“Mera Kuch Samaan: Celebrating Gulzar” theatre festival in Delhi[June 20-23]
Mera Kuch Samaan: Celebrating Gulzar
Delhi: recently, filmmaker and lyricist Gulzar quite insightfully said that ‘Theatre is continuously trying to re-invent itself, especially at a time when performances and live mediums are becoming rare and scarce’. What he seemed to emphasize in not just a survival strategy for theatre but a responsibility in the changing times. After all, among all the spectacles, theatre seems the most unbeatably intimate one. Theatre has succeeded in adapting to a series of technological and social changes that seemed insurmountable, but proved to be temporary obstacles.
Gulzar said “Somehow you will feel entertained, but the level of feelings and emotions has gone down. The number of regional film festivals has decreased because of commercialisation of cinema. But, strangely, literature festivals in regional languages have gone up. The need for the survival of regional languages is important now.” Gulzar made these statements at the opening of a three-day theatre festival, “Mera Kuch Samaan: Celebrating Gulzar” in Delhi on June 20-23.
New forms of theatre, “one of the most popular live performance formats, play a vital role at this point in keeping regional literature, language and live mediums alive,” he added. ”Indian literature has to reach the Indian audiences.”
Explaining what he meant by the continuous re-invention of theatre, Gulzar said ‘The healthy and thinking Indian mind was always finding new ways to reach out, which was why despite all the ‘brashtachar (corruption)’, Indian democracy is still alive.’
Conceived to celebrate Gulzar’s legacy, The Gulzar festival it began with a play, “Kharaashein”, and will feature “Sunte Ho” and “Arre! O’ Henry” on subsequent days. The festival will end with Gulzar reading from his collection of poetry and discussing the art of theatre with Mumbai-based director Salim Arif.
The festival is named after the lyrics of a song, “Mera Kuch Samaan…” written by Gulzar as an elegy for estranged lovers in the movie “Ijaazat”. The song has been famous/notorious for the use of highly prosaic lyrics in an emotionally sensitive scene where one would expect heightened lyricism. In fact the late composer R D Burman is said to have compared the lyrics to a news report from a newspaper, refusing to clothe it with melody and did so after great persuasion. Strangely however, the experiment works and conveys the intended message.