Courtesy of Motley ProductionsNaseeruddin Shah.The third edition of the Tata Literature Live's Mumbai LitFest opened Wednesday at the National Center for the Performing Arts. Over five days, the festival offers a mix of panel discussions, book launches, workshops, poetry readings and performances. Participants include the Nobel Prize laureate V. S. Naipaul, the historian Faramerz Dabhoiwala, the psychoanalyst Juliet Mitchell and the journalist Scott Carney.
On Friday evening, the director Naseeruddin Shah will perform a reading of short stories and poems of James Thurber and Vikram Seth. Mr. Shah is widely recognized as one of the finest Indian film and stage actors and directors. He has won numerous film awards during the course of his career, and he has also received the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan civilian awards from the Indian government for his contribution to Indian cinema.
Mr. Shah recently spoke to India Ink about the state of cinema in India, his theater group and his connection with Indian youths.
In recent years, Mumbai has become host to various festivals in the realm of theater, film, music and the arts. What are your thoughts on the cultural scene in Mumbai today? Do you think the city's reputation for not being as culturally exciting as Delhi is changing?
I think it's a complete myth because Mumbai is far more culturally alive than Delhi. On any given evening in Mumbai there will be about 20 different plays in different neighborhoods and different languages. Whereas whenever I visit Delhi I scan the papers and I'm hard pressed to find a single play to watch. There is such a lot happening here in terms of art galleries, music programs, theater festivals â€" I think Mumbai deserves the title of the cultural capital of India.
The festivals that occur each year are like a gathering of the fraternity of that field, and I think that it is wonderful that literature is being celebrated. I do hope it makes some difference to the younger generation and encourages them to read. Communicating great writing has been part of my aim over the course of my career, and I have often done enactments and readings of writing from the subcontinent. At Literature Live, I'll be doing a reading of James Thurber and Vikram Seth with a group of three others, including my son and my daughter, which I'm excited about.
What do you think is the one thing you would like to see change in the Indian cultural scene?
I think if somehow reading could become a part of our culture and upbringing, it would be fantastic. Maybe it will happen in this generation. I feel like the previous generation did not, by and large, read much great writing. I think exposure to great literature makes a huge difference.
What is your opinion of the state of cinema in India today? Is there a vibrant parallel cinema or art cinema scene?
There is a healthy parallel cinema culture in India, with youngsters attempting to make movies in the language they know and about problems that concern them and issues they understand. I think these films are far superior to the films that were made in the '70s. We no longer have people sitting in air-conditioned rooms in Mumbai making movies about landless laborers in Bihar. Now people from Bihar are making movies themselves.
I'm very excited by a couple of young filmmakers. There is this young fellow called Qaushik Mukherjee in Kolkata who goes by just Q, who I find really interesting. Also of course Anurag Kashyap and Dibakar Banerjee are doing some fantastic work.
Is there audience interest in viewing offbeat and art cinema?
I don't think the audience has changed much â€" they still want their daily dose of mindless masala. I think that now mainstream cinema has become part of the daily diet, it is accepted and digested, and cannot be done away with. But there is a niche audience for parallel cinema, and for that I am thankful.
Across all the different avatars you have had as an actor and director on stage, in Bollywood and Hollywood â€" what would you say has been your favorite? What have you enjoyed the most?
It's difficult to say, and I've enjoyed most of my career. The ones I've enjoyed I was good in, and the ones I didn't enjoy doing, I did not fare very well in. But I would say the t elevision series “Mirza Ghalib†is at the top of the list.
What has been the most challenging aspect of your work?
I think now the challenge is to try and stay fit and healthy, and somehow find a connect with the youth of today, which is very stimulating. I am very impressed with young people today. I do a lot of teaching at various institutes, and I love interacting with the students there.
Motley Productions, the Mumbai-based theater company you co-founded with Benjamin Gilani in 1979, has received several accolades and performed in India and abroad over the years. What are your plans for Motley?
My plans as long as I live are to keep it running and keep doing interesting work. I also want to ensure that Motley does not become synonymous with my name, as I want the company to outlive me, so we purposely do a number of productions in wh ich I do not act. There are still a couple of plays in my wish list, and among them is “Saint Joan,†a play by George Bernard Shaw. Outside of that, I am grateful for the support we have received and hope that we are able to do the work we love for a long time.
What other projects are you working on?
At the moment there are no movies on my plate. I've done one movie, “John Day,†which is a vendetta story of an ordinary man driven to murderous acts because of the trauma he experiences. The film has been directed by Ahishor Solomon and produced by K. Asif and Anjum Rizvi, the person who brought out “A Wednesday.†That should be coming out next year.
