"When it comes does not matter… what is important is that all the work you did is appreciated,” octogenarian actor Farrokh Mehta told Parsiana telephonically on January 20, 2020 about the Lifetime Achievement Award he received from youth theater group Thespo on December 21, 2019 at the National Centre for the Performing Arts. "I received the Award at the hands of the senior most member of the Theatre Group Bombay (TGB) and my life-long friend Gerson da Cunha, noted Mehta. Established in 1944, TGB, with which Mehta was "deeply involved since his college days,” is the parent body of Thespo, he explained.
"I am looking forward to acting in a meaningful play… an actor gets on stage when a director wants him on stage,” he laughed. Having mainly acted in English plays, with a career spanning seven decades, Mehta reminded us about his acting in "at least 12 plays in Gujarati... from comedies to musicals… it was great fun doing them… Mine has been a very mixed bag… I never said this is my forte or that is my forte… it all depended on what the director was offering. If you liked it, you took it,” he reminisced.
The tributes that the thespian’s contemporaries (from Sabira Merchant, Dalip Tahil, Kabir Bedi, Sharon Prabhakar, wife Vijaya Mehta and Farid Currim among others) offered at the Awards function referred to his "immense dedication,” how he could get under the skin of the character, his "ability to bring the house down,” and his "invaluable contribution” to the Bombay stage. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman remains the closest to his heart, Farrokh told the MumbaiMirror (MM) on December 24. Staged four times in four decades, "(co- star) Alyque (Padamsee) and I were the only two constants in the play...We grew old with the play,” he said. The list of the 32 plays that Mehta has acted in includes seven where he was director. His forays into films include an appearance in the Parsi-themed 1988 Shabana Azmi-Naseeruddin Shah starrer Pestonjee directed by Vijaya, herself a renowned theater and film director. "She received the Thespo Award six years earlier!” stated Farrokh.
Clockwise from above l: Farrokh Mehta (inset, with wife Vijaya);
with Alyque Padamsee in Death of a Salesman; with Sabira Merchant in A Streetcar Named Desire;
receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from Gerson da Cunha
Parsi theater is a "creature all its own… there is nothing like it,” the veteran stated. "I see very little (of it) now… "They (current dramatists) are trying their best… (but) their scripts could be better… my benchmark is (theater director) Adi Marzban… a person like him comes once in a lifetime… his pen just flowed,” Farrokh stated. "Shall I sing April Showers?” Mehta once suddenly asked Marzban during a rehearsal for a revue. Marzban went to the piano and adapted the song’s lyrics into Gujarati in "five or seven minutes,” he appreciated.
Having served as a director in multinational companies like Pfizer and Cadbury, Farrokh recalled his work as editor of the Tata Monthly Bulletin, joint editor of Freedom First and writing theater and book reviews for The Indian Express. "I have started writing for myself now.” His writing, tentatively titled "Under 500” stems from the realization that "no one has the time to read any more,” leading Farrokh to curtail the word count!
"Several big theater groups such as Ebrahim Alkazi’s Theatre Unit or Vijaya’s Rangayan dwindled and died. But the TGB still survives thanks to Thespo… (TGB) may not be producing plays under its banner any more but it has produced a whole generation of theater makers and theater goers. And that is important,” Farrokh told MM.
Thespo was founded 21 years ago by actor-director Quasar Thakore Padamsee for TGB with "a vision to develop and promote a passion for theater amongst the young,” he stated. Their annual all-India drama competition is open to only those under 25. "In 2019, Thespo received entries from nearly 150 groups from about 20 cities across the country in about 15 languages,” he exulted.