Three Arts: 65 yrs and ready for the next role

Times of India, Saturday, May 10, 2008

Priya Saxena | TNN

New Delhi: His sharp memory defies his age. Even at 85, Sangeet Natak Akademi winner Ramesh Mehta can vividly recall Jawaharlal Nehru’s request to his group to stage a play on rural problems.

‘‘On November 13, 1954 we performed Hamara Gaon at the PM’s residence before 1,000 people. An amateur group could not have asked for more,’’ says Mehta, who directed the play. Mehta was a key member of Three Arts Club, one of the oldest amateur theatre groups in the Capital. The club, which closed down in the 80s after the untimely demise of co-founder RM Kaul, will be back in action on May 11 with a three-day drama festival at Shri Ram Centre. The last day of the festival coincides with the 25th death anniversary of Kaul.

The club was originally founded in Shimla in 1943 — a year before Prithviraj Kapoor set up his theatre company — but shifted to Delhi a few years later. Om Sharma, Devi Chand Kayasth and RM Kaul were the club’s founding members and they roped in, as the name suggests, amateurs from different walks of life to stage plays. From early 40s to mid 80s, the club with performed hundreds of shows before MPs and bureaucrats, including Nehru and President Rajendra Prasad.

‘‘Before Independence, there wasn’t much of a tradition in theatre. Only the Parsi theatre performed professionally and regularly,’’ recalls Mehta, who directed most of the plays. He adds: ‘‘Initially, we performed either at YMCA’s Massey Hall or at Wavell Theatre near Imperial Hotel. There were little resources. At times, we used to arrange our own chairs.’’

Anuradha Dar, daughter of co-founder Kaul and now main organiser, says it is a matter of pride for an amateur group to survive 40 years without government grants. The club raised money through brochures and sponsored shows. Even National School of Drama director Ebrahim Alkazi in 1968 had praised the club for surviving 25 years without any government fund: ‘‘For a theatre club to celebrate 25 years is something in the nature of a miracle, particularly when that organization has subsisted entirely through its own efforts in the face of overwhelming odds.’’