Criticism does not offend me: Naseeruddin Shah

Just a few minutes before Naseeruddin Shah stepped onto the stage to transport audiences into physicist Albert Einsteinrsquos world with his play Einstein at Prithvi Fest 2014rsquos opening day on November 5 actor Denzil Smith made an announcement ldquoOnly two things are infinite the universe and human stupidity and Irsquom not sure about the formerrdquo he said quoting the brilliant scientistOne of his shortcomings believes Naseeruddin Shah is that he canrsquot come up with fictional situations And thatrsquos probably the reason why he doesnrsquot think he can write a play PicSatyajit DesaiThis was the Motley Theatre Grouprsquos slightly quirky way of telling the audience to put their mobile phones on silent mode Anyone whorsquos ever attended a play would empathise with theatre actors who often have to put up with shrill ring tones right in the middle of a performanceBut itrsquos the slightly amusing way of asking audiences to keep their phones on silent mode that has now more or less become the trademark of a Motley production ldquoIt makes me so angry when peoplersquos phones ring during a performance that now Irsquove decided to get amused by itrdquo Shah explainsDressed in a lime green linen shirt and beige trousers the veteran stage and film actor is in a relaxed mood when we meet him at his Bandra residence Sharing an anecdote about the quirky mobile phone announcements Shah recalls an incident when he was staging The Prophet and was delivering an extremely serious dialogue about deathAll of a sudden a phone started ringing ldquoI was reminded of a similar incident with tabla maestro Zakir Hussain when he was performing at a concert He turned to the person whose phone it was and said lsquoIf itrsquos for me tell them Irsquom busyrsquo I did the same The lady was completely embarrassed and scuttled out The next day I got a profusely apologetic note from her and she turned out to be Mrs Yash Choprardquo he guffawsBackstage musings Ringing mobiles aside the other thing that gets his goat is when strangers insist on meeting him backstage following a show ldquoAfter a show ends there is this great amount of warmth that emanates from the audience especially if itrsquos been a good performance Itrsquos not as if Irsquom not interested in their reactions I certainly am but I prefer to interact with the audience a week or 10 days after they have seen the playrdquo says the talented artisteThe reason explains Shah is that the audience would have by then taken time to ruminate about the show and give him productive feedback As for garnering reaction for Einstein he says ldquoI got plenty of positive feedback and a few negative ones which I later realised were quite helpfulrdquo says the actorAnd although the next show of Einstein happening today wonrsquot see any drastic changes Shah does more than hint at the possibility that the production could change beyond recognition in a year from now ldquoThe real understanding of a play after all comes to you when yoursquore out there performingrdquo he musesCraft of criticismThe 64yearold reveals that he doesnrsquot get offended by criticism anymore He was subjected to some pretty harsh criticism for his Bollywood directorial debut the 2006 dud Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota but the firstandselfadmittedlylasttime director takes it sportinglyldquoI read all the negative reviews there were no positive onesrdquo he laughs adding that while some critics were just settling scores with him most others made a lot of sense His recentlyreleased autobiography And Then One Day mostly garnered good reviews but he admits to have encountered a few cynical ones too ldquoIrsquom not going to make the mistake of writing another book I will get roasted Irsquom surerdquo smiles the maverick actor