A little ado about Indian accents

It’s always wonderful to be back in London, even if it’s been wet and windy throughout. But the weather gods in the UK seem to be well synchronised with national events and know when to pour down. Everyone is still talking about the success of the Olympics and how well the weather had held up.

What could possibly lie behind the perfect coordination between this island nation and the rainmakers?
But now parts of the country are being hit by squalls and even floods, and one wonders whether the political climate has anything to do with it. Despite the fact that the economy in the UK is finally heading for a recovery, the ruling coalition finds itself trailing far behind in the opinion polls, while the Labour Party is bouncing up with a 20-point lead.
This is also the season of party conferences, when each political party gathers its faithful in different cities to showcase their strengths and policies. The momentum is now building up to the Conservative Party conference this week — but it might be a slightly harder time for Prime Minister David Cameron. Though in his personal ratings he is still comfortably ahead of his rival, Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour Party, the latter has just delivered a pretty good speech at the party conference. Thus far reviled as Ed the Geek, he apparently followed good advice from his everyone (including his three-year-old son) to re-introduce himself to the sceptics within the Labour, as well as the country, where people are still in thrall of his older brother and contender for the top job, David Miliband.
Up to now there had been a noticeable lack of enthusiasm for Red Ed, as he is also known (due to his closeness to the trade unions). So he used the conference limelight to tell his “story”, in which he repackaged himself as part of the ordinary masses. He spoke about his family background (he is the son of Jewish refugees) and his middle-class background as well as his comprehensive school so that people in the country can now make a clear distinction between him and Mr Cameron, who is considered to be a “toff”. It was a clever move and it has made the pundits in the party much more mellow. So just as Mitt Romney, the US Republican presidential contender, has managed to throw off the underdog tag, so has Ed Miliband.
….and I have to say I rather enjoy listening to politicians who can communicate well (even if the message is not very thrilling) after the din of Indian politics where everyone either seem to be screeching or mumbling, in accents that are hard to follow.

And I had, sadly, the same complaint about the Indianised version of Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Iqbal Khan, which is playing at the Noel Coward theatre, as part of the World Shakespeare Festival. The festival, in different languages and styles, has run throughout the spring and summer at more than 30 stages all over the UK. Basically both established and emerging artists had been invited to join in the celebration of presenting the playwright who simply never seems to go out of fashion. He was the original great communicator.
In this particular production, Much Ado was transplanted into “contemporary” Delhi, in a palatial home with a banyan tree in the courtyard. While the talented and versatile actress, Meera Syal, stole the show as Beatrice, unfortunately the same could be said about any of the other performers. Even I, with my ear trained for following Indian pronunciations (after years of listening to unintelligible politicians in India!) had a tough time, and the British couple sitting next to me was floundering as well. Fortunately, since it is a well-known comedy (though probably not the Bard’s best) it was fairly enjoyable. Of course, it also would have helped if some of the other players had come up to Meera’s standards — but unfortunately even the diminutive hero, who is at the heart of the play, was not able to really project herself. The costumes too left much to be desired, and surprisingly, as Shakespeare’s comedies are usually quite bawdy, this rather puritanical production (except for one song) reminded me of the plays we used to do in our convent school. In fact, given the chaotic sensuality of present-day India the play did not quite manage to capture either the spirit of Delhi or the spirit of Shakespeare. Indian actors in the UK (barring Meera and perhaps Robert Mountford as Friar Francis) will just need to work harder! Come on, folks, surely we don’t lack talent.
One person who might have helped with the acting was the commentator, actor and author Suhel Seth, whom we met at a get-together at his hotel, while he was passing through London. It was an eclectic crowd, and included the entrepreneurial Lalit Modi, who seems to be still following cricket in India very keenly. None of Suhel’s soirees can take place without the presence of gorgeous women. One was the long-legged author, Aita Ighodaro, in whom Salman Rushdie, once upon a time, had taken a lot of interest, and she remains a friend. Since Rushdie’s interest in women is legendary (I also met an author in Australia with whom Rushdie had been involved) I can only say that had Rushdie been younger perhaps, Aita would have been ideal.