Introduction

The final autobiography in this volume is unusual in several ways. First, it was published as an oral history rather than a conventional autobiography. Fida Husain's Fifty Years in the Parsi Theatre, although told mainly in the first person, was published under the authorship of Pratibha Agraval, a theatre scholar who interviewed and recorded the actor. Second, its subject had an extraordinarily long life-span and outlasted all of his contemporaries who were active in the Parsi theatre. Indeed, Fida Husain lived for three decades beyond the last extant Parsi theatre company. He remained active at the helm of the Moonlight Theatre of Calcutta until his retirement in 1968. Late in his life, as a celebrated exponent of the “old Parsi theatre,” he created greater understanding of the form among the urban educated class. He taught seminars in acting, direction, and elocution at the National School of Drama throughout the 1990s. With his deep voice, artful enunciation, and commanding physical presence, Fida Husain gained respect for his personal talents and for the erstwhile tradition that fostered them.

These final accomplishments are outside the scope of his memoir, published in 1986. It focuses on his heyday between 1918, when he joined the New Alfred, and 1968 when he shut down the Moonlight. Fida Husain performed in hundreds of plays, first in female roles and then in male ones. His most famous part was that of the devotee Narsi.