Aditi Pancholi (BOMBAY TIMES; August 6, 2019)

Shabana Azmi took to the stage in Mumbai (August 3 and August 4) and Delhi recently to portray the role of Manjula Sharma, an internationally bestselling author in Alyque Padamsee's play, Broken Images. Written by Girish Karnad in 2005, this solo act tells the story of two sisters — Manjula, a not-so-successful Hindi writer, who suddenly gets international acclaim when she writes in English, and Malini, an intellectual paraplegic. “This performance is a tribute to the two stalwarts of theatre. Alyque, who directed me in the play, had directed my mother Shaukat Azmi, 50 years ago, and Girish Karnad, the writer of the play,” said Shabana, when the play was staged in Delhi.

SHOT PRE-RECORDED SEGMENT IN 44 MINUTES: SHABANA AZMI
Talking about the challenges that she faced while rehearsing for the play, the actress told us, “The whole story is between two sisters. The older sister, Manjula, is the live character who is speaking to a recorded frame on the television. The basic challenge is that you must remember that the recorded frame is a pre-fixed image, which was done in one shot. In films, I have never done 44 minutes in one go, because you don’t have that kind of films at all. We had no idea how this was going to play out, and we had booked the theatre hall for three days. To everybody’s surprise, it was the first take that went on so smoothly. I feel it went like that because I was so relaxed and thought that it was a rehearsal. It was only in the 40th minute that I woke up to the fact that it was coming to an end.”

She added, “What was amazing was yahan on the one hand, we had given three days to shooting, and Alyque just looked at it and said, ‘It is done, pack up.’ Alyque and I had some disagreements in the beginning, but then I went along with what he wanted, and realised that all the notes that he had asked me to hit were the notes that work with the audience.”

Pointing out another challenge, she added, “When you are working with co-actors and if you fluff your lines or make a mistake, then someone else (co-actor) takes up or covers up for you. In this play, the other actor is a fixed frame, so she is not going to come to your rescue. You have only yourself to depend on, and the basic challenge is that she is not constantly looking at the image, she is facing the audience and yet because the image is constantly moving ahead, you cannot miss time. So, to be able to get it technically right and yet keep the emotional core real is obviously a challenge.”

HOW SHE IMPROVISES ON STAGE
Sharing some personal anecdotes related to the play, the actress said, “At one of the shows, when I went behind the TV screen for a scene, I pulled a plug by mistake and the screen went blank. I did not know what to do, and it was only instinctively that I went back and managed to plug it in again. When I came back, the image also came on, and the audience thought it was on purpose. So, this is how things can go wrong on stage, but one needs to improvise.”

She added, “Another occasion that I will never forget is when we were staging a performance of this show in Rohtak before a 1,800-strong audience, and one of the organisers came up to me and said, ‘Ma’am, only 20% of the audience present here understands English.’ I told him, ‘Isn’t it too late in the day to discover that?’ He said, ‘Madam, aisa kariye ki kuch Hindi mein bhi kar dijiye.’ I knew he didn’t know anything about theatre. Nonetheless, I went on stage and enacted the entire play in Hindi. I had no idea how that happened, but I guess, when the actors get into that groove, it happens.”

WONDERED WHO TO EMPATHISE WITH OUT OF THE TWO SISTERS: AUDIENCE
Shubhangi, who came along with her friend, Rohan, said, “It is a well-crafted, multilayered play by Girish Karnad. It was a great delight to see Shabana ji perform the act so convincingly. Throughout the play, we kept wondering who to empathise with – Manjula or Malini. It made the play an engaging and entertaining watch.”

Rashi Gupta, another audience member, added, “I felt the use of the prerecorded image that played Manjula’s confessor and inquisitor stole the attention from the actor’s live character. It also highlighted an important fact that how vernacular writers feel writing in English can make them wealthy and secure in their careers.”

THE AUDIENCE BECOMES THE THIRD PARTICIPANT IN THIS PLAY: SHABANA
Talking about the relevance of the play, the actress said, “There is a Manjula and a Malini in each one of us, male or female, in the compromises that we make in life and how in order to keep our sanity tell all kinds of lies. Girish’s obsession with masks, you can see it has been going on for a long time and when you peel off that mask, you can see what happens.” She added, “We have done so many shows of this play, but why it is still alive is because the audience almost becomes the third participant in the play. Till date, I haven’t been able to figure which of the two sisters my sympathies lie with. I asked Girish and his answer was, ‘I am the writer and you are the actress, you figure it out.’ I said, ‘Thanks, that’s very helpful!’ Sometimes, the older sister scores and sometimes the younger one, so that is what keeps it alive. I haven’t pre-determined which of the two I want to empathise with. My performance decides whose side I am on.”