Monday was magical. The auditorium was swarmed with stage lovers expecting more than a theatre performance. Admirers, friends and well-wishers had their hands on hearts praying for the artiste they lost 10 years back to the Parkinson’s. The curtains went up with him rising like a phoenix. It was the moment of triumph for the spirit of life. Many were left speechless and many with tears trickling down their cheeks when this lost star shined once again like a crazy diamond.
Actor Vijay Banerjee’s performance at Lucknow’s Bhartendu Natya Academy on Monday made the audience rise on their feet to salute the determination and joy of a creative soul.
He assembled nine characters out of the various roles played by him in the span of 35-year stage life to create a monologue. The Expression Theatre Group’s production, designed by Arun Trivedi, had pieces from Badal Sircar’s Evam Inderjeet, Ibn-e-Inshaa’s poem Ik Ladkaa, Shankar Shesh’s Poster, Sophocles’s Oedipus, Naresh Saxena’s poem Use Le Gaye, Vijay Tendulkar’s Ghasiram Kotwal, Premchand’s Shatranj ke Khiladi, Giriraj Kishor’s Praja hi Rehne Do and Dharamveer Bharti’s Andha Yug.
“I felt I was born again, born with the same strength. I was apprehensive that Parkinson’s might abrupt my speech and body coordination at certain places. But with my audiences, I was also left surprised. It all went well,” says Banerjee, one of the senior-most actors of the Hindi theatre world.
“Its the matter of honesty. Any work done with honesty and passion makes space in peoples’ hearts, and it makes space to stay there forever. When you cross a bridge, you just cross a bridge, you do not cross the river. For crossing the river you have to go down in the river. Dead bodies float across river easily, they do not drown, but for being drowned it is life which is required. During my productions, I cross rivers, I drown myself in the process,” said the veteran actor. The idea of this production was conceived during an informal get-together where Banerjee showcased pieces from his work. The positive response of friends inspired him to relive his passion and pierce some of the characters he has played till date in a thread of monologue. “The idea was to showcase various moods and shades an actor enjoys on stage. Personally, I have experienced extremes of joy and pain. I love daughters and losing my only daughter and again having a daughter can highlight the graph of emotional shades I shared. For an actor, life and his emotions on stage are not different from each other. He picks up elements from his life itself,” says Banerjee. Banerjee’s umbilical chord is attached to the stage so he could not leave theatre completely even after the Parkinson’s. He kept watching shows, gave demonstrations and trained many artistes and art students. He introduced the concept and training programme of voice culture at All India Radio, where he is a senior executive. The actor utilised his 10 year-gap as an opportunity to spread knowledge about the art of speech and hidden dangers of theatrical performances.
The versatility in Banenrjee’s work highlights his stage collaboration with directors such as B.V. Karanth, Badal Sircar, M.K. Raina, Tripurari Sharma, Urmila Kumar Thapliyal, Balraj Pandit, Vimal Banerjee, Alopi Verma etc. Most of his work have been staged in Lucknow and Kanpur, but the acclaim for the national-level actor’s work is not limited to the peripheries of these cities.
Banerjee establishes the fact that acting is not just about flexible body, but it is about going beyond one’s physical and mental limitations. He proves that “being on stage” is about passion and true spirit.