Habib Tanvir

Habib Tanvir
Occupation(s)	Playwright, Dramatist, Poet, Actor
Spouse	Moneeka Mishra (1930-2005)
Children	Nageen (b. 1964)
Awards	Padma Bhushan 2002 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award 1969 Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship 1996
Website	http://habibtanvir.org/

Habib Tanvir is a noted Hindi playwright, theatre director, poet and actor. He is the writer of famous plays like, Agra Bazar (1954) and Charandas Chor (1975). He founded in 1959, the Naya Theatre, theatre company in Bhopal.

He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1969, Padma Shri in 1983, Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 1996, and the Padma Bhushan in 2002; apart from that he has also been nominated as a member of the Upper House of Indian Parliament, the Rajya Sabha (1972-1978). His play 'Charandas Chor' got him the Fringe Firsts Award at Edinburgh International Drama Festival in 1982.

Biography

Early life and education

Habib Ahmed Khan Tanvir was born on September 1, 1923 in Raipur, Chhattisgarh to Hafiz Ahmed Khan, who hailed from Peshawar.

He passed his marticulation from Laurie Municipal High School Raipur, and completed his B.A. from Morris College, Nagpur in 1944. Thereafter he attend Aligarh Muslim University, for a year doing his M.A first year. Early in life, he started writing poetry and took upon a takhalluz, pen name, Tanvir, and soon he was being called, Habib Tanvir.

Career

In 1945, he moved to Bombay, and joined All India Radio (AIR) Bombay as a producer, while in Bombay, he wrote songs for Hindi films and even acted in a few. He also joined the Progressive Writers' Association (PWA) and became an integral part of Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) as an actor. Later, when most of prominent IPTA members were imprisoned for opposing the British rule, he was asked to takeover the organization.

In 1954, he moved to New Delhi, and worked with Qudsia Zaidi’s Hindustani Theatre, and also worked with Children's theatre, and authored numerous plays. It was during this period he met actor-director, Moneeka Mishra, whom he was to later marry. Later in the same year, he produced his first significant play 'Agra Bazar', based on the works and times of the plebian 18th-century Urdu poet, Nazir Akbarabadi, an older poet in the generation of Mirza Ghalib. In this play he used local residents and folk artist from Okhla village in Delhi and students of Jamia Millia Islamia creating a palette never seen before in Indian theatre, a play not staged in a confined space, rather a bazaar, a marketplace. This experience with non-trained actors, and folk artists later blossomed with his work with folk artists of Chhattisgarh.

In 1955, now in his 30's, Habib moved to England, he trained in Acting at Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) (1955) and in Direction at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (1956). For the next two years, he travelled through Europe, watching various theatre activities. One of the highlights of this period, was his eight-month stay in Berlin in 1956, during which he got to see several plays of Bertolt Brecht, produced by Berliner Ensemble, just a few months after Bertolt's death . This proved to a lasting influence on him, as in the coming years, he was also used local idioms in his plays, to express trans-cultural tales and ideologies. This over the year gave rise to a 'theatre of roots', which was marked by an utter simplicity in style, presentation and technique, yet remaining eloquent and powerfully experiential.

A deeply inspired Habib returned in 1958 and took directing full-time. He produced, 'Mitti ki Gaadi' post-London play, based on Shudraka's Sanskrit work, Mrichchakatikam, it became his first important production in Chhattisgarhi. This was the result of the work he has been doing since his return, with six folk actors from Chhattisgarh. There was no, turned back from there. This lead to the foundation of 'Naya Theatre' a theatre company he founded in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh in 1959, alongwith his wife, Moneeka Mishra, also a theatre person.

In his exploratory phase 1970-73, he broke free from one more theatre restriction, he no longer made the folk artists with whom he had been performing all his plays speak Hindi, and instead switched to Chhattisgarhi, a local language, they were more accustomed to. Later, he even started experimenting with 'Pandvani', a folk singing style from the region and temple rituals, making his plays stand out amidst the backdrop of plays which were still using traditional theatre techniques like blocking movements or fixing lights on paper. Soon spontanenity and improvization became the hallmark of the new style, where the folk artists were allowed greater freedom of expression.

The result was his seminal play, 'Charandas Chor' in 1975, which immediately created a whole new idiom in modern India theatre; whose highlight was nacha - a chorus that provided commentary through song. Later, he collaborated with Shyam Benegal, when he adapted the play to a feature length film, by the same name, starring Smita Patil and Lalu Ram.

During his career, Habib has acted in over nine feature films, including Richard Attenborough's film, Gandhi (1982) and presently in the upcoming movie, Bhopal Gas Tragedy.

His first brush with controversy came in 90s, with his play on religious hypocrisy, 'Ponga Pandit'. Though the play was being performed since the sixties, in the charged social climate after the Babri Masjid demolition, the play caused quiet an uproar amongst Hindu fundamentalists, especially the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), whose supporters disrupted many of its shows, and even emptied the auditoriums, yet he continued to show it all over .

His Chhatisgarhi folk troupe, surprised again, with his rendition of Asghar Wajahat’s 'Jisne Lahore Nahin Dekhya' in 1992. Then in 1993 came, 'Kamdeo Ka Apna Basant Ritu Ka Sapna', Tanvir's Hindi adaptation of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" . In 2002, he directed, 'Zahareeli Hawa', a translation of a play by the Canadian-Indian playwright Rahul Varma, based on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.

In 2005, a documentary: Gaon ke naon theatre, mor naon Habib (`My village is theatre, my name is Habib') was made on his life and the Naya Theatre group, by Sanjay Maharishi and Sudhanva Deshpande , and also in the same year, his wife Moneeka Misra passed away on May 28.

In 2006 he wrote and directed ‘Raj Rakt’, based on two of Rabindranath Tagore’s works, novel Rajarshi, and play Visarjan .

Plays

• Agra Bazar (1954)
• Shatranj Ke Mohrey (1954)
• Lala Shoharat Rai (1954)
• Mitti ki Gaadi (1958)
• Gaon ke naon Sasural, mor naon Damand (1973)
• Charandas Chor (1975)
• Uttar Ram Charitra (1977)
• Ponga Pandit
• Jis Lahore Nai Dekhya (1990)
• Kamdeo ka Apna Basant Ritu ka Sapna (1993)
• Zahreeli Hawa (2002)
• Raj Rakt (2006)

Biblography

• The Living Tale of Hirma: Hirma Ki Amar Kahani. Calcutta, Seagull Books, 2005. ISBN 81-7046-277-0.

See Also

• Theatre in India