The Legend Habib Tanvir was among those people who had his relationship not only with theatre but all the art fields and with many generations of people related to those art fields. It is an important feature of his character and can be imagined that there is a special class of musicians, filmmakers, dramatists, writers and poets. And many generations of those people will remember him for various reasons. Everyone knows that theatre has a relationship with all the art fields but all the people related to this field cannot meet the demands of this relationship but Habib Tanvir understood the demands of this relationship and met them without hesitation and with equal honesty. All the country has seen his work. He was not only a highly qualified actor and director but was as a head of all the art society and the art family of India. Everyone expected something from him and got that. People used to remember him for years for his performances but now he will be remembered more after his death. He gave a lot of contribution to the traditional Indian drama that is popularly known as Nat vidhya. He brought the folk and rural actors to the national and inter-national stage which is his one of the most significant contribution for the India drama.
Early Life Habib was born on September 1, 1923 in Raipur of Chattisgarh. His father’s name was Hafiz Ahmed Khan who had his background of Peshawar. Habib Ahmed Khan completed his matriculation from his home town and got his graduation degree in 1944 from the Morris College of Nagpur. He also studied in Aligarh Muslim University for a year. For next ten years he worked as an actor in some Hindi films, wrote some songs and many plays out of which ‘Agra Bazar’ was one of his famous play lists. He had also become an integral part of the Progressive writer’s Association, Indian People’s Theatre Association, Children’s Theatre and Qudsia Zaidi’s Hindustani Theatre. His theatrical relations with actor-director Moneeka Mishra turned changed into permanent relationship when they got married. From 1955 to 1958 he stayed in Europe. During this period he got training from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in Acting and from Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in Direction. He was influenced by German poet, play write and theatre Director Bertolt Brecht’s works. From him he learnt the use of local idioms in his plays, which was later on called the ‘theatre of roots’.
Works When he returned in 1958 to India he remained busy for some time to discover the root elements of Indian Theatre that he could use in the establishment of his own theatre along with the use of new theatrical techniques he had learnt in England. This quest brought him into close contact with the folk actors of the Chattisgarh, the people of his birthplace. He understood the root elements of the folk art and the relationship between the ‘Shashtar’ (holy books) and the people. This led to the foundation of his own theatre named ‘Naya Theatre’ in 1959. Six folk actors from Chattisgarh were among the first members of his theatre. He kept on experimenting with Drama. He even started to use local language as most of his actors used to be folk actors. He gave more freedom to his folk actors and even used folk singing style of hymns in his plays. Among his famous plays, ‘Agra Bazar’ and ‘Mitti Ki Gaddi’ are the most significant plays. Expect it, ‘Charan Das Chor’ also drew large crowds. This play was turned into a full length feature film by Shyam Benegal under the same name. His play ‘Ponga Pandit’ turned out to be a big controversy when some saffron parties started to disrupt its shows. A few years ago when he had performed in Bhopal’s Ravinder Bhavan, people in large numbers used to come to see his ‘Charandas Chor’. People used to see this play while standing on their feet because of lack of seats. He himself used to play the role of a constable. Though his role used to very brief but people used to come especially to see him.
He was awarded by the Indian government many times for his contribution to the field of art. In 1969 he was awarded with Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, in 1983 with Padma Shri, in 1996 with Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship and in 2002 with Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship. He was also nominated as the member of Rajya Sabha (1972-1978). He was writing his biography which could not be completed because of his death on June8, 2009.
