Vijaya Mehta, NCPA And People’s Culture
By Vidyadhar Date
13 May, 2013
Countercurrents.org
Vijaya Mehta, well known actor and director, has this interesting observation in her recently published autobiography. There was a true flowering of art and theatre in the Bhulabhai Memorial Institute at Warden Road in the early 1960s. Painters M.F. Husain, Akbar Padamsee and Gaitonde did their paintings in their studios here . In another room Ravi Shankar used to hold rehearsals of his group called Kinnar. Sachin Shankar worked on his ballet in one room and sculptor Piloo Pochkhanwala worked in a shed.
All worked on a shoe string budget. Rangayan, the pathbreaking and most famous experimental theatre group in Marathi, flowered in the same premises. It was headed by Vijaya who was then Vijaya Jayawant and this group brought Vijay Tendulkar to the fore.
The institute was set up in memory of Bhulabhai Desai, a freedom fighter, prominent lawyer and Congressman on his sprawling estate with a lovely garden. It was run with the initiative of Soli Batlivala. He charged Rangayan a nominal fee and in fact gave it a donation to support it.
Rangayan also managed to become self supporting by enrolling more than a thousand members in three weeks in Mumbai in 1960 and in Pune 600 members were enrolled in three weeks in 1963.
Mrs Mehta gives the information in a matter of fact way. But the point that emerges is that art does not need expensive institutions to thrive. Theatre Academy of Pune which staged the memorable production of Ghashiram Kotwal grew out of the dedication of artistes like director Jabbar Patel and actors like Mohan Agashe , Satish Alekar , Chandrakant Kale and music director Bhaskar Chandavarkar. Jabbar used to travel up and down by train between Daund and Pune for the rehearsals. Some of the best experimental theatre in Mumbai in the 1970s was done in the Spartan hall of the Chhabildas school in Dadar.
Vijayabai’s autobiography in Marathi titled Zimma is readable and an important contribution to literature on theatre thanks to the writing support provided by Ambarish Mishra, senior journalist who writes well both in English and in Marathi.
Vijaya Mehta’s talent is not in doubt. Even her enemies, and she made quite a few after the break up of Rangayan theatre group, are high in praise of her talent. She has also led a very privileged life. She was born in an upper middle class family, got to work with some of the best talent in Marathi and English language theatre at an early age, married the son of Durga Khote, the celebrated actress, though was unlucky to be widowed at a young age, and then she married Farrokh Mehta, actor and a senior executive in a multinational company. She lives in flat with a fine sea view at Napean Sea Road, has worked at the grassroots in theatre including the open air theatre of the Mumbai Marathi sahitya sangh in Girgaum, which produced some excellent theatre, and was exposed to some of the best theatre in England, and the then East Germany and other parts of the world.
Considering her enormous talent, experimenting endeavour and creative urge, it seems a bit odd that she could work as executive director of the National Centre for the Performing Arts for 16 years. It is a fine institute in some ways, but it can never get over the air of elitism. Perhaps it is because of her upper class association after marriage that she could adjust with the upper class ways of the NCPA.
For quite some time I used to avoid attending programmes at the NCPA because of its elitist image. Over the years one has enjoyed many a rewarding cultural evening at the NCPA. But it still remains a highly corporate entity controlled by the industrial house of the Tatas.Most people are not aware that the NCPA owes a lot to the common masses who feel very unwelcome in the premises. The NCPA has got free the huge land it stands on. It was given eight acres of land reclaimed from the sea in one of the costliest areas in Mumbai free of cost by the Maharashtra government. More shockingly, it is not the common people but the very rich who are getting things free. The site was allotted specifically for cultural activities but a section of the plot has been used for luxury housing for some of the richest people in the country. There can hardly be a more glaring example of the common people subsidizing the rich. But since the rich and powerful are involved this seldom figures in the media. It is much more comfortable for some to eat out of the hands of the rich and have jaunts abroad, all expenses paid. It pays to remain silent. And these are the people who cry hoarse against subsidies to the poor. How can this institution run by people associated with India’s most reputed corporate house run into severe financial problems despite the huge profits which must have accrued with the construction of the NCPA Apartments ?. The profits were supposed to be channelled into cultural activities. And NCPA is now becoming more commercial to meet the said losses.
NCPA has had such reputed directors as Narayan Menon, though he was a bit of a stiff upper lip, and the hugely talented P.L. Deshpande and Vijaya Mehta and there were also fine individuals like music director Ashok Ranade and Kumud Mehta. It is odd that there is no one from the field of culture at the helm and the affairs are now conducted by an expert from the field of marketing, Mr Deepak Bajaj.
Vijaya Mehta remains a firm supporter of the NCPA. She suggests at the end of the book that she showed the same devotion to Rangayan, the experimental theatre group, and the NCPA. But the point she does not mention that the two organisations represent totally different value systems. One was an excellent, creative, experimentative endeavour supported by people and it grew out of the commitment of many. The NCPA is a luxury dependent on grants and enjoying a huge, huge subsidy.
True, the NCPA plays an important role in our cultural life but the point is all the huge corporate profits and government funds ultimately flow from the labour of ordinary people.Resources can be used more imaginatively by democratising our culture, setting up smaller units in all parts of the country. That would really help promote culture, nurture talent that remains suppressed, unrecognised, unseen.
Vidyadhar Date is a senior journalist and author of the book Traffic in the era of climate change. Walking, cycling, public
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