Film Screening at Sarai

Sarai will screen two immensely interesting films on Habib Tanvir, My Village Is Theatre, My Name Is Habib (Gaon Ke Naon Theatre, Mor Naon Habib) and Dancing at Eighty: Habib Tanvir's Naya Theatre on 24th August 2009, at the Seminar Room, CSDS.
The film screenings will start at 4:00 pm.


Synopsis of My Village Is Theatre, My Name Is Habib (Gaon Ke Naon Theatre, Mor Naon Habib)
Directors: Sudhanva Deshpande & Sanjay Maharishi.

They crisscross the country by road and by rail, living out of suitcases and trunks, singing, dancing, performing. 'Naya Theatre' is a professional theatre company of rural actors from Chhattisgarh, founded in 1959. The company is led by Habib Tanvir — actor, writer director, singer, poet, designer, teacher.
Through interaction with the actors in their villages, the making 'Zahareeli Hawa', Tanvir’s translation of Rahul Varma's English play on the Bhopal gas tragedy, and incidents such as the time when Habib Tanvir and the actors came under attack from the Hindu Right in 2003 for performing 'Ponga Pandit', the film looks at life in Naya Theatre as the actors tour one city after another, performing continuously.



Synopsis of Dancing at Eighty: Habib Tanvir's Naya Theatre
Made on the occasion of Habib Tanvir's eightieth birthday, Mahmood Farooqui's documentary provides a slice of life account of Naya Theatre at work. Made with rudimentary equipment and sometimes technically poor, the film parallels, in some ways, the poor infrastructural condition in which the theatre was produced.

The film creates two parallel streams. One part of it deals with the vision, aspiration and world view of Habib Tanvir which relies on interviews with him in a green room, at the final dress rehearsal, while he rehearses on an open terrace amidst jagran bhajan loudspeakers in Bhopal and at his house.

The second part of the film contains conversations with his actors many of whom have now died or have retired including the legendary singer Bholua Ram, Govind Ram Nirmalkar, Poonam Tiwari and Chaitram. The actors have a different and bittersweet understanding of their practice, of their journey and their own regrets.

Not aspiring to any completeness the film merely puts the conversations on a public platform, leaving the audience to work out their own wholeness.