Gurcharan Singh Chani: Artiste who spent his last years bringing cheer to ailing kids

Nonika Singh

Zindagi Retire Nahi Hoti”… That was one of the many delightful and meaningful plays of eminent thespian and filmmaker Gurcharan Singh Chani. Alas, the deadly Covid can force many to retire from life prematurely and Chani too succumbed to its fatal reach.

National School of Drama (NSD) alumnus, though he studied theatre as deeply as his fellow students, the path he created for himself was markedly different. If as a student he was piqued by the question “theatre for whom”, as a practitioner he found an answer and decided to dedicate it to the community and stage it right in the centre of the people.

Read also: As renowned theatre-person from the city Gurcharan Singh Chani loses his battle with Covid-19, his friends remember the man who spread smiles

Free of all isms, his plays were for, of and certainly by the people. Non-actors, ordinary men and women became stars of his plays, where he would take a song, a line, piece of poetry, toss it around and turn it into a play.

While the rich proscenium theatre that NSDians so excel in never fascinated him, rich literature certainly did. In his theatre of protest and provocation one could often hear the poetry of radical poets like Avtar Pash. Returning to Punjab during times of militancy not only required courage, but also conviction in his beliefs.

As a professor of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, he could easily have chosen an easy way out and opted for cinema as many of his contemporaries did. But not only did his home-state beckon, so did his beliefs which later became his cause celebre.

Chandigarh may have been his home for the past several decades, but as the Sangeet Natak Akademi recipient became one of the city’s most notable persons, world was his oyster. His documentaries on Indian arts and heritage, encapsulating the true spirit of India’s majestic forts and more have that rare archival value. More recently, his documentary series on North-East celebrated the region’s ethnic diversity and the vigour of the land.

Donning colourful turbans like an emblem, his zeal never waned. Forever a communicator, his past few years were also dedicated to bringing cheer to the ailing children. Through his numerous clowning acts, he and his “CEVA Drama Repertory Company” spread joy and laughter in children’s wards in city hospitals.

Till last lockdown he believed in living in the moment and now the moment has frozen. But not that endearing smile which never left his lips, not even when nearly two decades ago he lost his mentor and teacher Balwant Gargi whose death he did not mourn but celebrated by throwing a party.

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