I met Ravi Baswani within a few weeks of arriving in Mumbai way back in 1982... I would be doing something else in life but for that chance encounter...

I saw him in one of the Ekjute plays at Prithvi Theatre. He directed the play as well as acted in it. It was probably called Ballabhpur Ki Roopkatha. Raja Bundela was doing the main role and there was this fine actress, a Meena Kumari look alike, Kavita Chaudhary, who was doing the female lead and she had a funny little chit of a lovely girl playing her maid or sakhi, another good actress named Ishrat.

I was loitering around at Prithvi after the play when I saw Ravi Baswani standing near the Prithvi café that used to be run by Mrs. Pinto in those days. I had liked his performance and I went over to him and appreciated his work. He met me as if I were not a stranger and asked me to come for the rehearsals of a new play his group was planning to stage. I liked the idea since I had nothing much to do and hardly had any friends in the big city.

I joined his group that was called Non-Group. He had a younger cousin, his name was Ravi too, who managed the affairs of the group. Everyone would address Ravi Baswani as Bade Bhai. The other Ravi was known as Chote. They had the reading of this play titled ‘Andher Nagari – Chaupat Raja,’ a play designed by B.V. Karanth, based on a story known to all of us. I got a bit role in it.

They had the reading of another play that was to be directed by Alok Nath. It was called Do Yamrajon Ki Bhidant. I was asked to join the reading, and I got an important acting part in it. It was a situational comedy and my role was greatly appreciated by the audience. In the end, during the curtain call, when all the actors would go one by one to take a bow, I would be the last to go and would be asked to stand in the middle of the group. The audience would break into a big applause as soon as I would enter the stage. My character was quite a hit with children.

It was a funny play within a play and I was playing the role of an exasperated actor Bhuskute who enacts Yamraj’s role in a play. During the play, the real Yamraj appears and I, Bhuskute, am the only one who can see him. There was this reedy-looking actor called Mihir Thaker, a student of architecture, who played the real Yamraj. Quite a few big names of the entertainment world of today were part of the Non-Group in those days.

Ravi Baswani was the one who made me, a total stranger and perennial misfit, a part of that family. I would look forward to the community dinner after the shows. We would always have those. There would be parties too. Non-Group did not stage any plays after that I believe. However, my interest in theatre continued. It was an intellectually stimulating and emotionally absorbing and involving experience for me.

This is how I got associated with amateur Bombay theatre, thanks to Bade Bhai, which has finally led to what has become my calling now -- writing, directing, and producing plays, TV programmes, and films. I still act in plays off and on, and get appreciated for my work.

I would have been doing something else in life, but for that chance encounter at Prithvi Theatre with Ravi Baswani, a warm, open-hearted, and welcoming human being, a conscientious person, and one of the good men I have come across in my life.

Bade Bhai Amar Rahein

By
Rajesh Kumar Singh

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