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Theatre can sensitise society
Sajida is settled in Manipur and runs the Treasure Art Association. Being a graduate from the National School of Drama, she has directed plays like ‘Baada’, ‘Swayam’, ‘Romeo Juliet’, ‘A Midsummer Night\'s Dream’ and ‘Hingbageemami’.
Sajida is settled in Manipur and runs the Treasure Art Association. Being a graduate from the National School of Drama, she has directed plays like ‘Baada’, ‘Swayam’, ‘Romeo Juliet’, ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream’ and ‘Hingbageemami’. She has also done a solo performance on Ismat Chugtai's ‘Bhabhi’. She says, today, nautanki has almost disappeared, and the newer generation has very little or no idea as to what this word really means.
Through my journey to discover this form, meeting all the different artists and seeing all the existing styles, what I also came to realise is that for any form to survive, it needs an ability to adapt with the changes in the society and the surroundings. To keep nautanki alive, we have to find new ways of reviving the form, keeping the purity of its music but restructuring the performance and scripts according to the understanding of today. Art is a representation of life, and if the newer generation cannot find itself in these age old forms, then no matter how beautiful the art, it will become obsolete.
Excerpts:
Why did you choose this subject for the play?
I come from a Muslim community and hail from Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. During our childhood we were never allowed to watch ‘Nautanki’. It was in the year 2005 that I got a chance to see a much diluted form of ‘Nautanki’ and thought it to be a very vulgar form of art. When I got a chance to take up a project during my National School of Drama (NSD) days, I could delve into the depth of the original form of ‘Nautanki’ and found that it was much richer form of art with a great emphasis on rich music and good script.
How do you find life in theatre?
Theatre has been a very important part of my life. Joy Maisnam from Manipur has been my batch mate in the NSD course that I studied. Today we are married in life and to theatre.Both of us direct plays and he also acts in some of them.
What is the message that you want to convey through theatre?
For me theatre is all about getting inspired about the happenings in society. I have directed plays that revolve around the life of ‘Iron Lady of Manipur’ Irom Sharmila and the subject of ‘women trafficking’. It’s all about my responsibilities towards things that are happening around us which need to be thought about by the public at large. There is a need to sensitise as many people as possible so that many wrong notions are removed from the public mind.
By Jaywant Naidu
