Tierno Bokar

Yesterday evening I had another wonderful opportunity to see a play called 'Tierno Bokar'. It was directed by Peter Brook. He was in New York for last month conducting a workshop at the Columbia University. This play was the outcome of that workshop.

Tierno Bokar was a Sufi 'sage' from West Africa who lived in the last century. He was a wise man and a voice of tolerance when his country and continent were consumed with religion and politics based violence.

On of his students, Amadou Hamapaté Bâ, who is apparently a great writer and has been a guiding light to UNESCO after Mali’s independence in 1960 (I had not even heard this name until yesterday… but that only shows how ignorant I am) has written a book about his master. The book is titled ‘The Life and Teaching of Tierno Bokar - The Sage of Bandiagara’. The play was based on this book.

The performance itself took place in gymnasium of a one of the Columbia University colleges. They had converted it into an African village… but except for a stem indicating a tree, there was no structure…it was all open... gave me an idea how his Mahabharata must have appeared.

The man who played Tierno was the same actor who played ‘Bhishma’ in Mr. Brook’s version of Mahabharata. The other characters I could identify where Krishna, Gandhaari and Maadri. The rest I suppose were the actors from Columbia and the Harlem area.

The play was in French with subtitles in English being displayed on a large screen above the stage. To my surprise, it worked out fine. The music was all live. Some Japanese guy, who apparently could play every instrument there is… gave most of the music by himself… at times with some help from an assistant. It was an amazing experience to see how effective this form of music could be. The musicians were participating in the performance. Truly marvelous…!

Mr. Brooks seem to have great control over presenting a story by making it dramatic and interesting… (I guess I am stating the obvious here ;)) and he seems to know precisely how to control the pace of the performance. I have noticed that in the DVD version of Mahabharata and now in Tierno Bokar.

But one thing struck me the most…at the end of the play, the thing I remembered the most was Tierno Bokar and his philosophy... and I am sure that would make Mr. Brook and his cast very happy.

The experience was sublime... like watching a well made period movie… for the duration of those two hours the audience was in 1930’s West Africa.

The riots that had consumed Mali were started because one group had a practice of reciting a certain prayer 11 times as opposed to another group which recited it 12 times!!! Add to that the French colonial administration… trying to use this situation…. and you have all the material for a drama…with this lone voice of tolerance standing in the midst of that chaos!!

From what I could read in the material provided before the play, Tierno was indeed a very wise man… a very tolerant man… they quoted him as saying…

“There are three truths, your truth, my truth and the truth!” or “The only struggle that really concerns me is the one that is aimed at our own weakness” or “I pray God that at the moment I die, I have more enemies to whom I‘ve done nothing than friends”

And his student, Hamapaté Bâ, who said “in Africa, when an old man dies, a library has burned” made sure that he preserved at least some of this library that was his teacher.

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Tierno Bokar copyright © 2007 by Sushrut Vaidya. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No changes or edits in the content of this work or of the digital format are allowed. For information, write Sushrut Vaidya at sushrut.vaidya@gmail.com.

An Evening with Amitabh Bachchan

Yesterday evening I had one of the most surreal experiences of my life. I saw Amitabh Bachchan !

Real.... exactly as Einstein had said about Gandhi.... 'such a one ever in flesh and blood... '

This was at a retrospective of his films that was organized by the Lincoln Center Film Society. Yesterday's event... 'An Evening with Amitabh Bachchan' was the culmination of that festival. He appeared in person and was interviewed for over two hours. He spoke about many things, his movies, his image as 'angry young man', his favorites stars, politics, his financial troubles, his second innings...

The event began with a short documentary on him... it started with the narration by its creator about when he started watching Hindi films and what it means to him... it started with a troop of traditional artists telling a mythological story using an old painting... with a typical Rajasthani folk music as background...

It was intermixed with famous writers .... Salman Rashdie, Shahi Tharoor etc.. talking about Hindi films and their place in Indian life....They explained the traditional story telling in India... Mahabharat, Ramayan... etc.

and how the Hindi films are an extension to that.

It was not until the story came to Amitabh's accident that the audience realized that the mythological story that Rajasthani folk artist was telling was not about the life of Ram or Krishna... it was the story of Amitabh's life...

The intellectuals like us... no matter how crazy we are for Amitabh... still don't understand the boundless adulation an average Indian ... and particularly the rural Indian ... had for Amitabh at those times... This incidence really put it in perspective.... Bachchan's competition was not with Dharmendra and Vinod Khanna... it was Ram and Krishna!!! No wonder people built temples of him.

