Seema Sharma — a force behind Mandi theatre

Shriniwas Joshi

Seema Sharma had come to Shimla from Mandi with three plays — Baki Itihaas by Badal Sarkar, Mohan Das, a play on the novel of the same name by Uday Prakash and a collage of a farce, The Bear, and three stories, The drowned Man, The Seduction and The Birthday Gift by Anton Chekhov.

Seema is a true representative of woman power and is living example of "Where there is the will, there's the way' (See photo). Born a Leo on August 9, 1968, she had the potential to be extremely creative from her zodiac sign. Her parents Prem Prakash and Hansa lived through the middle class struggle in Mandi and put their daughter in a government school where she started climbing the stage as vocalist right from Class I.

And by the time she was in Class 10th, she had done Prabhakar in Vocal Music from the Allahabad Prayag Samiti. Her mastery in folk music and dance caught attention and she, with her troupe, was invited to do 'Banthra' at Bharat Utsav in Delhi in 1986 and Apna Utsav at Mumbai in 1988. She met her would-be husband, a theatre-skilled Suresh Sharma, in a workshop by the Sangeet Natak Academy in 1985-86 and got married to him.

Suresh not only proved to be a good husband but honed her skills in dramatics and she came to know the nuances of the theatre under his guidance. She claims that her hectic year in theatre was 1986 when she did Macbeth, Oedipus and Mahabhoj a couple of years before her marriage.

Having done her postgraduation in sociology from Lucknow University, she returned to dramatics and joined theatre groups in Mandi which soon fissured out. She and her husband purchased a 4-acre piece of land at Satohal village only 8 km away from Mandi and established a theatre-training institute by the name of Himachal Sanskriti Shodh Sansthan which started functioning in 1998. A course was developed for six-month training in theatrics; 3 months on production side in Rangmandal attached to the institute and 3 months doing theatre workshops with children.

A “Certificate in Acting” after one year is given to the candidate who successfully completes the course. Rangmandal, which has lived 15 years of its life, has produced 60 plays to date of which "Train to Pakistan" by Khushwant Singh, "Lower Depths" by Gorky and "Shahri Kanjar", a folk in Mandyali dialect based on a story by Amrita Pritam were acclaimed as plays of the highest order.

The institute has an intake of 20 students and some alumni, who are doing extremely well in performing arts are, Kedar Thakur, Rajan Modi, Hitesh Nagori, Sahidul Rehman, Richa Malviya with Balaji and Sanyogita, a teacher with Subhash Ghai's Whistling Woods International and many others.

As Suresh is the director of the Repertory of National School of Drama in Delhi, Seema, at Mandi, as secretary of the institute has to bear most of the burden, besides taking interest in the productions of the Rangmandal. She, however, appreciates the helping hands of Arun Chakravarty and Ranvir Thakur, president and vice-president of the sansthan.

I doff my hat to the courage of Seema with which she is facing the challenges of running a residential institute besides taking keen interest in dramatics.

The recent performances of Rangmandal, Mandi, were appreciated by the theatre lovers of Shimla. Director Yashraj of "Baki Itihas" used the "split personality style" adequately on the protagonists but for better results more fine-tuning was required. The scene where the wife sings a song with husband's arms around her and the chorus stands behind was pleasing to the eye (See photo).

"Mohan Das" based on a novel was directed by Sukumar and laid a path for those who adapt a novel as a drama. Anton Chekhov came alive on stage with his three stories and a farce with an odd Mandyali title 'Eda bi Hounda' on the last day of the festival. It was directed by Seema Sharma. A theatre lover met me after the show and said, "I enjoyed this evening the best." That speaks of Seema Sharma.