When the family of theatre stalwart Bapulal Nayak came to artist Hasmukh Baradi, 78, over a decade ago with bags full of theatre-related properties of Nayak, Baradi realised the need for setting up a theatre archive. “They told me it was becoming difficult for them to maintain costumes, manuscripts, books, and as a theatre personality I may be able to better use and preserve such archival material,” says Baradi, Founder-Director of Theatre and Media Centre (TMC) in Ahmedabad, where training in theatrical arts is imparted.
“Many grandchildren of Gujarati theatre doyens also told me they wanted me to look after their ancestral collection. This led to my thinking of creating a resource of theatre archives but at the time I did not have the space,” Baradi shares.
“By 2007, with the support of local and national government authorities we moved into a campus with repertory theatre and training facilities, such as, indoor experimental theatre, children’s theatre, etc. I began to work on creating an archive that could be used as a research resource for theatre students, enthusiasts and artists,” he says.
Baradi received a doctorate in theatre from the Lunacharsky Theatre Institute, Moscow in 1971. He collected many gramophone records of English and Russian plays and symphonies, which are part of the archive.
His daughter Manvita Baradi, 47, who is an architect and urban planner, says, “The archive collection is largely dedicated to the glory days of Gujarati theatre in the 1950s when theatre groups started to emerge in Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Baroda, including Nat Mandal, Rang Mandal and Rangbhumi.”
Some of the production scripts in the archive have detailing about stage settings, stagecraft, acting and direction, music, etc. The award-winning plays of Chandravadan Mehta, Pargji Dossa and Jashwant Thaker are also part of the collection. “These records can be used by those who are looking to stage an old play without losing the original essence. They can also refer to our collection of costumes and ornaments used in the original plays,” says Manvita.
Part of the collection are costumes from the plays by Jaishankar Sundari, who was active as a director from 1948 to the 1960s. He started a company with Rasiklal Parikh and Ganesh Mavlankar. Parikh wrote Mena Gujri, an iconic Gujarati play about a woman, Mena, from the Gurjar community. “We have costumes from the play, which had Pransukh Nayak in a key role and Dina Pathak playing the lead when it was performed at the Rashtrapati Bhavan,” says Manvita.
Yogesh Trikmani, who has had a long association with Baradi, says this is one of the most comprehensive theatre archives in India. “We have created an archive that includes 10,000 books in different languages covering full-length and one-act plays, rare memoirs, translations, manuscripts of Parsee Gujarati Theatre that marked the beginnings of modern Indian theatre from 1850s to 1950s, researched works on folk theatre like Bhavai, puppetry, drama criticism, photographs of artists and audio visuals of interviews,” he says.
The archive is opened to public from time to time when new acquisitions are made. Baradi’s next big dream is to open Gujarati theatre museum.