S A H RIZVI
The Times Kuwait Bureau Chief, New Delhi
Aamir Raza Husain died at the age of 66 this week was one of India’s greatest Dream Merchant who attempted to take theatre to a height no one could have ever imagined. One after another, he unleashed his spectacles translating his dream to make theatre a world of its own
A humble beginning with noted director Marcus Murch group Stagedoor, Aamir took over the group after Marcus died in mid 1980’s. “Theatre had no or little money at that time but we kept the flame alive” Aamir once told me
He saw a window in the dark alley when he tapped corporate houses to sponsor the cost. Huge hoardings would dot the landscape of Delhi and that brought an audience who at times were willing to pay higher for seats.
Stagedoor became synonymous for its quality and entertainment, a value for money notably for the packaging that Aamir would bring with his keen eyes on perfection and scale of his production.
Aamir always dreamt to take theatre to a height as never attempted before. The opportunity he saw was in the Ramayana where magical illusions, flying objects, moving mountains and an intrinsically woven story line that he himself scripted. The Legend of Ram was borne.
The production of ‘The Legend of Ram’ involved a moving auditorium that moved on a rail track, a 19 outdoor sets spread over three acres and a cast of 35 actors playing different characters drawn from the epic, and a 100-member technical crew.
Staged in Delhi and Mumbai, the last show was staged in front of the then President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, on May 1, 2004.
Aamir Raza Husain was a creative powerhouse for its mega theatrical production that included Chandni Chowk spread on a two kilometer stretch capturing the opulence of the once market area visited by the Mughal royalty.
‘The Fifty Day War’ narrated the Kargil story on a scale that had not been attempted by anyone with an original Indian script on an Indian stage. It was yet another moving auditorium on a stage built in the urban forest area of India capital and had audience that included the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
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When Prime Minister Vajpayee decided to see the Fifty Day war”, security agencies were apprehensive about the location in an open area. Vajpayee one liner was “when I could visit Kargil, then why not Mehrauli”
Aamir was born into an aristocratic Awadhi family of a small state Pirpur on January 6, 1957. His parents were divorced so he was brought up by his mother and her family.
He went to Mayo College, Ajmer, and after he completed his schooling, he read History at St Stephen’s College, where he acted in several college plays under the direction of such legends as Joy Michael, Barry John and Marcus Murch. It was an early start to a career devoted to English theatre and his company, Stagedoor Productions, which became known to lift ordinary theatre to the realm of the spectacular since 1974.
Husain did appear in two films — in ‘Kim’ (1984), based on Rudyard Kipling’s novel, with Peter O’Toole playing the lead, and Shashanka Ghosh’s romantic comedy drama, ‘Khubsoorat’ (2014), starring Sonam Kapoor and Fawad Khan — but he was wedded to theatre.
Over the years he produced several plays staged at outdoor locations — ‘Sare Jahan Se Achcha’, ‘1947 Live’ and ‘Satyamev Jayate’, which was staged along the backdrop of the 14th-century Hauz Khas monument, in Delhi in 1999.
With 91 productions and more than 1,100 performances behind him, and a Padma Shri awarded to him in 2001, Hussain spent his last years developing the Qila dedicated to his twin ideas of theatre and bringing it to corporate houses, an experiment which he successfully began after taking over Stagedoor.
(Mr Rizvi a close friend of Aamir Raza Husain saw the growth of his theatre and often walked together)