Mowgli in Delhi

A Children's classic goes contemporary
India Today May 31, 1994

JUNGLE BOOK KE AAGEY

AND what do we have here? Mowgli of Disney's Jungle Book fame in Delhi? Yes and no! For this is Mowgli a la Lushin Dubey and Bubbles Sabherwal, the tenacious producer-director team that runs Kids world, the Delhi based children's theatre organisation which his consistently delighted city audiences for the past six years. Their imaginative productions of classics include Peter Pan, Oliver, Annie, and The Little Mermaid among others. Their aim: theatre with a difference. Education with entertainment and innovation.

Take their latest production "Jungle Book ke Aagey"- the freshness and appeal lie in the concept. Mowgli strays into the big bad Delhi of Redline, Whiteline, Blueline buses: a world of sloganeers, masks and make-believe appearances, beauty parlours, zoos that are metaphorical prisons for the human spirit and corrupt Punjabi spewing thanedars.

Through it all Mowgli questions the system with the searing innocence and honesty that only an uncorrupted child's mind is capable of. don't enjoy beating the system?

The message comes through simply without being pedagogic-"'They keep animals in cages here?" Mowgli asks, "In my home I played with them in the open". Dubey is emphatic about not being preachy: "You cannot and must not talk down to children. Level with them and they'll listen".This concern for children goes beyond the superficial. "You need sensitivity and insight. Work as equals with the children, build a relationship of trust," says Dubey. The language of the play, with script and music by National School of Drama (NSD) stage veteran, Piyush Misra, is colloquial Hindustani with liberal doses of English. The identification with the milieu, the phraseology, is instant, reflected on the shining faces of the young audience.

It's always an uphill struggle getting any production off the ground. There are mumps and measles, mothers and mealy mouthed sponsors to contend with. "The problem." laments Sabherwal, is that "nobody takes children seriously. As individuals, as a potential audience, as a major consumer segment."

Peter Pan cost Rs. 4 lakh to produce; money came in a trickle from sponsors and they broke even only when returns from the box office exceeded expectations. It may be the same story with the two plays Beauty and the Beast and Jungle Book ke Aagey currently under production. Dubey remains enthusiastic: "It will come. I'm an optimist."

Says Ankur Sabherwal, 14, still shy but quietly confident: "I was really an introvert when I acted in their first play. Now, I enjoy the interaction with other kids."

Though onstage Mowgli recoils from contact with the "human" world, offstage in the rehearsal room it's a different story. Young Aditya Dhawan's eyes sparkle as he tells you what he likes most about being Mowgli "I enjoy the scene where the constable beats the corrupt officer." Whoever said children don't enjoy beating the system?