Habib Tanvir | |
|---|---|
 Habib Tanvir atPrithvi Theatre,Mumbai; November 2005 | |
| Born | Habib Ahmed Khan (1923-09-01)1 September 1923 |
| Died | 8 June 2009(2009-06-08) (aged 85) |
| Occupation(s) | Playwright, dramatist, poet, actor |
| Years active | 1945–2009 |
| Spouse | Moneeka Misra (2001-2005) |
| Children |
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| Honours | Padma Shri (1983)Padma Bhushan (2002) |
Habib Tanvir (1 September 1923 – 8 June 2009[2]) was one of the most popular IndianUrdu playwrights, a theatre director, poet and actor.[2] He was the writer of plays such as,Agra Bazar (1954) andCharandas Chor (1975). A pioneer inUrdu andHindi theatre, he was most known for his work withChhattisgarhi tribals, at the Naya Theatre, a theatre company he founded in 1959 inBhopal. He went on to include indigenous performance forms such asnacha, to create not only a new theatrical language, but also milestones such asCharandas Chor,Gaon ka Naam Sasural, Mor Naam Damad andKamdeo ka Apna Basant Ritu ka Sapna.[3][4][5]
For him, true "theatre of the people" existed in the villages, which he strived to bring to the urban "educated", employing folk performers as actors alongside urban actors.[6] He died on 8 June 2009 at Bhopal after a three-week illness.[7][8] Upon his death, he was the last of pioneering actor-managers inIndian theatre, which includedSisir Bhaduri,Utpal Dutt andPrithviraj Kapoor,[9] and often he managed plays with a mammoth cast, such asCharandas Chor (Charandas the thief), which included an orchestra of 72 people on stage andAgra Bazaar, with 52 people.[10]
During his lifetime he won several national and international awards, including theSangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1969,Jawarharlal Nehru Fellowship in 1979,Padma Shri[2] in 1983,Kalidas Samman 1990,Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 1996, and thePadma Bhushan in 2002.[11] He had also been nominated to become a member of the Upper House of Indian Parliament, theRajya Sabha (1972–1978). His playCharandas Chor won him theFringe Firsts Award at Edinburgh International Drama Festival in 1982,[12] and in 2007, it was included in theHindustan Times' list of 'India's 60 Best works since Independence which said : "an innovative dramaturgy equally impelled by Brecht and folk idioms, Habib Tanvir seduces across language barriers in this his all-time biggest hit about a Robin Hood-style thief."[13]
He was born inRaipur, Chhattisgarh[2] (erstwhile Madhya Pradesh) to Hafiz Ahmed Khan, who hailed fromPeshawar.He passed his matriculation from Laurie Municipal High School,Raipur,[2] and later completed his B.A. from Morris College,Nagpur in 1944. Thereafter he studied M.A. for a year atAligarh Muslim University .Early in life, he started writing poetry using his pen nameTakhallus. Soon after, he assumed his name, Habib Tanvir.
In 1945, he moved to Bombay, and joinedAll India Radio (AIR) Bombay as a producer. While in Bombay, he wrote songs for Urdu and Hindi films and even acted in a few of them. He also joined theProgressive Writers' Association (PWA) and became an integral part ofIndian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) as an actor. Later, when most of the prominent IPTA members were imprisoned for opposing the British rule, he was asked to take over the organisation.
In 1954, he moved to New Delhi, and worked with Qudsia Zaidi's Hindustani Theatre, and also worked with Children's theatre, where he authored many plays. Later in the same year, he produced his first significant playAgra Bazar based on the works and times of the plebeian 18th-century Urdu poet,Nazir Akbarabadi, an older poet in the generation ofMirza Ghalib. For this play he brought together local residents and folk artistes fromOkhla village in Delhi and students ofJamia Millia Islamia creating a palette never seen before in Indian theatre. Additionally, the play was not staged in a confined space, rather a bazaar, a marketplace.[14] After this, he continued to work with non-trained actors and folk artistes like the folk artists of Chhattisgarh.
In 1955, when he was in his 30s, Habib moved to England. There, he trained in Acting atRoyal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA)[2](1955) and in Direction atBristol Old Vic Theatre School (1956). For the next two years, he travelled through Europe, watching various theatre activities. One of the highlights of this period, was his eight-month stay inBerlin in 1956, during which he got to see several plays ofBertolt Brecht, produced byBerliner Ensemble, just a few months after Brecht's death.[15] This proved to have a lasting influence on him, as in the coming years, he started using local idioms in his plays, to express trans-cultural tales and ideologies. This, over the years, gave rise to a "theatre of roots", which was marked by an utter simplicity in style, presentation and technique, yet remaining eloquent and powerfully experiential.
