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‘Satire was my style'
He came off the land and performed on the city's pavements Film offers failed to lure this proud folk artiste.
Shahir Sable talks to Deepa Galilot about his life and times on the eve of the inauguration of an old artistes’
home he has set up in Panchgani.
IF it wasn’t for a god-given voice, who knows, I might have been a mill-worker like my father,” says Shahir Sable.
Shahir Sable lives in an unostentatious tenement in the heart of Bombay’s mill district. The room is decorated with
trophies he has won. His precocious grandson, Shivdarshan, settles down opposite him to help with the interview, to
supply a word here, a detail there, which might slip his 68-year-old grandfather’s memory.
“My only regret is that I didn’t get a proper education. Partly it was my fault and partly the fault of the times. Those
were the fiery pre-Independence days, when every youth gave up his education and future to take part in the
freedom struggle. I was one of them.”
Sable was horn in a small village called Pasarani in Maharashtra’s Satara district. His musical education came from
listening to bhajans performed in his village and getting to understand the relevance and meaning of each folk music
form
“Nobody in the family had any background in music. We were poor farmers. Most of the time there wasn’t enough
to eat. My mother sent me to school, in Ahmednagar, which was fortunate. Because here my cultural foundations
were laid. My attitudes and values were developed by listening to the greats like Sane Guruji and Senapati Bapat. I
couldn’t quite understand then what they were talking about, but I gathered that we were slaves and we had to fight
for our freedom. My induction into the freedom movement was in the form of singing at meetings held by our
leaders. Because of this experience I decided to use my talent for lok-jagruti. Writing patriotic songs and plays that
talked of social reform became a habit.
“After Independence, when I asked the leaders what my role would be, they said, you were a farmer before this; go
back to where you came from. What kind of freedom was this? People who had used us now rushed ahead to get
political power by trampling on us. It was then I decided that I would never, never be associated with, any political
party. Amar Shaikh said of me: “There is the Left and there is the Right and there is Shahir Sable.”
Shahir Sable and Party had been launched by Sane Guruji in 1945. In 1948, Sable came to Bombay and started making
a living singing at poojas and bhajan gatherings. He also wrote plays which could be called popular-reformist, and
performed them on pavements.
“After many years of this existence, people started asking me why I performed on the foot-’ path? Why not on stage?
So in 1960, I entered professional theatre.
“My first play was Yamarajyat Ek Ratra. It used a mixture of folk art, tamasha and drama. I evolved this style myself
and called it mukta natya (free drama). I did everything from acting, singing, set and costume design to props. My
troupe consisted of people from the mill areas. The play was a hit. We did about 500 shows, and I was established.
“One of my most famous plays, Bapacha Baap, is about Brahma sending Narad to earth to report on the state of man.
It turns out that earth is in a mess. Brahma tells Narad to ask Shiva to destroy it with the Tandav. Narad replies that
Shiva has forgotten the Tanday; now he dances the cabaret.”
Kashi Kay Vat Chukia is surprisingly contemporary in its comment on corruption. A village sarpanch has to account
for the money that was meant for a well. To save his skin, he reports that the well has been stolen!
“Satire was my style. I used folk and religious forms to make my point. But you can’t say I promoted religion. I
always protested against superstition and orthodoxy in religion, while stressing the need for religion as a spiritual
security like a house for physical security. And just as a house needs periodic repairs, so also does religion.”
It is well-known that one of Sable’s plays, Andhala Daltay, which first raised the issue of Maharashtra for
Maharashtrians, was responsible for the formation of the Shiv Sena. “Well,” he replies, “I did believe that outsiders
should not be allowed to exploit Maharashtrians. I felt we should all live together peacefully, without oppression by
either side. I felt bad that rural folk spent their lives slogging in mills run by outsiders and had nothing to show for
their years of labour.
“I took the play to Bal Thackeray and told him he could use his pen to bring about a change. The Shiv Sena as I saw
it, was meant to bring about social change. I withdrew from it the moment it became a political organisation. Today,
some so-called followers of Shivaji are an insult to his ideals.”
After writing about 18 plays and performing thousands of. shows, Shahir Sable has slowed down; but his four
children and grandchildren are carrying on the tradition. They have produced a TV series called Maharashtra Ki
Lokdhara and a stage show called Gandha Maticha.
“I never wanted my children to come into this field, because I have suffered a lot and I wasn’t sure they were strong
enough to face the difficulties I had faced. But my wishes boomeranged. All of them and their spouses and their
children have come into the performing arts!”
Next month, three generations of the Sables will stage a charity show in which they will be joined by some
performers who began with Shahir Sable and have gone on to become famous — Laxmikant Berde, Prashant Damle,
Sanjeevani Bidkar, Maya Jadhav, Vijay Kadam, Kishori Shahane, to name a few. The proceeds of this show will go
towards the Shahir Sable Pratisthan which has set up an old artistes’ home at ‘Panchgani to be inaugurated on
Thursday. “The centre will be designed like a hermitage. Old artistes who have no support will live there and do
whatever work they can to make them feel useful. They will also hold short-duration camps to pass on their art to
youngsters.’.”’
He has given his huge collection of tapes, songs, books and papers to the NCPA. “Where would I store them?” he
says. In spite of his immense popularity in the state, Shahir Sable has stayed away from films. “If I had gone into
films I did get a lot of offers I would never have remained a folk artiste and this mattered to me the most. I only sang
a bharud, once, for Shantaram Athavale in the film Va vial, because I respect the man.
“You ask me if I could live off my theatre. I will say, if some rich people have the skill to evade income-tax, artistes
surely have the skill to make two rotis a day!
“Now I can relax. My children have gone ahead of me. Other youngsters are performing my plays. The folk tradition
will live on. My grandson won a prize the other day for his performance of Bapacha Baap, my first footpath play. The
circle is complete.”