B’wood makes way from screen to stage

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It was one of the most critically acclaimed movies of its time. Mahesh Bhatt’s Arth created ripples in the mid-eighties for bringing to fore a bold theme like infidelity to the big screen. Now, the director is planning to bring it back, as he thinks its relevance is “more today than the earlier times”. However, instead of a movie, he wants to bring it back with a stage adaptation.
Usually, it’s the other way round, especially in India where the plot in the plays make for a movie.
“But in the West, it happens all the time,” says actor Tannishtha Chatterjee, who has dabbled in both theatre and film in India as well as London. She thinks the amalgamation of any form of art is a good idea. “Being inspired by one form of art to create another is the best thing to happen to art,” she says as she recalls how celebrated dancer Pina Bausch’s performance has inspired filmmakers always.
However, in the present case, she thinks that converting a film’s story for stage can be a little tricky. “The writing for both the mediums is completely different; a film’s screenplay can’t even become a rough draft for a play. One has to start afresh with just the story in mind. Besides, there are other limitations as well, like, the representation of the outdoor scenes on stage becomes difficult,” she adds.
Theatre artist Bubbles Sabharwal too likes the idea of changing and morphing art forms. “But an idea like this comes with its own constraints,” she says and continues, “In a film, one can make something interesting with visuals, but on stage, it is just the dialogues and its delivery that works. You have to connect with the live audience instantly. There’s no time to build an atmosphere. Thus, actors should be careful not to lose out on expressions and emotions,” she says.
Ishwar Shunya, a known name in the Delhi’s experimental theatre circuit, says that it’s not that people haven’t tried adapting films to plays, but the number remains low. “A local group tried doing an adaptation of The Godfather. It didn’t do quite well and was soon off the stage. It’s a risk to turn something classic like Arth to a stage production. It has to be strong aesthetically and performance wise,” says Shunya.
The team behind the adaptation of Arth understands it well that the venture is going to be difficult. Imran Zahid, who will be portraying Kulbhushan Kharbanda’s character from Arth in the stage adaptation, says that they are taking up the adaptation as a challenge. “Bhatt saab wants the play to create the same magic as the film. We are planning it on a grand level with popular names like Huma Qureshi and Swara Bhaskar playing Shabana Azmi’s and Smita Patil’s characters respectively,” says Imran and adds that since the film was all about women, Bhatt wants to rope in a female director.
Theatre artist and actor Juhi Babbar, suggests, “The theatre scene, especially Hindi theatre, is not very good in India. The development of the plot needs to be intriguing. The essence of the film should be retained and popular names should be considered to attract the right set of audience,” concludes Juhi.