Romancing arclights, after 14-year haitus

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ALL FAIRYTALES are not always fair enough. Our fairy goes to the perfect gold-palace and gets the treasure of worldly wealth and status, but alas! Her wings would hit against the walls every time she would fly. The palace becomes cage and wealth becomes locking chains. The fairy decided to come out of the tale and be a part of the real world, but the question was who would kiss her and break the spell? Unlike pre-set plots, she chooses her rescuer. Theatre became the princely-kiss Smita Bharti required to come out of her 14-year-long limbo and fly high.
Writer, director and actress, Bharti has acted, directed, written and translated more than 27 plays and books in the last decade. She has been experimenting with grassroots equality and rights-based issues in her productions.
Bharti had been active on stage since her school days, but moved away from the spotlight for almost 14 years after her marriage. Her comeback story is inspirational for many theatre enthusiasts. “I came back hungry with open mouth, breathing and drinking life in full speed. I did everything for being in the theatre space — changing costumes to cleaning stage. I just wanted to fill the gap of 14 years I spent behind closed doors. I wanted to learn and understand right from the scratch.”
When Bharti restarted, she did it on all levels. She rented a flat and offered it to her artistes friends as a free rehearsal space. Classical bandish for a wake-up call, and transformation to a high energy conundrum of rehearsing artists right after leaving the bed, gave her a unique rebound into the world she had left far behind — in the most natural, organic, and nurturing manner without ever becoming overbearing.
One moment which changed Bharti’s life in real sense was her rendezvous with Sakshi, a Delhi-based NGO. “The magic moment is crystal clear in my mind. While working with Katha, my first job post-lavish life, I got an offer to do theatre with victims of third-degree domestic violence. I threw all the traditional scripts and reinvented the concept of docu theatre for these women. I used theatre as a medium and took these women through their memory lanes and arrived at a stage where they turned survivors from victims. It gave me a medium to rediscover life at various levels. It set my tone and gave direction to my existence,” she says.
Bharti loves weaving her stories around women. “I connect with women all the time. It has lot to do with my personal life, people I live with, women I meet at work. Women have limited choices. Through the medium of theatre, I am constantly seeking other choices that can be created for this human kind.”
Bharti’s preference for new scripts encourages her to create her own. While she is writing, she enters a world where is alone, quiet — almost sitting inside a bubble. When she is directing, her preference shifts to emotional texture of her script. She merges her vision with the energy and orientation of her actors. But when Bharti acts, she changes place with the characters of her fictions and lives like them even in her real life. Bharti, who has emerged as an active face of the Delhi theatre, believes in the moment when a person transcends the state of inertia and choicelessness and confronts the imperative to take responsibility and make choices.
For her, it’s never too late to seek a newer world. Age is no barrier. And all that matters is the spark within that is always burning bright.