Saved by comedy!
Known for playing incisive comedy roles for over 40 years in Bollywood, television and theatre, 67-year-old Ratna Pathak Shah’s love of the performing arts has not been crushed by decades in the industry. The spirited Indian actress speaks with intensity and enthusiastically shares her experiences even of learning to ride a motorbike for her upcoming movie Dhak Dhak.
Curiously, she wasn’t always interested in comedy, starting off her career aspiring to play dramatic, romantic leads. But when success eluded her, it was comedy that became her “saviour.”
In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Times, during the recent Ceylon Literary Festival, Ratna shared her views on building the arts: the role that comedy plays, the importance of developing imagination, and the material conditions needed for a bold arts industry to thrive.
Ratna Pathak Shah. Pic by M.A. Pushpa Kumara
I first watched her in an unusual romantic comedy that became my favourite Bollywood movie: Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. She played the mother of the protagonist, an open-minded, staunch defender of human rights and advocate of non-violence, who is widowed by a Rajput warrior whose violent legacy she tries to protect her son from. Through dialogues with her husband’s portrait, she delivered a comedic rendition of marital disagreements without ever tipping into caricature.
Ratna says that female roles particularly in comedy are often reduced to a trope: “the fat woman”, “the dark woman,” “the whiny woman”. But after one breaks from such crudeness, comedy is powerful, she says, providing a “sharp” way to “unravel social issues.” For her, those moments of levity serve as a way to emphasise the other parts of a production, and deliver powerful commentary that drama cannot on its own.
Unfortunately, comedy takes a lot of collective effort and time, two things the industry doesn’t always have in ample supply. But for Ratna these are essential in building a performing arts industry that is original and interesting. She laments the increasing lack of time put into ideas and developing them and the large expenses of producing has pushed cinema and television into “the safer path,” instant hits on repeat that have been proven to financially succeed. For those looking to produce truly original work, “the commercial world will not make space for you,” she declared.
Asked what advice she has for Sri Lanka’s cinema industry, “invest in your writers and give them time,” she said, “and find a wide variety of stories from your country.”
She tells me about the National Film Development Corporation in India, which used to provide government support for the industry and suggests that Sri Lanka consider pursuing a similar route. It’s important to focus on the distribution of unusual films making sure they get into cinemas and public screenings somehow reaching a wide audience. “Audiences too,” she explained, “need to develop the skill of watching with more focus and depth.”
Besides television and film, Ratna also works on plays and is a part of the Motley Theater Group. Plays, being cheaper to produce, have a greater freedom about them. Through the Motley Theater Group she gives herself and her co-actors the time to produce thoughtful, incisive performances.
But in her view plays too have changed over time, influenced by cinema and vice versa. “In India cinema drew from theatre which is why it is so heavily ‘song and dance’ and I find a lot of plays have been inspired by cinema. We make little brief scenes in theatre as though cut and put together – a technique used in the film world.”
Here too, she throws in a word of caution. She warns against excessive film-ization, where not only in technique but also in substance, arts reflect the domination of cinema and everything begins to sound like a “sitcom or soap opera.” But when it works, she says, it’s fantastic.
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