Chronicles of KGP: Hindi Dramatics — घोड़े से गधे तक
यह एक कहानी नहीं है बल्कि 1973 से 1979 तक मेरे प्रवास के दौरान खड़गपुर में अनुभव की गई वास्तविक घटनाओं पर आधारित है.
I will tell this story in both Hindi and English because that is how our life went on in the campus with Bengali adding spice to life. It was but a divine coincidence that as a first-year student I landed in D Block ground floor West wing of R.P. Hall of Residence which was dominated by guys from North India, mostly Hindi speaking. My name cried aloud that I was a Southy but having been brought up in Uttar Pradesh the only language I could speak well was Hindi. So I was pushed by Ratan Kumar Jalan, Chandra Prakash and Ravi Kishore to go for freshers’ Hindi play audition in TDS (Technology Dramatics Society). The audition took place in the foyer of the main building, the haven for all TDS enthusiasts where rehearsals would take place. The fresher’s introduction play for the year in Hindi TDS was Hindi version of Badal Sarkar’s Pagla Ghoda, directed by one of the Hindi TDS seniors, Singhal. I had not heard about the play but soon realized that I was one of the four male characters on a cremation ground waiting for the pyre to end burning when the girl who committed suicide comes alive from the pyre. The cynosure of everyone around was Sheela Kulkarni who played the girl’s role…those were the days when the ratio of girls to boys was dismal at its best. My role was that of an old drunk man with hardly any dialogue. With about one and a half month’s rehearsals in the foyer, we went on to perform on the Netaji stage. The play was received by the senior IIT crowd jeering away to glory. The first time I realized what it was to perform with your ears shut to noise, whistles and catcalls from the audience. I had got entry into Hindi TDS. But I could never perform in any TDS play thereafter primarily because the workload of sessionals in architecture department became the priority over dramatics.
Four years later when I was hurrying to my department one evening, as I passed the institute foyer I saw some rehearsal in progress. I stopped to watch. I saw some of my juniors reciting dialogues for an audition. Apparently, Mouli was not satisfied with just one sentence to be uttered by a poet character.
‘सच है की हम हार चुके है. सदियों से कुछ ढूंढ़ रहे है. इस वीराने में ख़ामोशी के इस सागर में…’
The poet’s character had to say this and fall down dead. No one was doing it right enough for Mouli’s appreciation. I thought I could do it, so I volunteered. I had a poet’s look too those days, shoulder length hair over a white kurta. My first take was okayed by Mouli, especially my falling dead like a log on the cement floor of the foyer. All were quite shocked when I fell and when I could repeat the fall flawlessly. Mouli was delighted. I remember he said out loud to all,
‘देखो बच्चा लोग देखो … इसे कहते है - realism in acting.’
Soon I came to know that the play was not for staging in Netaji, but for an intercollegiate festival in Lucknow, Avadh Festival. I was delighted at this opportunity and the fact that my role as the poet was fixed for good! We were only five characters in the play, all male, Tushar Chande, Aniruddha Gupte, etc. So after a month’s rehearsals, we packed for Lucknow, five of us actors along with director Mouli. It was a small team, but we were for a shocker when we reached Lucknow. The hosts were Avadh Girls Degree College, and so many beautiful girls of Lucknow came to receive us at the station! For six of us, it was like going from the desert to a tropical paradise! The next big shock came when we reached the accommodation venue. There were teams from some thirty odd colleges of North India, including IIT Kanpur.
It was a big three days long cultural festival with a number of competitions, not just dramatics! We got down to the nitty-gritty of the play with more practice, fine-tuning every role. Next day early morning an angel turned up! Her name was Rashmi Dewan, the cultural secretary of the whole festival and a student of the host college. She was surprised to know that we were just six, the smallest contingent with only one event participation. She said, that will not do, you better participate in all events, just for the heck of it. Hindi play competition was on the last day, so we had nothing to do for the first two days. We decided to take part in different events whether we could win it or not. That’s KGP spirit! I gave my name for all fine arts activities while others gave names for literary, debate, JAM — just a minute, quiz and what not! Starting from the very first day, I won the on the spot sketching competition while Tushar won JAM. The place was on fire! All the host girls were shocked that the smallest contingent was sweeping every prize! That made a horde of girls cheering for IIT Kharagpur wherever we went! Rashmi Dewan was stunned. Next two days saw us winning some prize or the other in each and every event we participated and our scores started piling up against all other contingents with IIT Kanpur very close to us. But Mouli did not allow us to lose sight of our target — the final play. Then it so happened that an on the spot script and play competition was announced on the second day. The theme was announced and teams were given three hours to prepare the script, do rehearsals and perform on the stage. Mouli thought this was a challenge, so we took it up. The theme announced was ‘Ramayan’. We were breaking our head brainstorming on how to create a good script. Then an idea struck me and I said,
‘हम हिंदी फ़िल्मी गीतों के ज़रिये रामायण की कथा सुनाएंगे’
Mouli was delighted, and so we sat down, listing Hindi film songs that could be used. It was a hilarious exercise and in just one hour over several rounds of chai, we had our script ready! All of us could sing fairly well, so all we had to do was to do playback singing for somebody or the other performing on stage as Ram, Lakshman, Sita et. al. Tushar got for himself a large red chunni borrowed from one of the Lucknow girls and draped himself up from head to toe to play Sita. Aniruddha became Ram and I sang from backstage
