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The unsung artist
Why such a long gap?” I asked Musaddiq Sanwal, referring to his recent play. Sanwal a man of several talents, besides being a theatre director, is also an artist of the fine arts-graphic design genre, as well as a singer with a great voice.
“We couldn’t find a good script, so we decided to wait...” he replied. The “we” referred to the Baang Theatre Workshop group. Sanwal, together with Mohammed Hanif, the BBC journalist and ‘part-time’ playwright, are amongst Baang’s founder members. The original group has now somewhat dispersed.
Sanwal directed a play scripted by Hanif Marnay kay baad kya hoga, and the two teamed up again in the latest Baang play, Kamra No. 1801, which was staged in September in Karachi.
Musaddiq Iqbal was born in 1963, in a village near Multan. ‘Sanwal’ was his nickname, which he later adopted happily. After his schooling in Multan, he left for the National College of Art & Architecture (NCA), Lahore. He says he was thrown into political activism when General Zia-ul-Haq declared that the NCA must be closed down, as, according to him, figurative painting and sculpture had no place in Islam. Sanwal led the forceful movement against this decree. Not only did the NCA survive (and celebrated its 125th anniversary last year), the students’ demand to make the college into a degree-awarding institution was accepted, and Sanwal graduated from there with a BFA.
Music, as well as the seeds for theatre got sown at college. Sanwal was in his first year when he came across Ustad Chotay Ghulam Ali Khan. With some other NCA students, he used to visit the Al Hamra Arts Council daily. There, after college hours, the students practised life drawings. In an adjacent room, the Ustad used to conduct music and singing classes. Sanwal was drawn to that room, and sat there listening. One day, the Ustad invited him to join it.
“I attended his classes for a few months as, unfortunately, he died soon afterwards. However, I have not come across such a wonderful teacher again,” he said, rather sadly.
Sanwal wrote his first play while he was at the NCA. It was for a theatre festival in which several colleges were participating. Sanwal’s play Aik Khail was awarded the Best Script prize.
“That is how I got into theatre. I was also taking care of the music for the festival. Later, Faryal Gohar directed a play that was performed inside a factory in Gulberg. It was a political play, against the military dictatorship. With it began Faryal’s directorial debut, but it was the beginning and end of my acting career!” He laughed.
According to Sanwal, those were exciting times. Although he strongly feels that all art should remain entertaining, he concedes that it eventually does become political.
After spending five years in Lahore he went back to Multan, but failed to find a female actor for his Saraiki Lok Tamashay, and gave up his search after sometime.
“Perhaps that city was not ready for it at the time. I then moved to Karachi in 1987. I wanted to work in the commercial film department of an advertising agency, so that I could learn and explore ‘film’ as a medium that had the possibility of combining the various arts.”
Sanwal worked for a couple of years in this position, but left when an unusual opportunity came his way. His friends in Lok Rehas, Lahore, recommended his name for participation in a South-East Asian Cultural Caravan (SEACC). This troupe was to tour Europe, for one whole year.
Sanwal was chosen to represent Pakistan, for his combined skills as a singing, theatre and fine-arts artist. The group worked together for three months, and prepared a play in no less than 17 different languages. In addition, there were five musical shows, in which 2-3 countries collaborated for each show. Sanwal worked with a Maori musician from New Zealand, and an Indonesian dancer. The musical was called Ahurangi. The opening performance was held at Avignon, France.
He returned to Lahore after his year-long stint, and was soon directing his first play. It was staged by students of the Engineering University.
“The play was called Raat, and I applied an interesting technique of improvisations in order to evolve a script. I had learnt this at the SEACC. The idea was to begin with only the outline of a story. Since we spoke different languages, it helped us to speak from the heart, rather than to memorize predetermined lines. I can claim that it was the first time such an experiment was carried out in Pakistan. Eventually, several theatre groups here adopted the improvisation technique.” Sanwal said excitedly about his directorial debut.
He then moved back to Karachi, and again joined at an advertising agency. He also taught music to young children in a private school and continued with his theatre activities, including working with Sheema and Khalid for their Tehrik-e-Niswan plays. Baang Theatre Workshop — the brainchild of Sanwal, Mohammed Hanif, Rashid Farooqi and Ali Hasnain — was founded in 1990.
Sanwal has featured in BBC’s weekly programme Unsung Heroes of Music, in which the focus is on a folk or classical musician. Nazir Butt, Sain Zahoor, a shagird of Khan Saheb Abdul Karim Khan, have also appeared in th programme. A couple of years ago, he was invited to compose the music of a song for a play produced by the BBC Urdu Service. In addition to this, he has assisted journalist and film-maker Hasan Zaidi, who directed Raat chali hai jhoom ke, a film that won kudos at the recently held Kara Film Festival.
Before the end of this year, Sanwal will be bringing out his first CD, Kalaam. Judging by his frail figure, it is difficult to believe that the man could have such a powerful voice, one which rivets you to your seat. Sanwal sings Shah Husain, Mian Mohammad Bakhsh and Bullay Shah’s poetry with incredible sensitivity and verve.
“These are old compositions that have been sung for generations. The melody has been perfected over the ages,” he says modestly.
In the same breath he says he is an outdoors-person who believed in “Performing Arts” and performs better when he has to ‘throw’ his voice to an audience, without the aid of mikes in the studio, which make him feel rather claustrophobic.
Some years ago, Sanwal the artist, married Shehla Zaidi, the doctor. They proceeded to Boston, where Shehla was studying for a Master’s in Health Policy and Management at Harvard University. While she continued with her studies, Sanwal decided to pursue his music career, and started to perform on a regular basis. Besides his performances in several cities all over the USA, he was invited to sing in Canada and Dubai as well. It has been over two years since they returned, and now have a cute baby-boy called Dara. Together with his role as father, one hopes to see Sanwal play the roles of a singer and director more regularly.
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