The first lady of Indian cinema, as Devika Rani is often dubbed, is the subject of a new play by Lillette Dubey. “This was a woman who virtually ran a production house, that churned out women-oriented films on diverse subjects like untouchability and rural nationalism,” says the director. One of her recent ventures was Gauhar, the musical scripted by Mahesh Dattani from the book by Vikram Sampath on one of India’s earliest recording artistes. So, the bio-play is not a genre new to Dubey, who has previously directed a play on Mahatma Gandhi as well. However, a serendipitous encounter with novelist Kishwar Desai — a batch-mate from Lady Shri Ram College for Women where Dubey had completed her masters — sparked off a conversation on the iconic Bombay Talkies star.
Page and stage
Desai is working on a book on Rani, and has access to private letters written by the late actor, many of which were not in the public domain. “Kishwar had done an enormous amount of research, unearthing many interesting details,” says Dubey. “The challenge was that there wasn’t a ready-made play to simply pick up.” Putting the material together took months of parleying between the collaborators, and several drafts later, the project was ready to go on floor. Incidentally, this a rare play by Desai who in 1999, had scripted Manto!. The production is based on the tormented literary genius who was also a Bombay Talkies staple in the 1940s, having scripted several films for the studio, but none featuring Rani.
That Rani belonged to the world of the arc-lights is an important point of connect for Dubey. “She was a path-breaker in many ways, and one of the earliest women from a respectable family to join films,” says the director. The actress lived up to the ripe old age of 86, in Garbo-esque seclusion with her husband, Russian painter Svetoslav Roerich, who she outlived by just a year. It wasn’t Dubey’s intention to condense a lifetime into a two-hour nutshell, instead she focuses on the most dramatic (outwardly, at least) phase of Rani’s life — her tempestuous marriage to Himanshu Rai, which coincided with the rise and fall of Bombay Talkies, one of the most ambitious and prolific production houses of its time. “This is a period that had the most conflicts, the overcoming of obstacles, her relationships; the kind of drama that lends itself excellently to a good play,” says Dubey. Characters like those of Ashok Kumar — a shy reticent man who became a powerhouse of talent — and Sitara Devi — a female composer battling sexism in a parallel field — provide interesting diversions. But the heavy lifting is to left to Ira Dubey as Rani, and Primetime regular Joy Sengupta as Rai.
Role call
Her recent stage forays have witnessed the blossoming of Ira as a thespian of no uncertain calibre — whether it’s her breakout work in Heather Raffo’s Nine Parts of Desire; or her turns as the elemental Nora of Pushan Kripalani’s The Doll’s House. Then there’s her turn as the retiring Laura in Rajit Kapur’s The Glass Menagerie; and holding her own in a strong ensemble as part of A Few Good Men. Devika Rani, also in English, gives Ira yet another character for the ages. As her mother puts it, “Being a trained actress, she left no stone unturned in her efforts to get under the skin of such a grand character.”
Although Desai’s instructions called for excerpts from Rani’s films to be played alongside her personal narrative, Dubey refrained from such nostalgia tripping altogether, “On stage, I wanted there to be just one embodiment of Devika Rani, otherwise audiences wouldn’t be able to completely buy into Ira’s performance.” One signature song, ‘Main Ban Ki Chidiya’, from Achhut Kanya (1936) did make it into the play, sung by Ira herself and set to modern orchestration in a vintage set-piece that will likely do much to tether the work to the period of its setting.
Devika Rani will be staged on September 7 at Tata Theatre, NCPA at 7.30 p.m.; the show will tour multiple venues till September 22; see bookmyshow for details