The Theatre of Ebrahim Alkazi
It was a "terrifying experience" to put together an exhibition on the life and times of theatre doyen Ebrahim Alkazi, confesses stage designer Nissar Allana. "A mere chronology of Alkazi's body of work wouldn't have been able to capture the spirit , genius and vision of the man," says Allana who along with his wife, theatre director Amal Allana, daughter of Alkazi, has conceptualised a retrospective titled "The Theatre of E.Alkazi--A Modernist Approach to Indian Theatre".
So the duo decided to place Alkazi in the context of his times. Through a mix of letters, posters, paintings, installations of stage sets and videos, one gets a good idea of what made Alkazi the leading light of theatre. As one enters the art gallery, one is greeted by large posters of plays directed by Alkazi. You climb up to the first floor to encounter "The Alkazi Times", large recreations of newspapers that cover the happenings of that time. There is news about the release of Gandhi from prison, Rukmini Devi's lecture, Uday Shankar's new choreography of a ballet. Tagore too features in one of the panels.
Black and white photographs of Alkazi's plays also catch the eye. Some prime examples are scenes from plays like "Suddenly Last Summer", "A Physician In Spite of Himself", "The Caucasian Chalk Circle", and the famous "Andha Yug".
Particularly riveting are historical plays set against magnificent old monuments in Delhi. There's "Tuglaq" and "Sultana Razia" among others.
Much hard work has gone into the exhibition. Allana says that it took the couple 20 years of research to get the exhibition off the ground. And it shows. Along with the photographs are extensive texts that reveal Alkazi's multiple talents--as exacting theatre teacher at New Delhi-based National School of Drama, institution builder and mentor of many well known theatre personalities like Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Rohini Hattangadi, Surekha Sikri, B. V Karanth and Uttara Baokar.
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