A deeply inspired Habib returned to India in 1958 and took to directing full-time. He producedMitti ki Gaadi a post-London play, based onShudraka's Sanskrit work,Mrichakatika. It became his first important production inChhattisgarhi. This was the result of the work he had been doing since his return – working with six folk actors from Chhattisgarh. He went on to found "Naya Theatre", a theatre company in 1959.
In his exploratory phase, i.e. 1970–73, he broke free from one more theatre restriction – he no longer made the folk artistes, who had been performing in all his plays, speak Hindi. Instead, the artistes switched to Chhattisgarhi, a local language they were more accustomed to. Later, he even started experimenting with "Pandavani", a folk singing style from the region and temple rituals. This made his plays stand out amidst the gamut of plays which still employed traditional theatre techniques like blocking movements or fixing lights on paper. Spontaneity and improvisation became the hallmark of his new theatre style, where the folk artistes were allowed greater freedom of expression.
His next venture with ChhattisgarhiNach style, saw another breakthrough in 1972, with a staging of the play titledGaon Ka Naam Sasural, Mor Naam Damaad. This was based on a comic folk tale, where an old man falls in love with a young woman, who eventually elopes with another young man.[16]
By the time he produced his seminal play,Charandas Chor in 1975, the technique became popular. This play immediately established a whole new idiom in modern India theatre; whose highlight wasNach – a chorus that provided commentary through song. He also brought inGovind Ram Nirmalkar, a noted Nacha artist who would later go on to winPadma Shri andSangeet Natak Akademi Awards, to play the lead role.[17] Later, he collaborated withShyam Benegal, when he adapted the play to a feature-length film, by the same name, starring Smita Patil and Lalu Ram. He was awarded the prestigiousJawarharlal Nehru Fellowship in 1979 for research onRelevance of Tribal Performing Arts and their Adaptability to A changing Environment.[18] In 1980, he directed the playMoti Ram ka Satyagraha for Janam (Jan Natya Manch) on the request ofSafdar Hashmi.
During his career, Habib has acted in over nine feature films, includingRichard Attenborough's film,Gandhi (1982),Black and White and in a yet-to-be-released film on the Bhopal gas tragedy.
His first brush with controversy came about in the 1990s, with his production of a traditional Chhattisgarhi play about religious hypocrisy,Ponga Pandit. The play was based on a folk tale and had been created by Chhattisgarhi theatre artists in the 1930s. Though he had been producing it since the sixties, in the changed social climate after theBabri Masjid demolition, the play caused quite an uproar amongst Hindu fundamentalists, especially the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), whose supporters disrupted many of its shows, and even emptied the auditoriums, yet he continued to show it all over.[19]
His Chhattisgarhi folk troupe, surprised again, with his rendition ofAsghar Wajahat'sJisne Lahore Nahin Dekhya in 1992. Then in 1993 cameKamdeo Ka Apna Basant Ritu Ka Sapna, Tanvir's Hindi adaptation of Shakespeare'sA Midsummer Night's Dream.[20] In 1995, he was invited to the United States by the Chicago Actors Ensemble, where he wrote his only English language play,The Broken Bridge. In 2002, he directedZahareeli Hawa, a translation ofBhopal by the Canadian-Indian playwright Rahul Varma, based on theBhopal Gas Tragedy. During his illustrious career he brought works from all genres to stage, from ancient Sanskrit works by Shudraka, Bhasa, Vishakhadatta and Bhavabhuti; to European classics by Shakespeare, Molière and Goldoni; modern masters Brecht, Garcia, Lorca, Gorky, and Oscar Wilde; Tagore, Asghar Wajahat, Shankar Shesh, Safdar Hashmi, Rahul Varma, stories by Premchand, Stefan Zweig and Vijaydan Detha, apart from an array of Chhattisgarhi folk tales.
In 2010, at the 12thBharat Rang Mahotsav, the annual theatre festival ofNational School of Drama, Delhi, a tribute exhibition dedicated to life, works and theatre of Habib Tanvir andB.V. Karanth was displayed.[21] The 13thBharat Rang Mahotsav opened with an Assamese adaptation of his classic playCharandas Chor, directed by Anup Hazarika, a NSD graduate.[22]
He was the recipient of
among other national and international awards during his lifetime.[23]
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