‘मांग के साथ तुम्हारा मैंने मांग लिया संसार”
as the opening sequence of our Filmi Ramayan with Sita Swayamvar. What followed was a hilarious take on the Ramayan story woven with hit filmi numbers from the background. We got a thunderous applause from the all-girls crowd. Twenty strong Kanpur IIT team took the cake of first prize with their fantastic creative take on Lanka Dahan in English. We six guys from KGP got the second prize but a standing ovation from girls. We were ready with renewed vigour for the final rehearsals of Juloos. Though we practised late till night, with just five characters on stage we were not too sure if we could succeed with the play, but winning at any cost was important since this was the only event with which we had come all the way from Kharagpur. Even the girls were on our side. Many of the host college volunteers were willing to give any help that we needed. And then Tushar and Mouli had a bright idea which could become the game changer to compensate for the tinyness of our ‘contingent’. The third day evening saw fascinating plays being put up by most colleges. Then came our turn, and there was pin drop silence through our play, all eyes and ears focused on our performance. Each of us had reason enough to do our best, and we did our best. But our director Mouli had the ultimate trick up his sleeve. At the end of the play when the procession or Juloos starts with my body carried on shoulders by the others, there from the audience rose scores of girls clad in white, holding lit candles in their hand in the dark auditorium, an arrangement Rashmi Dewan had obliged us with. Clad in all white, they came out from their seats holding the lit candles and assembled in the aisles of the auditorium as our Juloos with slogans on the stage reached a crescendo. What followed was standing ovation by the rest of the crowd, including the judges. Suffice to stay we won the first prize… and that added to our tally of scores to take us to the top position as the overall cultural champions of Avadh Festival that year, 1976. Six of us were in the Seventh Heaven! After the crazy night long celebrations, we left Lucknow the next morning with the Avadh Trophy in our hand and a grand send-off by host college girls who came with packed food for us for the journey! Back in the campus, no one could believe we had pulled off the unbelievable.
The six of us basked in the glory in our own world for some time till semester exams caught up. I left campus for an internship in the final year thinking that Juloos as my last effort to be in dramatics. But there was something in store for me on my return,
in the last semester of my IIT days. The last semester in architecture was called the thesis project semester, so we hardly had any time for any other activity. But my previous success at Lucknow made my hall Hindi enthusiast juniors look up to me for inspiration during Spring Festival inter-hall competitions. R. P. Hall desperately wanted to get back its overall cultural champion status in the campus, so every event for participation was being given importance in the inter-hall competitions. The responsibility to ensure winning performance in Hindi dramatics fell on my shoulders, being the senior most experienced draamebaaz. I was asked to look out for a unique play for staging. Our spies checked out what was happening in other halls and found that all were sticking to time-tested play writers and themes. We read many plays in Hindi and finally decided to settle for an untested play, a political satire by Sharad Joshi titled ‘एक था गधा… उर्फ़ अल्लादाद खान’ Initially there was some scepticism towards a dialogue rich play with less of stage effects and a large number of characters on stage. But then we had a wonderful actor among juniors, Anil Singh and a large number of Hindi enthusiasts in the hall.
Rehearsals began for the play in small parts in different rooms, by testing out each role separately in smaller groups. Then we would assemble in the small dining hall post-dinner for a combined rehearsal. The fine arts team got ready to create stage settings and backdrop. My architectural thesis project took a back seat for a full month. Interhall competitions nights were sleepless in the hall with practice sessions on for different events. The small dining hall was reserved for our sessions. The D-day arrived with full tempo of RPians behind us. Many had seen the rehearsals and were appreciative of the coordination between the large numbers of characters on the stage. As a director, I remained a silent spectator, after giving the initial push to each character to perform. I was dead sure of Anil Singh who played the Nawab Saab to carry the entire play on his shoulder with his stellar performance and timing, taking care to intelligently intervene when somebody fumbled. Staging itself was an exercise in timing with limited time given for readying the stage.
Anil Singh as the crazy Nawaab kept everyone glued. Moreover, RPians spread themselves in the nook and corners of the audience to cheer from every corner at the dialogues. The one-hour long play, with five minutes of stage setting and 53 minutes of the performance went on smoothly and the last two minutes before curtains saw a resounding applause. I stood throughout the play behind the wings watching the performance…this was my first mega directorial effort. RP Hall got three mega awards that year, 1979, inter Hall Hindi dramatics, Best Production, Best Acting for Anil Singh and Best Direction for me. The number of bumps that I got from fellow RPians all the way to Chedis, Just Unforgettable! It’s almost 40 years since I ended with a Gadha, after starting with a Ghoda, in Hindi dramatics in IIT KGP. I never did a play after that… though watched many…
“अब तो हम सब रंगमंच की कठपुतलियां है बाबू मोशाई.. कौन, कब, कैसे उठेगा, कोई नहीं जानता…”
By: Dr Harimohan Pillai (Architecture | R.P.Hall |1973–79)
