Theatre of life: Unrecognised brilliance in a dumbed-down society
His story could be the subject of a novel, a stageplay or an unconventional film. But Manav Kaul keeps such a low profile that he’s even embarrassed doing interviews, which tread on his private life.
In fact, the 37-year-old actor-director-producer-writer (he writes most of his plays) could do with a bit of the media spotlight. The thing is that he’s extremely shy and self-deprecating, unless he’s on stage or in front of the camera. An excellent performance by him in the anti-war film 1971 went by unnoticed, but then so did the entire cast comprising an ensemble of theatre actors. Now, Manav has completed a film titled Hansa, but again, there is precious little known about it.
Circa 1997, Manav left his hometown Hoshangabad — his friends at the Prithvi Theatre canteen tell you that — and set up Aranya, a theatre group whose charter aims at sparking social awareness and tackling humanist themes above seeking any profit factor.
As in the case of Ipta, actors don’t demand fees from Kaul, because it’s the ideal of doing committed theatre that impels the group. Shakhar ke Paanch Daane, Bali aur Shambu, Mamtazbhai Patangwala and Laal Pencil are among his works, which are known by pure theatre lovers, but still have to connect with the kind of audience which today is getting addicted to bedroom farces and retreads of vintage musicals. Truly, what sense does an adaptation of The Sound of Music make on the Mumbai stage?
Today in Mumbai, theatre hinges largely on corporate sponsorship. If it’s a brazenly dumbed-down play, then immediately “sponsor khush hua”. Attempt anything original and serious, like Manav Kaul does, then it’s tough going. Once when a project fell through, the actor took off on a road trip without informing anyone in the city. “It was almost as if he had vanished from the face of the earth,” the Prithviwallahs narrate, adding with relief, “He hasn’t done that of late though. He has learned to live with disappointments, and is more than happy in his little, low-profile zone.”
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