Written by Ram Gopal Bajaj
Mohan Maharishi — who passed away on May 9 at 83 — was my classmate at the National School of Drama (NSD) from 1962-65. We were the first batch when Ebrahim Alkazi joined as director and we are very proud of that. Mohan was the leading intellectual of the class. His English was impeccable and impressed me, a boy who had come from the interiors of Bihar. He used to explain things to me and I learnt a lot from him.
Mohan, Om Shivpuri, Sudha Shivpuri and I were a few years apart in age. All of us had been radio artists. Theatre was not prominent and television did not exist. Training under Alkazi changed us and our attitude to theatre.
Mohan was the intelligent boy of the School. He knew the answers to all the questions. He won the Best Direction Student of our class. We had our fights and jealousies but, if there was something we could not understand, we would call Mohan. His opinion mattered. Not only the students, even Alkazi valued Mohan’s opinion. Alkazi gave Mohan a full-fledged production after his diploma play, and it was packed with new ideas and experimentation. The play was Suno Janmejaya, written by the late Adya Rangacharya of Karnataka as Kelu Janmejaya. It was first done in Hindi by Mohan, as translated by B V Karanth, and Om Shivpuri and I were among the actors. I played the neta. Everybody connected with that play is now dead, except me and Mohan’s wife Anjala Maharishi (she used to be Anjala Chitnis).
Mohan and Anjala got to know each other at the NSD. She was two years younger than us. But, Anjala had finished her graduation and was a Bharatanatyam dancer related to Mama Warerkar. Unlike us, she had a stage background. We only knew what amateur theatre had taught us.
At that time, graduation was not a precondition for applying to the NSD but Mohan had done his graduation in science as a private student. He had a scientific bent of mind and would, later, create a play, Einstein, on the theory of relativity. He became one of the leading experimental directors, especially in the initial days of NSD. He did important works like Raja ki Rasoi, Deevar Mein Ek Khidki Rehti Thi, Joseph Ka Mukadma and Einstein with the NSD repertory. Mohan would also write plays. So he had a keen idea of sets, story, costumes and other elements of theatre. His method of direction was through suggestions; he never imposed his ideas on us.
We joined the repertory after graduation and stayed there till 1967. After we left, the first play that Mohan did was groundbreaking. I was a part of the cast as we made Evam Indrajit in Hindi for Yatrik. It was the first time a production of Badal Sircar was being made outside Bengal. Gyandev Agnihotri’s Shuturmurg, which he made in 1967-68, was talked about. It was a modern Hindi theatre production by a fresh NSD graduate. It had experimental sets, design and structure.
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Over the years, Mohan and I shared a lot of time and space. Sometimes, we did not find a hostel and were room partners. We — Mohan, Om Shivpuri, Sudha Shivpuri and I – started the Dishantar theatre group. Om was the leader. Later, B V Karanth and B M Shah joined us.
Dishantar revived some of the old plays we had done with the NSD repertory. We travelled to Kolkata and Lucknow. With the NSD repertory, we also visited Jaipur with Tughlaq, directed by Om Shivpuri, and Mohan’s Suno Janmejaya. At that time, the audience for the theatre was small. We used to feel good if 15-20 people turned up, but we helped build an audience for Hindi theatre.
After he went back to Jaipur, where he lived, Mohan started a theatre group called Sanket. He was also a part of the theatre department at the University of Rajasthan as well as professor and head of the theatre department at the Panjab University, roles in which he made significant contributions to academics and theatre training. In 1984, I was the officiating director of NSD and handed over charge to him. He was the director at NSD till 1986.
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I used to have differences with him on certain matters of Indian philosophy but there was always mutual respect. Mohan was a leading man from our time at NSD. The man ahead of his class has gone.
The writer is a former director of National School of Drama
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