The life of a Theatre addict

Falah Faisal

One of the first things you will notice as you watch Zafer Mohiuddin rehearse is the stick he holds in his hand. He assures us that it is strictly for comfort and not to intimidate his actors. “I found it while I was doing the Zikr-e-Ghalib play and found it very comforting. Since then it has been a constant at all my rehearsals,” he says as we sit and talk in the Alliance Francaise auditorium where he is presenting his latest –Mohan Rakesh’s Aadhe Adhure.

His love for theatre started very early on in school and he began writing and performing his own skits when he was in Class 11. But hailing from Raichur, he didn’t see much growth potential until he moved to Bangalore when he got admission to an engineering college. “I started off with doing Kannada theatre, and then I did English theatre with Bangalore Little Theatre where I learned stagecraft. Slowly I moved to television but it wasn’t until Malgudi Days with Shankar Nag that I got my break in 1986,” recollects Mohiuddin.

This led him to meet Girish Karnad with whom he shared a 20-year-long working relationship. He even adapted Karnad’s Dreams of Tipu Sultan into Urdu as Tipu Sultan Ki Khwab. “There were not many people proficient in Hindi at the time so whenever someone needed anything written in Hindi, they would call me,” he says.

He adds that despite that theatre attracted him more than the lure of television. That also made him realise that he was a better director than an actor and he pursued it with a passion. He says, “Theatre is a medium through which what I want to say, issues that I want to highlight, I can do through the plays I write.”

Some of the plays he has written and directed are Zabaan Mili Hai Magar, Vastu Chakkar and Shaadi ki Kirkiri based on Sadiqa Peerbhoy’s Marry Go Around. Most recently he directed Jisne Lahore Nahi Dekha by Asghar Wajahat which he did over 10 shows across the city right after the pandemic.

What takes more priority though – life or art? “I feel they are both intermingled. In your life art is there and art needs life in order to exist. They are both connected. A painter has his canvas, a poet has his pen and paper and we theatre artists have the stage,” he says.

He believes it is really important to work backstage and get the understanding of working of a play in order to become an actor because unlike film theatre it doesn’t function with a star system. “Theatre is a collective effort and I like working with people who are grounded,” he adds.

“Bangalore always has had a lot of Kannada theatre. There is some English theatre but now there are very few groups. I decided to perform in Hindustani (a mix of Hindi and Urdu) because that’s my mother tongue and I can communicate better in it. Earlier, I used to have a hard time finding actors but because of the immigration of a lot of people from the north to the city, it has become easier for me,” says Mohiuddin, who has worked with mostly untrained actors and teaches them from scratch giving new faces an opportunity to emerge.

He has spent over three decades on stage. Has he witnessed any major changes? “Well, now with technology some people say ‘I can’t come to see your play, can you send a link instead.’ This really cracks me up. This is slowly becoming a dying art owing to competition from movies and OTTs. And actors who start getting roles in serials or films after doing one or two plays, they stop doing theatre,” he says, citing examples of people like Naseeruddin Shah who still takes time out to do theatre despite having numerous film accolades.

“You should not forget from where you have started,” he adds. Despite having houseful shows, it is very hard to earn from doing theatre so does life in theatre mean you live in poverty? “See, I don’t do theatre for money, and I also tell my actors also ‘If you’re coming for money, please don’t come. I do theatre because it is my passion; this is a place where you can learn. So join us.’Many people have many habits – many of my friends go to the race course and bet on horses, and some go to clubs and drink. I do theatre in the evenings,” he explains.

“When I finish a show, I start feeling empty inside and start to get bored with no rehearsals. So I immediately start looking for another play to perform,” he says. It sounds more like an addiction than a passion.

(You can catch his latest play Aadhe Adhure at Alliance Francaise at 4:30 pm & 7 pm on Sunday, June 26)