It's been 40 years of Motley, a group that shaped theatre in the country

Few things give you the measure of a man more than the food he craves. For Naseeruddin Shah, gehu ki roti (chapatis or whole wheat flatbread) and dal, the simple, mildly flavoured lentil dish that is a staple in most Indian homes, are what he misses most when he travels out of the country. Keep it simple is his mantra, at the table, as on the stage.

A similar frugality of desire infuses the Motley theatre group. That is what has kept its body and soul together, say Shah and his wife and partner Ratna Pathak Shah, bustling around their house on a rainy morning in a leafy lane in Bandra, a western suburb in Mumbai. Tea and conversations flow freely, as actors walk in and out, talking about the weather, the city, food.

It is a busy day at the office for the couple. Their house is full, and a troupe of actors is getting ready for rehearsals for Motleyana, a festival of plays that kicks off next week (July 16-August 9). Both are immersed in every aspect of the upcoming celebration, poring over everything — from the design and colour of the T-shirts being made for the occasion to the ads announcing the days and venues and, of course, getting the actors ready for their time under the spotlight.

Kambhakt Bilkul Aurat, sequel of Ismat Apa Ke Naam | Photo: Motley Theatre Group

“For me the theatre that will survive is one that does not let its poverty of resources get in the way. It will, in fact, make it its strength,” says Shah. This has been one of his biggest learnings through 40 years of Motley, on how to survive the ravages of fraying finances and Bollywood. It is interesting to see big corporations taking an interest in theatre, he says. But he’s not counting on it: “Theatre needs commitment and an understanding of the craft, it is more than marketing and finding funds for the next production. And in India it is definitely not about grand spectacular productions, those are one-offs.”

Motley has produced 42 plays, most of which the duo has directed, and even when there is no play on stage, one is always in the works. They — the director and the actors of the group — spend a long time with a play before it makes it to the stage. Because, says Pathak Shah, as one must give a book time to reveal itself fully, so does a play change and mature with every performance.

Naseeruddin Shah in Ismat Apa Ke Naam 1.1 | Photo: Motley Theatre Group

“The years have flown by in a flash,” says Shah. When he and his friend Benjamin Gilani set out in 1979 to work on plays that they wanted to explore further, there was little understanding of exactly what they were going to do. Over the past four decades, Motley has staged several short and full-length English plays and, for the past 20-odd years, adapted Urdu and Hindustani writers such as Ismat Chughtai and Saadat Hasan Manto.

“We did the plays that our budgets allowed,” the partners say, never compromising on the integrity of the story and the storytelling, but keeping a tight lid on expenses and building the company bit by bit. This has helped them keep the plays going until they hit their stride and create a rhythm that sustains the rest of the performances.

Motley has been a considerable influence on contemporary Indian theatre over the years. What would be its formula for success, so to speak, for those who choose to follow its trail? Theatre does not have the luxury of a business model, but it does have its own set of principles. “We concentrate on the text, on communicating, giving the audience a stimulating experience, and spending as little as possible on the production,” Shah says. “Stimulating not their senses, but their minds,” adds Pathak Shah, his partner of 37 years. 
 

She says that the group has learnt to make do with very little, reusing props and wearing each other’s clothes as costumes. Sometimes, she says, they can pull off a play for virtually nothing.

“The only time I self-financed a production was our very first play,” says Shah. Waiting for Godot needed a suit that he bought for Rs 3,000, a princely sum in 1979. “And now, when we took the play to the US, a single ticket cost more than that,” Pathak Shah chimes in.

Caine mutiny court martial 1 | Photo: Motley Theatre Group

The group worked mostly with the English playwrights until the 2000s, after which Motley began its tryst with Urdu and Hindustani. 

Chughtai was the big shift, says Shah, who has often kicked himself for not having read her earlier. But the moment he read her books, he knew they had to go on stage. “Because her stories are so Indian and they are funny. I was mesmerised. I didn’t have any doubts about them.”

Dear Liar | Photo: Motley Theatre Group

“I was a doubting Thomas, though,” says Pathak Shah. “The first time Naseer read out the story, he had to explain every third word to me. But something had got triggered in his head with these stories and so I trusted that.” There is a directness in Chughtai’s storytelling which lends itself to theatrical adaptation, which is not the case with Manto. But the process of presenting what at first reading appeared to be undramatisable, a private and subtle exploration of life, was magical, they say.

Under the spotlight

• Set up by Naseeruddin Shah and Benjamin Gilani, both students at Delhi’s National School of Drama (NSD), the idea of Motley was born in a café in Lucknow
• The group was not christened at birth and the first play, Waiting for Godot, was performed with Majma, a company that fellow NSD alumnus Om Puri had set up. It opened on 29 July 1979 at the newly inaugurated Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai and was directed by Gilani
• Over the 40 years of its existence, Motley has staged 42 plays. Among its longest running productions are Arms and the Man, Dear Liar and Ismat Chughtai’s stories
• Motley’s 40th-year celebrations begin in Mumbai from July 16 at three venues — Prithvi Theatre, Prithvi House and Veer Savarkar Auditorium

It also opened up a whole new chapter in stagecraft. “I finally understood what theatre is all about. It is not about dazzling the audience with special effects. It is about stimulating the mind.” A firm believer in the need to keep the line between make-believe and reality sharply defined, Shah says the books reaffirmed his faith. An actor must stand apart from the role.

Ismat Apa Ke Naam 3.1 (part 1) | Photo: Motley Theatre Group

Represent, step out and step back in, he says. “I detest actors who let their emotions get the better of them.” That is hard, but also immense fun. It also gets the audience to participate, do some work and not just watch passively, as they would a movie or a television serial.
 

Shah enjoys working with Motley actors. “I enjoy it more than acting myself and it will give meaning to the rest of my life to do that. But I find it offensive to charge kids to do that,” he says. His big reward is that all those who have worked with Motley have happy associations with the group, no matter where they are.

There have been lows, too, what Shah calls the “high-lows”. One took place many years ago at the celebrated Mood Indigo, the annual festival that IIT Bombay hosts every December. Motley’s Waiting for Godot was booed from start to finish. One of the actors was so traumatised by the experience that he almost gave up acting. And then at The Hague, the seat of the Dutch Parliament, when they performed Ismat Apa ke Naam with Dutch subtitles, the audience was made up of 12 women who sat silently — for a play that usually brings the house down. “Dead silence. But they didn’t walk out,” laughs Shah.