POURING ITS ART OUT
EVEN IN ITS 50TH YEAR, MUMBAI’S NCPA CONTINUES TO ENRICH INDIA’S CULTURE
IN
December 1969, the then prime minister Indira Gandhi inaugurated the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA)’s studio, auditorium and library at their premises on Bombay’s Bhulabhai Desai Road. At a one-week festival that followed, P.L. Deshpande and Ravi Shankar performed. It marked the beginning of the enterprise to build a cultural space to showcase the city’s best dance, music and theatre, as its founders Jamshed Bhabha and J.R.D. Tata had envisioned.
In 1973, construction began at Nariman Point and, in May 1975, the complex hosted its first performance, at the Little Theatre. Fifty years later, that complex, spread across eight acres on a patch of reclaimed land abutting the sea, remains one of the country’s most vibrant cultural spaces, as it celebrates its golden jubilee this month.
“Its [success] is largely because of the people who ran it,” says Khushroo N. Suntook, the chairperson. “When it was first set up by Dr Bhabha, we had some distinguished people on the council, iconic figures and the support of the house of Tatas which was very important.” Satyajit Ray and Yehudi Menuhin were among its early mentors.
The NCPA ADD Art Festival being organised to mark the anniversary will feature a series of performances, screenings and workshops from November 29 to December 1. The line-up includes dancers Malavika Sarukkai and Mallika Sarabhai, tabla maestro Zakir Hussain and flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia and the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI), among others. “It culturally enriched the city, and was a space other cities did not have,” says Chaurasia. “It’s a world-class venue and they have always promoted good work.”
The NCPA is also the seat of the SOI, India’s first professional orchestra set up in 2006. It also has an archive of recordings, books and discs, which are open to the public upon request. With five theatres and a capacity to seat about 2,500 people, the venue hosts about 700 performances every year.
“To fill it with meaningful work isn’t easy,” says Suntook. “One thing I’ve learnt is that when you don’t know anything in a particular genre, appoint an expert. We divided it up into five genres [western music, Indian music, dance, theatre, direct broadcasting] under people whose leadership was undoubted and who knew their subjects very well.”
■
—Bhavya Dore