That Curtain Call…

This Naya Theatre was folk magic and high art, as rooted and relevant as Habib Saab and his amazing band of committed Chhattisgarhi actors
Salim Arif Mumbai

These RSS-walas only remember the rise and might of Hitler, they don't remember the way he went...

This was Habib Tanvir commenting in reaction to the attack he continuously faced during the staging of the plays - Jamadaarin and Ponga Pandit. The attacks would follow him almost like a ritual - to be performed by VHP/Bajrang Dal forces or their proto-types - even in remote places like Lohardaga in Jharkhand or a cosmopolitan city like London.

Performing under constant physical threat and the threat of violence, he and his team comprising largely of Hindu tribals from the interiors of Chhattisgarh braved all this relentlessly to continue in their creative journey. A highly protracted and productive journey of aesthetic commitment which began in 1945, and will perhaps take a pause now, on  his passing away in Bhopal on June 8, 2009. He was born on September 1, 1923 in Raipur.

Tum apni aawaaz ki jhankaar mein kho rahe ho... This was the comment given to a young aspiring poet Habib Ahmad Khan with the pen name of 'Tanvir' by Niyaaz Haider in the 1940s in a Bombay commune of the legendary Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA). Gifted with a deep voice and charming personality, the aspiring actor and a popular poet acknowledged for his tarranum (reciting poetry in ad lib singing), was made to introspect the importance of content over form, and the danger of embellishments diluting the intensity of expression. Two elements, which became the core of Habib Saab's oeuvre over the years.

From Morris College in Nagpur in 1940 to landing in Bombay via a sojourn at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Habib Saab went through a variety of vocations from 1945 till 1953, including writing for film magazines, editing a textile magazine, besides being part of the IPTA and Progressive Writers' Association (PWA) as an active member in plays and literature. The thrust of these progressive organisations of that time made him re-look at his native Chhattisgarhi performing traditions with new vigour and insight. His interest in music and poetry and his concern for the underdog manifested in full bloom in Agra Bazaar, the incredible play which became his first major landmark in Indian theatre.

By now, his foremost passion, a desire to train professionally in theatre, took Habib Saab to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London and Old Vic Theatre in 1954 post his celebrated Agra Bazaar. A little later, he traveled extensively in Europe till 1958, watching, absorbing theatre presentations including some of the famed Berlin Ensemble ones. They had a greater influence on him than his British RADA training which he left midway as he found the emphasis on speaking correct Ws and Vs quite futile for someone wanting to work in a language other than English.