How ‘Papaji’s’ films funded Prithvi Theatre

Kala desh ki seva mein was the emblem of the Prithvi Theatres. The ’40s and ’50s were impassioned times. I was going through Crossroads, a communist magazine that, ironically enough, was edited by my father-in-law, and I was amazed at how people engaged with the times back then. That engagement works on a superficial media-hype level today. At an IPTA and

Communist Party meet, Prithviraj raised Rs2,500 rupees in his traditional jholi that he used to carry around. He said in his speech, “There’s a fire burning in our nation, and we have to douse it out… I am not a member of any  party, but this is not the time to look at the colour of each other’s buckets. We need to put out the fire.”

I was curious why Prithviraj is not remembered more for his theatre, if he did such pioneering work. But I realise the plays did not live on as scripts, they were of his time, and written with specific company actors in mind. These actors could sing, act and dance professionally, which is near impossible to find today.

But that’s the passion we want behind the festival this year. We interpreted the theme by choosing plays that show responses to the social scenario. It’s not as though the theatre in our country reacts imaginatively to the farmers’ plight or the riots. We are very slow to pick up and artistically react to our concerns. So when we found 28 productions, we were delighted.

We are also working on creating an exhibition on Prithviraj. Of course, there is a huge story of his cinema, but it is not part of our festival. For me, what was delightful when researching his past was to hear the voices of his contemporaries. Shambhu Mitra talks about how Prithviraj tried to consciously create realistic theatre. The plays broke away from the Parsi theatre traditions that were the rage at the time; he says one felt as though one were hearing the words uttered on stage for the first time.

Zohra Sehgal once asked Prithviraj, “Why  the plural? Why Prithvi Theatres?” and he replied, “I wish there were many Prithvi Theatres all over the world that do what we do.”

There is a larger-than-life aura about him, and I’m trying to get through it to understand the man. I can tell the theatre bug bit him very early. His very first roles were women’s parts when he was in college — apparently he was devastatingly beautiful! Most people don’t realise that theatre wasn’t a stepping-stone to cinema; he created his company at the peak of his cinema career. And he regularly pumped money into Prithvi Theatres.

I think theatre of our kind will always need help. Prithviraj did mean to use the existing plot as a theatre space, but by the time his voice was going, he had to disband the theatre company. Ironically, we are standing on the temporary workshop space that my parents set up. We’re very fragile!

As told to Karishma Attari