The resolve! - Manjul Bhardwaj

 The resolve!

The resolve!

-

Manjul Bhardwaj

Nostalgic to revisit 27 years of your creative journey. Thrilling to relive those moments of wonder, anxiety, curiosity, pain, agony, disbelief, lack of confidence, loneliness among the Mumbai crowd, adventure to explore new path in life, zeal to find new horizons in the world of Theatre!

The destiny of Theatre was written before YOU that as an amateur perform in some plays, groom your talent and throw yourself for consumption in Bollywood to fill your belly. Who knows you may get some fame, glamour & money to survive. In between when you get some free time then you oblige the down trodden ladder of theatre by performing time pass plays in the only abode of Hindi Theatre in Mumbai. That’s all.

This scenario was unacceptable to me. But there was no clarity either. Commitment was there to live for & in Theatre. After long day & night’s catharsis for months clarity starts evolving… apt questions start emerging. Why I want to live in Theatre? What is my aim in life? Why theatre? What is theatre? How this art form evolved? What attracts me in Theatre? What’s connects me in Theatre which arouses a new creative wave in me to sail through all my life!

After going through the history of Theatre, memoirs of different actors, playwrights, philosophers and icons of theatre across the world, a 22 year old young science graduate, a would be doctor or commission army officer or at least a professor from Haryana communed his life to Theatre !

He narrated his purpose of theatre and named it “Theatre of Relevance”

Fundamentals of Theatre of Relevance

• A Theatre that commits its creative excellence to make the world more “Better & Humane”.

• A Theatre relevant to the context of the society and owes its responsibility, not to Art just for the Art sake.

• A Theatre caters to human needs and provides itself as a platform for expression.

• A Theatre that explores itself as a medium of constructive change and/or development.

• A Theatre that comes out from the ‘limits of entertainment’ to a way of living & empowerment.

He defined his definition of theatre.

What is Theatre?

“Theatre is a performance (an expression) of human thoughts, feeling, experience and it’s purpose”

Delighted to attain this clarity of purpose. Next challenge was how to actualize this philosophy. After churning through various possibilities came to conclusion that the clarity of theatre & aim of life is my capital. Identified the essentials of theatre i.e. performer & audience. The minimum & maximum requirement of Theatre is that you need a performer & audience for theatre to happen. Rest is luxury & most of the time useless.

With this resolve I started preparing plays with the slum youth in Mumbai on their day today issues. As I was moving for my purpose the world around me was also moving thick & fast.

Globalization was gripping the world into its fist. World was becoming unipolar from bipolar. The World Bank & IMF were threatening the developing countries for structural changing. The developing country was succumbing to World Bank & IMF dictates. India also signed the treaty & opened its economy to market forces.

India was trapped in Mandal, Kamandal & Bhumandal ! The right wing political outfits were organizing Ram Temple yatra to polarize the society on religious lines. Ram was thrown again as a symbol of one community’s pride. On 6th Dec ,1992 Babari mosque was demolished by right wing goons & Indian state collapsed. Government of India was failed to protect ‘secularism’, the core of Indian constitution. Society was engulfed to communal hatred. Riots erupted across India. Mumbai was also gripped by communal tensions.

… to be continued…