Twice as good

When two creative forces get together, the least you canexpect is fireworks. That’s how it is with the Alyque Padamsee-directed play‘Broken Images’ that has veteran actress Shabana Azmi doing a solo act. Theplay begins on a rather humorous note with an introduction of writer ManjulaSharma to the audience. When Manjula, a mediocre writer of Hindi, suddenly getsinternational acclaim and popularity for a book that she writes in English, sheeventually starts wondering if she has betrayed her own language and identity.And as the act progresses around Manjula’s character and her life, it turnsinto a thriller that eventually has the audience in a tight grip, and thinkinghard.

Shabana Azmi essays two roles or rather two facets of onecharacter – Manjula and Malini - and the constant dialogue between them is madepossible thanks to digital technology used on stage, a first in India. This, asshe points out in the course of an interaction after the staging of the play inPune, poses a big challenge because unlike other plays, there are no liveactors to set the cues with. “The image has been pre-recorded and so are thedialogues and therefore it is not going to wait for me if I happen to make anyslip in my timing or forget a particular line or have to improvise on the spot.I have to constantly be on my toes and match my performance with the digitalimage. It has been a very different kind of experience for me,” she says.

For someone who has vowed audiences through her earlierplays like ‘Tumhari Amrita’ and ‘Kaifi Aur Main’, Shabana says that she agreedto do ‘Broken Images’ because of the very fact that it has been penned by noneother than Girish Karnad, who first staged it in Kannada and Hindi. “I hadneither seen the Kannada version nor the Hindi version. This script was alsowritten by Karnad and so there is no deviation from the original. I simplyworked with the material that was handed to me without concerning myself withthe original,” Shabana states. “Doing a play is always so different from actingin films. Once you are on stage there is no scope for errors, and particularlyso in ‘Broken Images’. Also, we have an interaction with the audience in theend and have received various reactions. It is overwhelming,” she adds.

Elaborating about the thought behind the play, Shabana says,“It is more important to take note of the relationship between her and herimage and so smooth is the transition from one to the other that the audiencesometimes wants to sympathize with both the characters. This is what becomes sothought-provoking. Else it would have been so difficult to retain the attentionof the audience with just one actor and a digital image on the stage for almostan hour.” But is it worth taking such a big risk in view of the fact that eventhe slightest technical glitch with the beamed image and the recorded voicecould shatter the play’s rhythm and flow? Shabana ponders over that one for awhile. “Doesn’t everyone want to push the envelope further? So it is with thisplay. It just takes theatre into a different realm all together,” she replies.