Naseeruddin Shah, one of the finest actors in Indian cinema, turned 64 or 65 this month. He is not sure of his birth date or year, he reveals in his memoir “And Then One Day”. Shah writes about his love for theatre, and marijuana. He admits to not being a fan of Bollywood, and puts more value onstage acting,owing to his FTII (Film and Television Institute of India) and NSD (National School of Drama) background. The actor, who considered himself an “idiot” for a long period in his life and never considered academics to hold any worth, is revered in the industry today. His films “A Wednesday”, “Iqbal”, “Mandi”, “Hey Ram”, “Sarfarosh” and “Aakrosh” have received widespread critical acclaim. He’s also played parts in Hollywood films such as “The Perfect Murder” and “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”.Despite this success, he calls theatre his true and eternal love. And you wouldn’t want to miss seeing Naseeruddin Shah on stage. In 1979, Tom Alter, Benjamin Gilani and Shah started their own production company named Motley Productions which has produced several plays till date including adaptations of classics such asHerman Wouk’s, “The Caine Mutiny Court Martial” and Shakespeare’s “Julius Ceasar”. Though the list is long, here are five theatre performances by Naseeruddin Shah that are unmissable:Waiting For GodotSamuel Beckett wrote this absurdist play in 1948 and it was first staged in 1953, in Paris, later growing in popularity to become one of the most significant plays of the 20th century. It is essentiallyabout an endless wait for a character named Godot who never comes. “Waiting for Godot” was Motley’s first production and the play has evolved over time along with the actors. Shah directed the two-act production and played the role of Pozzo, the bullying master who wants to sell his slave Lucky on the first day and as the roles are reversed on the second day, he becomes the slave and Lucky becomes the master. Pozzo’s character reflects on the ever-changing and transient nature of life and Shah delivers a brilliant performance. Beckett once explained Pozzo as “displaying symptoms of hypomania and the only way to play him is to play him mad”.Dear LiarDear Liar is an epistolary drama written by American writer Jerome Kilty in the 1960s. Satyadev Dubey has directed its Indian production. The play centers ona bittersweet love-hate relationship between renowned playwright George Bernard Shaw and the celebrated British actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell. Interestingly, while Shah plays Shaw, his wife and actress Ratna Pathak Shah takes on the role of Mrs. Pat, adding a new dimension to this particular production. This also follows in the tradition of Kilty himself portraying Shaw on stage with his wife playing Mrs. Campbell, when he resented his own play in France, Italy and Germany.IsmatApaKeNaamShah has always had a special affinity for the Urdu works of Indian writer Ismat Chughtai, a champion of women’s issues and one of the few Muslim writers who stayed in India after the partition of 1947. He addresses the late Chughtai as “Apa” (meaning sister in Urdu). Shah has directed “Ismat Apa Ke Naam” which is a collection of three stories, and also acts in it. The play narrates three stories “Chui Mui”, “Gharwali” and “Mughal Bacha”, which talk about the survival of women in a patriarchal set-up. Shah acts in “Gharwali” where he plays both the roles of the man named Mirza and the woman named Lajjo. Lajjo is a prostitute who is used and discarded by Mirza Sahib and the mannerisms Shah adopts while playing Lajjo are quite a hit with the crowd.A Walk In The WoodsDirected by Shah’s wife Ratna Pathak Shah, this play is the Indian adaptation of Lee Blessing’s “A Walk In The Woods” (1988), which depicts the relationship between and American and a Russian arms negotiators. The Indian version is written by Faisal Rashid and Randeep Hooda; and stars Naseeruddin Shah and Rajit Kapur Pakistani and Indian diplomats Jamaluddin Lutfullah and Ram Chinappa respectively. The play does not involve peace talks, as one would expect, it instead revolves around hollow assurances, false promises,the discord between the countries andthe diplomats’long-term relationship. Both Shah and Kapur deliver outstanding performances that display the breadth of the two actors’ talents.EinsteinEveryone knows of the science genius who gave the world “the general theory of relativity” and there’s no disputing the fact that he is one of the world’s greatest physicists. But Motley Productions’ “Einstein”, originally written by Canadian playwright Gabriel Emanuel, and Shah’s adaptation of it delves into the human (and lighter) side to the legendary figure. Shah also gets a leg up in this case, as he bears a resemblance to Albert Einstein.What this play reveals is Einstein’sanger issues, how he dealt with fan mail and how he grappled with the problem of speech failure, also how he was secretly a flirt and the views he held on politics and war. Shah’s compelling and evocative story-telling skills makes this one-man act an absolute must-watch.Follow @ARTINFOIndia
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