Neelam Mansingh, anchoring the roots!

Neelam Mansingh Choudhary has been honored with Sangeet Natak Akamedi Award in 2003 and Padma Shri Award in 2011 for her extraordinary contribution in Indian theatre. And believe me, she is one of the most simple going, humble, sweet and classy woman you'll ever meet. 

This Punjabi woman is not unknown to the city and neither Bhopal is unknown to her. Neelam Mansingh Choudhary settled in Bhopal in 1979 when Bharat Bhawan was just an idea. She is one of those artists who inaugurated the stage of Bharat Bhawan when the cultural hub was established and that makes it more emotional for her and also for the city. Along with the artists of her Chandigarh based theatre group ‘The Company’ Neelam Mansingh came down to the city for her show in Bharat Bhawan few months back to stage the play 'The licence' based on the story of Saadat Hassan Manto, and let me remind you Manto is a dare! 

I had spoken to Neelam ji on phone few days before she reached Bhopal, thanks to Sourabh Anant, and she had asked me to come down to Bharat Bhawan on the previous night of the show where she directly reached from the airport. Late at night on a Tuesday in November 2014, preparing the lights for her show next day, Neelam ji didn’t need a question for the push to speak. She instantly said, “I thought that the show is a part of some festival but it is a standalone performance. However for me it’s like coming home in a strange kind of manner where all the people I knew are dead. There is an emotional connect with the city. And you know we inaugurated the stage with Nirmal Verma’s ‘The Weekend’. It’s really wonderful to be here again!”

Vishakha: When you were in Nationa School of Drama, Ebrahim Alkazi was the Director and when you joined Rangamandal of Bharat Bhawan you worked with B.V. Karanth. Both of them are legends and are two different schools. How did that training influenced you in your learning years with them?

Neelam ji: I think I was very fortunate to work with the two legends of Indian theatre. Alkazi was a renaissance man, like a sage and philosopher, working on realism, rehearsals and design. What I really got from Alkazi was very invaluable that is the work culture and a sense of detail. Whereas Karanth ji was an anarchist and he used to work on improvisations, spontaneity of the actor, what we call people’s theatre. The association of four and a half year with Karanth ji in Bharat Bhawan lasted for another 22 years. His collaboration with my company in music is just unforgettable and inseparable. So it was between a sage and an anarchist. I think I completed my education in theatre like this. I feel lucky.

Vishakha: How did you come to Bhopal after NSD and why going back to Chandigarh?

Neelam ji: Both were not my choice. I came to Bhopal because my husband got transferred and the same reason for going back. When I came here, I knew nothing about the idea of Bharat Bhawan but I was fortunate to be at the right time at the right place. When I had to go back, I was heartbroken. Mere bas mein hota to main Bhopal se kabhi nahi jati! Look at this space, it is so beautiful, the art gallery, Antarang, Bahirang, kahan milta hai ye sab! There were people like Nirmal Verma, J.Swaminathan and one of the exciting directors like Karanth ji, who would ever want to leave all this!

Vishakha: And then you started working in Punjabi…

Neelam ji: This is what Karanth ji said when I was very upset. He said if you want your theatre to be contemporary, work with you own language. You can’t move towards modernity without anchoring somewhere. And there was this big challenge with Punjabi theatre as there were many crazy notions like language of truck drivers, funny characters like cartoons on screen and Punjabi theatre was considered downtrodden. It was like dismissing a language and the culture. It was almost a political decision, unconsciously, and Punjab was a troubled state at that particular time. What Karant ji said to me was non-negotiable and so I realized the need of working with the language and style because people also need to know that Gurumukhi is a beautiful language and the Sufiyana Kalam also comes from the same land.

Vishakha: What about Naqqals specifically?

Neelam ji: Most of my ideas generated while I was working here in Bhopal with Rangmandal, this is why I consider this place as my Karmabhoomi. B.V. started getting the Nacha, tribe tradition, group from Bundelkhand for some projects. Those interactions were not to get us in a particular tradition but to help us open and unlock our tied up energies. And this was not only Karanth ji’s idea but Pannikar was doing it with Chakyaars and Ratan Thiyyam was doing it in Manipur. In Chandigarh, I was working with many aspects of Punjab, martial arts, Sufi etc. and I came across Naqqals. There were many reasons for the deterioration in that tradition and many things were changing. Naqqals had skills but that wasn’t like Jatra and others. I thought this is a tradition needed to be worked on.

Vishakha: What do you think about the recent theatrical activities and conditions?

Neelam ji: This is difficult to say. If I were living in some other country I could have answered that but India has got such a huge traditional variety. It is difficult to see Indian theatre from one aspect. But yes, I think that money is a big issue. Surviving on theatre is difficult; it is uncertain and financially disturbing.

Play: 'The Licence'

Sa’adat Hasan Manto is that one writer of all times who is a dare to be performed on stage. The intensity of emotions and psychological hammering in his stories creates instability inside the reader. One such story of Manto ‘The License’ was staged in Bharat Bhawan that had certain references from Bertolt Brecht’s story ‘The Job’. With the third bell and lights off in the auditorium, audience was prepared for something spectacular to happen.

The story deals with the life of a girl Neeti who runs away with a Tongawala named Suraj. After few months of their marriage the police finds out the couple and arrests Suraj. Neeti tries to insist the cop that she ran away willingly and Suraj did not force her but her husband is put behind the bars. Due to ill health in the jail, Suraj dies after two months but since he had given his Tonga on rent to one of his friends Deena, Neeti used to get a fixed amount every day. After Suraj’s death, Deena proposes Neeti for marriage but she refuses and later she is raped. Neeti decides to move on and get the Tonga herself on road. She would take people on her Tonga and earn a livelihood but one day a cruel traffic police stops Neeti and demands to see her license. Neeti doesn’t have the license so she said she will come to the office tomorrow and apply for it. The next day when Neeti reaches the office, the officer tells her that she is a woman and can’t run a Tonga on road. Neeti says she doesn’t know anything else, how will she survive? The officer tells her to sit in the market and sell her body. The height of anger crosses the limits and Neeti had no option than to wear her husband’s cloths and become a man to run her Tonga.

The play began and it was only after one hour that the audience realized it was a play. Dumbstruck, no one there could take their eyes off the stage. Many a times there were silence of speech but the movements of the actors were narrating the story, sincerely followed by everyone.  The play was like story telling where Ramanjit Kaur played the roles perfectly, bringing the soul of every character in her body. There was a character in background filling up the scenes, acting with the reference of the ongoing story and interacting with Ramanjit’s characters played by Gick Grewal. The music was live, beautifully designed on the set in a corner where the singers were sitting in a circle with the kerosene lamps. Music was designed by B.V. Karanth who was associated with The Company for 22 years. The folk music of Punjab was amazingly put in to enhance the play performed by Pamela Singh, Meher Chand, Bahadur, Satman Ringh, Ram Singh and Amarjit. Lights get the big compliments for the best output of the emotions throughout the play. Daulat Ram Vaid designed the lights and Parveen Jaggi executed with perfection. Properties were another fascination in the play. Water, milk, Tonga, bench, kerosene lamps, bucket, cloths, bricks, everything was used on stage as per the need. Everything was real!