Broken Images
It is hard to write an objective review of Shabana Azmi's performance in a film. I feel constrained having to choose between wonderful and brilliant in every sentence. She has the same effect on me on stage. In 1996 I saw her in the play Tumhari Amrita तुम्हारी अमृता adapted by Javed Siddqui. Her co-actor was Farooque Shaikh who plays the politician Syed Zulfiquar Haider and Shabana Azmi playing the painter Amrita Nigam. It was was perhaps in one of the most powerful performances I have seen in theatre. The play originally called Love Letters was written by AR Gurney, to describe the romantic and poignant relationship between childhood friends Melissa Gardner and Andrew Makepeace over fifty years. The story unfolds through the letters the two characters have written to one another.Recently I saw Shabana's stunning performance in Broken Images. Written by Girish Karnad, the play is directed by Alyquee Padamsee. Broken Images is based on Odakalu Bimba, a hugely popular Kannada play written by Girish Karnad. The same play was translated in Hindi as Bikhre Bimb. The play opens with Manjula Sharma, a moderately successful Hindi writer whose first novel in English has been noticed in the Western world. She is a "star author". The opening scene shows her in a television studio, giving one of countless interviews. She talks about her life and her philandering husband Pramod and to Malini, her crippled sister whose story inspired her. The story takes a twist as the television screen on stage comes alive.Shabana's performance is riveting. She is not playing a double role in the traditional sense but more like portraying two facets of the same character. It is the relationship between her and her image, and at no point can we say that the image is actually her, her conscience, or whether it is her younger wheelchair bound sister Malini. The conversations between the character on stage with the image on screen is what sets Shabana apart as an actor. She argues, pouts, and cajoles her image on screen who is talking to her in this psychological thriller.Shabana's performance in the play is "jaw dropping" because of its timing. She reacts to 42 of the 60 minutes play talking to her image who in turn responds to her. Somewhere she had explained the challenge by saying, "Technically, it's a huge challenge, because the image that I play lasts for 42 minutes and it is a single take. I have never done it in my 30-year career - to give just a single take. When there are two actors playing different characters, you have the ability to improvise, but you can't do that here and it's frightening." While the Manjula on stage asks herself whether she betrayed her mother tongue and identity by adopting a global audience. Her own image on the TV screen plays psychologist and interrogator all rolled into one.At a symbolic level, the dilemma is what writers in regional languages face. While the number of people who read English fiction is miniscule compared to the readership in say Malayalam or Hindi or Bengali, the media tends to pay disproportionate attention to the English writers in India. The money and glamor all lies in writing in English. Should one write for commercial considerations and for an audience whose taste is not as evolved? I often think that is why the artists, poets and singers needed the royal patronage. When market forces drive art and literature, how does that change the quality of ideas that see the light of day?To be free of commercial considerations and pursue art for its own sake. That is the conflict that is the base of the symbolic sibling rivalry between Manjula and Malini in Broken Images.The ending is brisk and takes a sharp turn like the sudden hairpin bend you experience while driving up a mountain. Go see the play when you get a chance. I loved it. Written by Girish Karnad, directed by Alyquee Padamsee and with Shabana on stage in a stunning performance - need one say more?------------