Rangashankara for Rave Magazine, 2005

 

Rangashankara 

 

Bharat Muni’s Natyashastra, the worlds oldest treatise on stagecraft, was often called the fifth Veda, so much was the wisdom and knowledge contained in it. It presented an analogy faultless in its logic and poetic in its vision- that the human body itself is the site for theatre. The mouth is the theatre space, it urged, the vocal resonators the actors who translate and project, and the audience your fellow human beings. If this is so, then Rangashankara, the multi-facility arts centre and theatre in Bangalore is the most articulate mouth in India.

 

The brainchild of Arundhati Nag, nee Rao, Rangashankara is built in the memory of her late husband, Kannada actor and director Shankar Nag. Arundhati, with over 30 years of experience in the theatre of many languages realised the need for a small space for the vibrant amateur theatre movement in Bangalore- a city where there are no real theatre-based spaces, where for a play, you can hire the hall of a cultural centre which is cheap, but has no acoustics to speak of, or attempt to raise funds to rent a huge space that was originally meant for musical events only, and nothing in between. 

Bangalore’s need was for a well-equipped arena for small local Kannada and English theatre groups as well as national and international performers. Arundhati envisioned a space that was exclusively for theatre and could also be used for dance, music and performance art. 

 

Created in the spirit of the Prithvi theatre in Mumbai, and with the larger purpose of bridging the divide between vernacular and English theatre, Rangashankara is only months away from completion, but at one time it seemed a distant dream. An idea born eight years ago, Rangashakara got underway in October 2001, and the estimated cost of the project was over 3 crores. Several individuals, corporates, even the state and central governments contributed to the building fund in cash or kind, and miraculously, there only remains 40 lakhs to be raised to complete the building. Arundhati tells of a computer engineer who sends Rs 600 every month from his limited salary. The community feeling for the project is immense, with big names like SG Vasudev (he designed the logo), Naseeruddin Shah (lent his voice to the promo), Rajeev Menon (shot the promo), Peter Mukherjee (of Star, who is airing the promo), and Shabana Azmi, contributing to the project, and Rangashakara promises to give much back to that very community.

 

Rangashankara is designed by Bangalore-based architect Sharukh Mistry, consulting with the legendary MS Sathyu and Arundhati for inputs into the specific needs of theatre spaces. Its capacity is only 300 seats, and to hire it will cost a theatre group only Rs3000 a day, leading Arundhati to laughingly describe it as a “black hole”. To keep it going, she hopes to be able to form a corpus, or get a corporate partner who will underwrite the project, like the Prithvi has done. “Maintenance is the killer”, she says. “I need at least Rs 2 lakhs a month for just that.”

 

Rangashankara stands on a quarter of an acre of land in Bangalore’s JP Nagar, a simple, yet effective structure with curved walls waiting to be painted blue, khaki and black, the colours of Rangashankara. Inside, you get the feeling of spaces leading into spaces, different levels ascending and descending- then you realise that every corner serves a purpose. The millions of details that go into the making and maintaining of a theatre leap out as Arundhati takes you on a tour up steps, around lighting catwalks and down ramps.

 

The ground floor is a gloriously open area surrounded by a café, a bookstore and the box office. In the centre is the space where the children’s workshops that are planned for every day of the school year will be held. This is also the space for informal performances by fledgling theatre groups or pre-play specials.

 

You are led up a staircase to the first level, where you walk quite suddenly into the curved expanse of the theatre itself. The stage is 40 ft long and the seating occupies another 40 ft (as per the natyashastra). The stage is still a gaping hole, but you can see that it will be a thrust (a stage that extends further out of the traditional proscenium arch stages we are used to), and can become traditional proscenium arch if needed. Arundhati explains that it will be a revolving stage, the first of its kind in Bangalore. There is even a trapdoor upstage, and a door cut into the back of the stage to bring in big sets. The cyclorama can be raised up and out of the way. You catch your breath at the possibilities these features provide for experimental work- and even conventional plays can be made so much richer by the use of these devices that are old hat in the west, but exciting innovations for us in India. The high accordion shaped ceilings and the amphitheatre-like seating add an almost surreal quality to the space. 

 

The acoustics in the theatre have been treated with great care- they are possibly the single most important, sensitive detail in a theatre. Using an acoustic consultant, it has been ensured that even a whisper on stage will clearly reach the last row of seats. Even the inner contours of the building have been designed so that sound carries but the echo is minimised. 

There are 50 lights, 30 of which are given out with the space, and 20 are optional, with 25 more connections. The lighting grid that can come down on a pulley, and extensive catwalks, make certain of a high level of professional and experimental lighting being possible. On hand to help will be a trained crews and a technician for lighting and sound connections. “Now if only I could find a way to stop mobile phones ringing during a performance”, says Arundhati wistfully, already having restricted the entry of babies and latecomers (who can watch the show from a latecomers gallery on the second level)

 

Other features like a huge backstage area, 4 greenrooms, a provision for a film projector for documentary showings, and video recordings of every performance are added benefits for theatre groups. Great attention has been paid to community responsibility, with wheelchair access everywhere, proper fire exits, an art gallery on the upper floor, translation apparatus for 30 seats which is also disability compatible, and special shows for the elderly- and of course the childrens’ repertory.

