Ebrahim alkazi biography of martin

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He was not out to create an ‘Alkazi school of Acting or Directing’,” says Amal, who has directed more than 60 plays, such as Nati Binodini, Begum Barve and Himmat Mai. A recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi award, Amal is, at present, director of the Art Heritage Gallery in Delhi, which was founded in 1977 by Alkazi and his wife, Roshen.

For the book, Amal managed to persuade Alkazi to sit before a camera.

The importance of the collaborative mutuality of the group than the exposition of individual talent was greatly emphasised by him. “As I was growing up, I saw a very tense and agitated father.

He was full of a kind of energy and was always wanting to do more, achieve more. “Art is held in high regard in Islam.

It was within this historical flow of people and ideas that Alkazi’s father migrated from Saudi Arabia to India, a move that would shape the life of one of India’s most important cultural figures.

The Making of a Theatre Pioneer

In India, Ebrahim Alkazi carved out a path that few could have imagined. He endeavoured to raise the audience to a level of understanding where they could appreciate quality productions that were new and different, aesthetically refined, dense in content, poetic in the physicality of expression, purposive and meaningful.

He was at once Indian and Arab, rooted in both identities, and his work showed how heritage could be a source of richness rather than division.

In many ways, Alkazi’s life embodied the old-age relationship between India and Saudi Arabia. His new ideas were not embraced with open arms, he had to fight for them to be accepted. One example is Adya Rangacharya’s Kelu Janamejaya (Listen Janamejaya).

Each scene was neatly visualised and wrapped; each position, movement, entry and exit, and gesture were carefully planned, rehearsed and reproduced. This shift is significant.

Sanskrit plays of Kalidasa and Shudraka were translated and staged in colloquial Hindi. She also obtained material from RADA and Dartington Hall in Essex, institutions where Alkazi studied while in England.

The book follows another authoritative work from the family, Enter Stage Right: The Alkazi/ Padamsee Family Memoir (Speaking Tiger), which was launched in 2021 by Feisal Alkazi, a powerful Delhi director and Alkazi’s son.

Yet, looking at his life also allows us to reflect on something larger: the centuries-old ties between India and Saudi Arabia.

These ties are often discussed today in terms of diplomacy, energy, or geopolitics. Alkazi was happy and proud that his student Ratan Thiyam was doing productions based on Manipuri culture, traditions, movement and music; of course, one could see that Thiyam’s productions reflect Alkazi’s theatre in terms of the precision, handling of materials, colour, texture, tone, compositions, lighting, etc.

As the Complete Artiste
After quitting NSD in 1977, his interest returned to contemporary art as a collector and curator.

As director of the fabled National School of Drama from 1962 to 1977, he launched some of the finest actors of our times, including Om Shivpuri, Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Rohini Hattangadi, Manohar Singh and Uttara Baokar. He could convincingly transcend the reminiscence of the past colliding with the present and the layered history of the same sites for the plays Andha Yug (based on Mahabharata) and Razia Sultan.

Theatre is not merely about the performance on stage and its design, it is the wholeness of the work from designing the theatre space to the atmosphere created in the auditorium. His greatest vision was to make the National School of Drama truly ‘national’ by not only assimilating students from across India, but also providing a platform for regional and folk arts.

“He wanted to make theatre a household entertainment by entering into tie-ups with the national television network like Doordarshan. I heard my father tell somebody at my mother’s memorial service that it was the power of art that sustained Roshen and him every day of their lives,” says Amal.

Alkazi was only 37 when he was appointed head of NSD.

“He was in two minds about going to Delhi to become the director.

Art is man’s expression of the Almighty’s creation,” says Amal.

Alkazi was introduced to theatre at the age of four by Father Ricklin, his principal at St Vincent’s school in Poona.