Alyque Padamsee presents.

Mumbai's celebrated ad and theatre guru, basking in the aftermath of success, spoke to Monojit Lahiri about how his latest tantra-infl uenced take on MACBETH came about. and how the path-breaking production ( on woman power, greed, lust for high offi ce, blinding ambition, a moment of weakness followed by guilt, and redemption) attempted to redefi ne the timeless work of the bard of Avon.

If there is one guy whose five-decade red-hot affair with the English language theatre is still on a turbo-charge (reducing in comparison his fabled connect with his range of attractive soul-mates to a near 'phoos'!) it's the ageless, tireless, indefatigable, flamboyant, eighteen-till-I-die showman of Mumbai's ad and theatre world, Alyque Padamsee! Death of a salesman, Jesus Christ Superstar, Othello, Tughlaq, Evita, R & J. Padamsee has been at the forefront of the theatre movement for years, discovering, nurturing and presenting talent that has consistently innovated in the world of theatre.

Today, the big boy has struck again with a characteristically new spin - a tantra inspired version of Macbeth! Hello? Mayn't the Bard be tempted to make a guest appearance, if only, to strangle the hell out of Padamsee? Had AP finally.er.gone. But hey, why don't you hear it from the horse's mouth himself.

"Why are some people getting so hyper? It's year 2006 for Chrissake, and experimentation - even with Shakespeare - is the order of the day as a lot of recent local and global directors have shown." Padamsee goes on to explain how it all came about. Around two decades ago he was casually reading a book on tantra that a friend had lent him and he was zonked at the parallels between what was written in that book and how closely it was echoed in so much of Shakespeare's material. The theatre wallah was all shook up and stored it in his memory vault for use some day.

That momentous day arrived a few months ago when his elder daughter, Rael, invited him to do a Shakespeare play, one more time. The first thing he did was to hit the 'memory' button and get the idea of a tantra-driven Macbeth on track. Next, he needed to connect with a focused, vibrant mind with a solid knowledge base on tantric rituals. His daughter helped there too, by identifying a young and sharp scholar, named Subhojit Dasgupta, who was a whiz in the very area AP needed. Long, in-depth and detailed discussions followed, from which a clear picture slowly started emerging.

In time, the cast and crew started taking shape and the show was on. "I was extremely fortunate to have the multi-talented Karla Singh as my associate director." And here's what he says of Lushin Dubey, who played Lady Mcbeth... "She was amazing! Could she act! Did she have a powerful voice! Did she have stage presence! Every single member of the cast and crew was blown by her powerhouse acting abilities. And when we opened in Mumbai, the audience mirrored the same chloroformed look!" Congrats and keep going, Alyque. And oh, is that an invitation we see from the prestigious Edinburgh theatre festival dangling before you...?

Idolatry in Idli-land!
When hero-worshipping gets a little too literal!

(column by Anu Gulmohar)

Surfing on the tide of success and basking in the adulation and fanfare may have become routine for Bollywood stars, but to be confronted with Brobdingnagian posters of oneself at every crossroad and escalated to the pedestal of a demigod, and an entire troop of devout worshippers, one has got to be staring down the corridors of celebritydom certainly! And it appears that the south film industry scores heavily here. Slogans, fanatical fans who shave their heads and offer orisons for the success of the stars' movies or tiding through difficult times, are usual fare to put up with in Bollywood, but the hysterical reaction evoked by the ups and downs in the lives of the southern super stars are unparalleled.

Take for example, the euphoria generated by the cigarette-flipping-Rajnikanth's last year's release Chandramukhi, wherein his fans devoted 55 days to design and 27 days to print posters of the movie with astounding dimensions of 10 by 120 feet! With Khushboo, idol worship was taken to an entirely new level by actually building a temple in her honour! And then the reaction that the recent demise of Kannada films' stalwart Rajkumar brought forward has been nearly unprecedented - pelting stones, burning cars and processions were all a part of the hullaboo, wih fans coming-togrips- with-their-loss.

It isn't too uncommon a sight to see celebrities after winning over the populace with their performances, shift to the more realistic stage of politics homing hopes for a similar windfall of votes from their fans. But, here too while giants like Bachchan saab failed, late Dr. MGR and NTR and the original Amma, Dr. J. Jayalalithaa, have easily established their dominions. However sweet the taste of success, it is sweeter still if one reigns supreme on the southern shores of India! There you're not a star, you're God!

(End of Anu Gulmohar column)

The game of war
Wrestling with the unforgiving cycle of terrorism...

In Olympic Village - Munich, 1972, a terrorist act of the most heinous nature took place. Filled with hatred towards Jews, Palestinian terrorists raided the athletes' abode-in-transit, killing two Israeli athletes and took nine hostages. Worse still, in a failed rescue attempt, the other nine also lost their lives, leaving a bitter tang among the Israelis and eventually tapering into events that followed; what Steven Spielberg deals with in one of his best films till date, Munich.

Avner (Eric Bana) - the main lead and ex-Mossad operative - is the leader of a band of five, hired to hunt and assassinate the culprits who terrorized the village during the 1972 Games. Steve (Daniel 'Bond' Craig), a vicious avenger, Carl (Ciaran Hinds), a self possessed cleaner, Robert (Mathieu Kassovitz), a bomb-specialist and Hans (Hanns Zichler), a master faker form the rest of the club. Avner then takes his crew on a killing spree, eliminating the eleven Palestinian perpetrators. But, as the bodies begin accumulating, so does Avner's conscience that begins venturing into hallucinatory guilt trips; to the extent that his ability to distinguish between truth and deceit - good and evil - gets warped.

Spielberg deserves credit for showcasing the film from a cross-sectional point of view. The Palestinian perspective has been dealt with in a reasoned mode. Stellar performances by Bana and the rest give us an insight into how easily one is disillusioned and in the process loses sight of faith, religion or even humanity. Based on the book 'Vengeance' by George Jonas, Munich winches critical queries on the 'war against terror' - Spielberg shows why he's still at the top of his game - as the Munich of the reel is not very different from the world of real. Perhaps he's unable to answer his own brooding questions on the unforgiving cycle of terrorism, but deep inside.nor are we.