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'The Voice of India' states the citation on Partap Sharma's award of 2004. Partap has recorded over 5000 commentaries for news reels, documentaries, and audio-visuals like the son-et-lumiere presentation at Delhi's Red Fort. Today he's better known for tele-serials and plays but voice culture has led to his latest creative enterprise, a challenge by any standards.
A conversation with Partap Sharma by Meher Pestonji, January 2007
Meher Pestonji: What made you do a solo rendering of Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar'?
Partap Sharma: It began with my reading for a schoolboy who has it on his syllabus. I recorded so he could use it as reference. I wasn't sure I'd do the whole play. After five minutes I said lets go with it. Reading a play is not like reading a book - everything is conveyed through voice. Each time I write a play I read it to theatre people before presenting it to the public. In 1997 Vijaya Mehta invited me to read Begum Samroo at Chauraha. Inadvertently that became a public performance. The press raved over my holding the audience with a single voice.
MP: The recording has an amazing range of voice - without break for changing from one character to another. Didn't you rehearse?
PS: I planned. In every scene I gave characters colours to know at a glance who I am speaking for. If you read the text you're too slow. In my script Brutus is brown, Mark Anthony is green, Ceasar is purple, Cassius is an iron leaden colour. The colour quickly identifies the character and voice I'm to use. That eliminates pauses. When I see steel grey I know its Cassius and I go into Cassius' gait, manner, tone. Sometimes people are in argument, they interrupt each other. It takes nimbleness of voice to do that.
MP: Are you recording other plays as a singe reader?
PS: I want to do Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet…. I may do Girish Karnad's Tughlaq, Gurcharan Das' Larins Saheb, Its important to do Indian writers with the best in the world.
MP Would you record with other voices? Perhaps a female one?
PS For years I offered my studio to creative people to record their work, to build an audio archive of contemporary literature. No one took me up except Kaifi Azmi. Now I'm ill. I have to be taken to the studio in a car. I can't wait. I'm doing the Golden Voice series myself.
MP: Why is it called the ICU series?
PS: I was in the ICU of Breach Candy Hospital for emphysema in 2002, separated from other patients by a curtain. Through the curtain I heard a gentleman say 'I never forget a voice. You sound like Partap Sharma'. And I said 'I am Partap Sharma'. We became friends. He suggested I do recordings for patients who aren't allowed to read. I laughed saying I'll start the ICU CD company.
MP: Can we talk about your illness?
PS: In ephysema lungs are obstructed from producing adequate oxygen. It is a degenerative, irreversible illness.
MP: How did you get it?
PS: I used to smoke 20-30 cigarettes a day. In 2002 I was in China playing Nehru in an international film. I didn't speak Mandarin and almost no one spoke English except the interpreter. I was lost in this sea of Mandarin. Everyone smiling, talking and all I could do was smile and smoke the peace pipe. I resumed smoking after eight years.
At the time winds coming from Mongolia were minus 5 degrees. I was in cottons playing Nehru without warm inner wear. I got double pneumonia. On returning to India I landed in the ICU. I've never recovered my strength.
In 2004 three doctors said you have six months to live. I said I want to hope in your knowledge. But I have hope in your ignorance. The more I think you are ignorant the more I generate hope to find my own answers. I tried ayurveda, acupressure, acupuncture. The only thing that worked is Tibetan medicine. For two years I've been on oxygen but off all alopathic medication. I'm doing yoga. Pranayama. I used to be a martial artist. That taught me never to accept limits but reach beyond.
One doctor told my wife I must be spiritual. I'm not. I'm just determined.
Meher Pestonji
Sakina Mansion
18, Oliver Road
Apollo Reclamation
Bombay 400001
January 2007
Born in Lahore (then India) in 1939. Partap Sharma is a playwright, novelist and author of four books for children. As an actor he has won the National Award in 1971 for his performance in Phir Bhi. He has also played the role of Nehru in the film Nehru: Jewel of India. He has also directed a number of documentary films, including a historical series for Channel Four Television, London, titled The Raj Through Indian Eyes. As a result, England's Museum of the British Empire & Commonwealth, in Bristol now has a permanent section devoted to film clips and interviews titled The Pratap Sharma Archive on the British Raj. His voice is well known to cinema, TV and radio audience as he is one of India's foremost commentators and narrators. He is the recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award.
See also by meher Pestonji:
Am I Pampering Myself? - Partap Sharma & Shakespeare
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