedding Album and she says, 8220;Maybe a musical or a period play. I am a restless director. I can8217;t stick to one genre, but which ever it is, the focus will always be on relationships.8221;
