Why is Shivani Tanksale in five plays this fortnight? Rosalyn D’Mello looks for answers.
Suddenly, Shivani Tanksale is everywhere. Over the past year, she’s acted in ten plays, two of which she’s directed herself. You may have seen her in All about Women, in which she plays both a four-year-old girl and a middle-aged woman. You may know her as the wicked witch in The Shehenshah of Azeemo. But even if you haven’t been to the theatre all year, you’ve probably noticed her on television, looking stricken when she thinks her sleeping husband may be dead in an ad for New York Life Insurance or putting on her concerned look as she tells us that she ensures her unfit spouse’s health by putting a Safola additive into his rotis.
The reason 27-year-old Tanksale is omnipresent, city theatre directors say, is because of her immense versatility. “She essays each role with so much commitment and demonstrates a lot of range,” said Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal, who has directed Tanksale in The Vagina Monologues and its Hindi counterpart Kissa Yoni Ka.
Tanksale also has a fan in Manav Kaul, the director of the musical, Aisa Kehte Hai, in which the actress is part of a flock of singing, dancing pigeons. “She’s the kind of actress who is really serious about theatre,” said Kaul. “That’s what any director wants. She delivers really well and she can also sing which is a brilliant asset.”
Though she started acting when she was a student at Hassaram Rijhamal College, Tanksale’s career really took off six years ago, when she joined Nadira Babbar’s theatre group, Ekjute. “She came to us to renew her talent,” said Babbar. “As an actress, I thought she was extremely talented and spontaneous with a very good-looking, expressive face.”
Audiences have been especially charmed with Tanksale’s portrayal of the vivacious Ritu Johnson in The President Is Coming, a comedy about eight people who gather at the American Centre to battle for a chance to shake the hand of the president of the United States. “I was looking for someone who could play a character that’s sort of looked down upon by her boss, someone who was constantly under fire,” said director Kunaal Roy Kapur. “After just two readings I felt that Shivani fit the role perfectly. She could dumb down the character and yet give her a lovely heart.”
Tanksale is among the members of the stage cast who also feature in the film adaptation of the play The President Is Coming, which is due to be released soon. “Shivani’s character was different on screen from its stage role,” said Kapur. “The same situations are dealt with differently. She was able to rework the character brilliantly.” Tanksale has also completed another film with Irfan Khan and has been signed on for a film with Imran Hashmi.
On the stage, Tanksale made her directorial debut in February with Namak Mirch, a play woven from four short stories by Pakistani writer Shaukat Thanvi. The newly minted director said that she thought it was essential to solicit suggestions from her cast. “A strong script does not necessarily make a good play,” said Tanksale. “Theatre is an actor’s medium, at the end of the day. An actor’s input always enriches the text. Particularly with comedy where it isn’t the line that is comic but how the actor makes the character deliver the line.”
The Shehenshah of Azeemo, an adaptation of The Wizard of Oz that opened in May, was her second venture as director. Tanksale is extremely convincing in her role as the wicked witch of the west. “When we performed at Horniman Circle for the Prithvi Summertime Festival, I sat on a broom on top of a tree,” she said. “Throughout the performance and even after, kids refused to come near that tree.” Tanksale is very keen on directing more plays for kids. “Children are so receiving and are open to a lot of ideas,” she said. “They are very pure in their reactions which are always so real unlike adults who only seem to want to dissect a play.”
Source : Time Out Mumbai ISSUE 26 Friday, August 20, 2010
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