 

Plans are also being made to start a film club, and extensive archives of the performances. There will be a script bank, sound bank, a music bank, as well as information on how to acquire material not available in the archives/banks, contact playwrights, pay royalties etc. the large terrace, which can also be used for performance has been made strong enough for another floor to be built.

 

Rangashankara is an extension of our community’s need for culture and creativity. A space where people from all economic and social levels can come together to perform or be entertained. A centre of positive energies, channelling new ideas, new scripts, and new directors. Creating audience loyalty and a zone where one can walk in 365 days of the year and know there will be something to feed one’s soul.

 

(2005)

Real Life Heroes for City Reporter, circa early 2000s

  

BHAGYA AND RADHAKRISHNA

 

Ok so this is going to sound cheesy. But to those in the know, the two people I’m going to rave about are worth every column centimetre of gush. I’d be hard-pressed to find people in this world who I can seriously describe as selfless, dedicated and brilliant, but Bhagya Rangachar and Dr V.Radhakrishnan are who I want to grow up to become. Who have made the world a better place to live in, who reinforce the goodness and creativity of humankind.

 

Bhagya is the prodigal NRI. A software professional, she moved back to Bangalore in 1997 for a year and never went back. Instead, she decided to do something about the children at the construction site she used to look at through her window everyday. A small start- a midday meal at a government school in Basavanagudi led to the formation of one of Bangalore’s most active NGOs-the Children’s Love Castles Trust, or CLT. The name perfectly indicates Bhagya’s vision- to create a framework of love and support for disadvantaged kids to ‘build castles’ for a better future.

 

I first heard of CLT at a time of transition in my life. My mother Bharati Chanana and her friend Beena Bhandari were volunteers with CLT’s adopt-a-school programme, and were looking after a primary school in the Purnapura slums. One morning in March two years ago, for lack of anything better to do, I met up with Bhagya and was taken on a grand tour of CLT’s projects in and around Jakkur- the midday meal school, the Purnapura slum school and kitchen, and the learning centre being constructed on the grounds of the government middle and high school in Jakkur. 

 

This last project was what ignited my interest- along with the new Intel Clubhouse, it was to be a centre for extra- and co-curricular activities for the kids from the school- activities like theatre and computers and art, rainwater harvesting, writing for newspapers- all to be integrated with their own syllabus. Training for teachers and summer workshops were all part of the plan. I was hooked, just as are the several far more active volunteers of CLT, all inspired by Bhagya’s drive- a drive she cannot quite define, which is not even conscious most of the time, but seems to have a spark and life of its own! 

 

CLT’s main thrust is to give back to the community, to merely act as a catalyst for development work. Which will then be taken over by the now empowered community, which starts to identify with it and feels responsible for carrying the work forward. And all through, the vision that Bhagya started with and fatally infects everyone she meets with, has remained the same- that the child is the nucleus, at the centre of the development process which must involve the family, the school and the community. 

 

Meeting and talking to Bhagya, I am zapped by her spirit, her enthusiasm and her sheer stamina- how does she do it? She was a long-distance runner and is an avid fan of Himalayan treks, so perhaps that gives her the endurance to deal with slum politics, corruption, government departments and who knows what else. And smile right through it all.

 

Dr Radhakrishnan is a world-famous astronomer, a pioneer in the field of radio astronomy. Several deans of universities abroad owe their positions to him- he’s actually asked to recommend who will occupy which post. He lives in the C V Raman Institute with his wonderful wife Dominique. (incidentally, he’s the son of CV Raman, not that you would know it to talk to him). This Einstein look-alike is an amazingly interesting man. Widely travelled (he has lived and gone all over the world to lecture and research astrophysics) he has stories in every port and friends of every nationality (and therefore Dominique has guests all the time!). Lots of parenthesis there…but that’s because its so hard to classify Rad, as he is known to everyone. What do you call a man who with minimum resources, builds micro-lights and flies them, constructs boats and sails them, sometimes halfway around the world, who is part of a small, exclusive group of world class astro-physicists, and has contributed more towards science than most people alive or dead, in his 70 odd years?

 

Rad never talks about any of this, except when he reminds me to learn how to make chapattis so I can be a crewmember on the new wing-sail boat he’s just designed when he sails it on the Brahmaputra or across oceans. (Besides his regular meal of rasam and rice, Rad simply loves chapattis. I’m convinced it’s the only reason he comes so readily to our house for dinner.)

 

Recently, he was given an award by a big industrial house, a small token to honour him for a lifetime of contributing to not just Indian, but international scientific development. And building the first Indian micro-lights. Perhaps even a tiny gesture of thanks for his discovery of the Van Allen belt of Jupiter or his brilliant work in the field of pulsars.  Foreign governments line up to get him to their universities to lecture. In any other country, films would be made and books written about his adventures as a sailor and his discoveries as a scientist.  Most Indians are hardly aware he exists. But not a word of complaint, or a jot of vanity. Give him his boat and his rasam and some young people to talk to, and he’s a happy man. 

 

What makes these two people special is not just their extensive roll call of actual achievement- Rad’s pulsar astronomy and years of training young scientists or Bhagya’s every successful programme. It’s the complete abnegation of the self. Without being saintly, there is in both the sheer spirit of giving and doing, the courage to forge ahead with no plan B.  Expecting nothing but a personal satisfaction in exchange. And doing it all with a sense of humour that truly cracks me up.