Q&A with Dr Vijaya Mehta: 81-year-old drama queen takes centre stage

Making a tacky plastic chair look almost regal with her grace 81yearold Dr Vijaya Mehta is in her element while announcing her latest venture a workshop for midlevel theatre professionals Though stately the twinkle in the eye and the naughty smile offer a glimpse of her vivacious side and put us at ease instantly Winner of several national and international awards including the Padma Shri Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Rashtrapati Puraskar and the Maharashtra Gaurav Mehta has mentored the likes of Nana Patekar and Vikram Gokhale and is now all set to train gennext ExcerptsDr Vijaya MehtaQ Tell us about Indian theatre in the 1940sA I was fortunate to be a Renaissance baby I was 12 years old when we got Independence donrsquot calculate my age Itrsquos when everything exploded We were the first young generation mdash the teenagers of Independent India We needed to have our identity We were surrounded by the need for exploration of creativity in literature painting and theatre Theatre had gained momentum in Europe for different reasons World War II had devastated many European countries and as a result there was the need to express So theatre grew We inherited that restlessness and tried to find new ways of expression At that time it wasnrsquot about popularity or money there was none It was about the need to understand and growQ You came from a cinema backgroundA I was a Jaywant There were two famous Marathi actresses Nalini Jaywant my cousinrsquos daughter and Shobhana Samarth Tanuja and Nutanrsquos mother She was my sisterinlaw When they knew I wanted to act they assumed Baby as I was called then would join films too Nobody told me not to but I was totally absorbed by theatre I was also not interested in the kind of cinema being made then Cinema changed a lot later Itrsquos a personal decision It is natural if you do well in theatre to move to cinema because it is a larger canvas but you need to be sure about the kind of cinema You have to find maturity in your own art form The money and fame has to follow and not the other way roundQ Did you study theatre professionallyA I am learning even today Whatever you learn in a creative art form is never enough The more you grow in the process of understanding and perception the more is the necessity to learn I went in search of gurus who were stalwarts of Marathi theatre I did my first play Othello when I was 18 the actor who played Othello was 60 They had a fund of knowledge I went to Ebrahim Alkazi to watch how plays were conceptualised and written From then I went on a rampage and I grew I travelled to to Germany and the USA Of course I was also invited but wherever I went I attended workshops I learnt how to appreciate onersquos gifts and develop them I watched Peter Brooks during the making of The Mahabharata Itrsquos important to see the manifestations of various art forms that you are so interested in If you are genuinely into something your learning never stopsQ Is theatre able to compete with the entertainment options available todayA At one point people believed that television and video would completely sweep theatre because it was available at home The human mind and its sensitivity however showed that after 10 years theatre emerged much better defined People went to the theatre to avoid what was dished out to them on television National theatre became an international event and then television borrowed from it In all performing arts there is a cycle There is a peak and a plateau Itrsquos not just in India but everywhere Like in cinema the peak at that point was Satyajit Ray Nothing is permanent It goes and comes back It has to learn and rise to its potentialQ Will you work with a playwrightdirector from the younger generationA In all my years of working I was very choosy I had to agree with the playwrightrsquos ability to take of layers of experiences I have only worked with five playwrights mdash Vijay Tendulkar Chintamani Tryambak Khanolkar Jaywant Dalvi Mahesh Elkunchwar and Vasant Kanetkar If something comes my way and if I like it I mightQ What makes this programme different from othersA I was Chairperson at National School of Drama for four years These workshops are not as structured as the theatre courses available There are no lectures I learnt the most as an observer We donrsquot have that system but in many places including New York and San Francisco there are workshops where you pay to watch a director from theatre or film to see to them rehearse and work on a scene Itrsquos tough to get a seat I learnt so much from watching Peter Brooks doing improvisations with his actors I learnt a lot about sequencing That is what we want to do Observers at times learn more than participants Itrsquos designed for people who have already decided that they want direct act etc Thatrsquos when you need to take decisions and make choices about the right way Itrsquos been my questQ Was there a difference between the regional and English theatre that you didA There was never a regional difference The advantage that Marathi theatre had was that we worked with manuscripts We hardly had any printed scripts In Bengali theatre too because of continuity of tradition we had many original plays to work with which was our advantage In English and Hindi that wouldnrsquot always happen When I was growing there were people from across India doing similar work Except that I was fortunate that I had Vjay Tendulkar and Chintamani Tryambak Khanolkar to write for me They had to find somebody Q Did you enjoy working with adaptationsA They have to be extremely well done otherwise they misfire I have done some that didnrsquot work They had great star casts We thought people would flock to the theatre but they didnrsquot I played a rebel queen once in a play with Rangayan which was a great example of melodrama I was draped in saree because it was an adaptation People couldnrsquot identify with it There were no queens here who ran away It was a Russian queen I havenrsquot done too many apart from experimentationsFrom May 2 to 6 10 am and 4 pmAt Mini Auditorium Ravindra Natya Mandir PrabhadeviCall 24365990