Then there was that famous scene from Deewar..... 'Main aaj bhi pheke hue paise nahin uthaataa...'

I kid you not.... I could have been in Vijayaanand....or Alankaar... the whistles.. the shouting... the sheer chaos.... it was 1980s in Pune all over again......No one.. I mean no one could have believed that it was the worlds famous.... civilized.... straight laced... Lincoln Center!! And it felt right ... It again put it squarely in perspective what this man means to an Indian mind and an Indian heart.

It wasn't his arrogance... it was the hurt that he felt I think that appeals to us... but again... there are so many other things... his honesty... his intensity... his voice... I am sure you can add your own reasons here... as everyone in that august hall did....

And then the interviewer came on the stage... to a big joint disappointing sigh from the audience... as they all thought it was Him.... then the usual thanks... credits... but he was a wise man... did not take a long time... and then said...

"His name is Anthony Gonzalez.... Inspector Vijay.... Dev.... but to millions of his fans.. he is simply known as Amitabh.... ladies and gentleman.... here is Amitabh Bachchan....."

Friends.... I have seen Ravi Shankar perform at the Carnegie Hall.... and he did get a full standing ovation when he was introduced..... but even there was a gap of a fraction of a second.. where people realized who he was, thought if they should stand up or not... then decided that they should... and did.

But here... more than one thousand people were on their feet... even before the announcer could complete the words.. 'here is...'

And then He arrived....

And the people went wild....

I dare you to find another 63 year old star... from any language... any art form... any country.... that could evoke that kind of reaction....

It was s..u..r..r..e..a..l !!! There he was.... standing less than 100 feet from me.... THE...Amitabh Bachchan... I went there to see him... it wasn't like it was a surprise by any means.... but I guess there is nothing that can prepare you for this... not if you grew up in India in 70s and 80s.

He talked about many things....

His image... which he credited primarily to Salim Javed and his producers...

Earliest films he saw... Laurel and Hardy...!!

His influences.... from Hollywood.... Marlon Brando... and others...

His favorite films.... Ganga Jamnaa... Pyasa... Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam...

His favorite actor....

Some one from audience asked him an interesting question.... she said we all know who our Amitabh Bachchan is.... who is your Amitabh Bachchan.... to which he responded.... without a seconds pause... "It has to be Dileep Kumar saab!" You can imagine what I felt... He said.... and this time I heard it from his own mouth....."Any actor who came after him and says he is not influenced by him is lying" ... and I said.... "thank you".

Someone asked "There are many Bachchan's in the acting field now... which one you think is the best actor..."...again he was spontaneous in answering.... "my wife"..... and then quipped... with a sense of timing only one man in world could show.... "it was a protective measure!"

He was asked what he thought the govt should do to promote Indian films... and he gave his answer... and then said... "I hope someone from govt is listening here in the audience!!"... with a reference to his wife... who is a sitting MP from Rajya Sabha.

On being asked why he did not attempt poetry like his illustrious father... he said "My mother always used to say... one poet is enough in the family!!"

On being asked what advice he would offer his son so that he could one day be in that chair, he said "I am not qualified to offer an advice." ... to which people laughed... and so did the interviewer!

And at the end he recited a few lines from Madhushala... a fitting way to end the event by bringing the remaining Bachchan on the stage...

"Ek Raah tu pakad chalaa chal.... paa jayegaa madhushala"

And he then followed those lines with their meaning in English....in extremely articulate... poetic English... which evoked response even from non-Hindi speakers.

And so ended this memorable evening.... I don't know what is it that makes us connect with this man.... or why he captures our imagination like nobody else.... but who cares.... who wants find out.... we just hope he keeps doing what he does.... just be who he is.... we are happy just being grateful that he is.

All the big shot stock brokers.... doctors.... businessman... servicemen... students.... from New York city and around.... we were all one at that moment.... there were no differences.... we were all reliving our growing up days in India... our dreams.... our anger... our romances... that we all lived through him....

No wonder people have built temples for him.... no wonder they compare him to Ram and Krishna... no wonder they worship him... he has done more to bring us all together than either one of them has done.

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An Evening with Amitabh Bachchan copyright © 2007 by Sushrut Vaidya. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No changes or edits in the content of this work or of the digital format are allowed. For information, write Sushrut Vaidya at sushrut.vaidya@gmail.com.