Danish Husain and the angst of modern times

“I think of myself as an actor and a poet. At least, I fancy myself as that. I think people perceive me more as a storyteller and a director,” Danish Husain told me, when I met him one the other day, at the Prithvi Cafe.

                               Danish Hussain. Pic courtesy/Shawn Lewis

It’s ironic, I thought to myself, because that was a perception even I had, having sought him out after watching and being impressed with his play, Ek Punjab Ye Bhi, at the Prithvi Theatre Festival this year. My main agenda, of course, had been to watch actor Kunal Kapoor doing a full-fledged role on stage. I’m happy to say that I was mighty impressed with his acting skills on stage, but more than that, I was simply enthralled by the play. I wanted to meet Danish, who had so effortlessly (or so, it seemed to me), transported me to another place, painting a haunting picture of the fertile lands of Punjab, with its dark, crooked tales. “For me, it’s the larger geo-political context that matters. These are not just tales we were telling. They point to the ugly face of what’s happening around us, like the US invading Vietnam or the Dadri incident. That’s what makes great literature so great,” Danish said, referring to the four short stories by Urdu writer Ali Akbar Natiq, which he adapted into the play.

In between spoonfuls of chicken pasta, Danish recalled his days in Delhi, when he’d completed his MBA and was working in a bank. “I had a history of shutting down banks. Whichever bank I would work for, would shut down. I was like their unlucky mascot!” he guffawed. One thing led to another, and he found himself doing an acting workshop with Barry John, who, later, cast him in his play, Khamosh, Adalat Jaari Hai.  While Danish admits that he hasn’t done a lot of theatre, he did get to work with some of the best theatre talents in the country, right from MS Sathyu, to Rajinder Nath, MK Raina, Habib Tanvir and Sabina Mehta Jaitly and won acclaim for acting in plays such as Agra Bazaar, Jaat Hi Poocho Sadhu Ki and Rumi: Unveil The Sun. He also worked in a couple of movies, including Peepli Live, Dhobhi Ghat and more recently, Ankhon Dekhi.

            The cast of Ek Punjab Ye Bhi. Pic courtesy/Zahan Kapoor

In 2012, he started his theatre group, called The Hoshruba Repertory, literally meaning ‘jo aapke hosh udaa de’. “It was my way of expanding out, not restricting myself to being a storyteller, but to explore other forms and mediums,” he said. And because Danish has always been attracted to text and literature, the first play he opened with, was Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, something which a number of people told him, was too dark a choice to start his theatre company’s journey with. “But that’s how we are, we have become this dark, poisoned people,” reasoned Danish, “A lot of our literature, poetry, social disorders are essentially urban phenomenon. There is an angst, of living beyond despair, where things will never change, where our air, food and even human relationships have become poisoned. That angst appeals to me, because that’s how we live in these modern times.” The same urban angst continued with his next play, Chinese Coffee, about two men in their mid-40s, and how their jealousies, unrequited love and unfinished agendas unravel over a period of two hours.

                     Danish Hussain and Vrajesh Hirjee in Chinese Coffee

Last year, after moving to Mumbai, Danish set about looking for an apt subject to make a new play. How Ek Punjab Ye Bhi came about, is another long story which involves the actor-director receiving a book of short stories as a gift, relegating it to the bookshelf without reading it, committing himself to doing a play based on those stories in an interview without really meaning to, and then finally, making a play on them – but we won’t go there today. “The stories have this haunting quality about them. Punjab has one of the most fertile lands in the sub-continent. But by the time you see these stories, it seems as if the colour is flying off the painting. By the end, it becomes a haunting, desolate place,” said Danish.

The artiste admits he’s enjoying direction now. “There are heartaches there too, but that’s part of life,” he reasoned. And his next play? “Mujhe maloom hai main bolke phans jaaonga,” he smiled, and then added, “It’s an absurdist play called Professor Taranne. It’s a play about a man and indecent exposure and a trial, extremely relevant in today’s times.” We can’t wait to watch.