Voice Over

Sharma moved court. Former attorney general of India,Soli Sorabjee fought the case and seven years later,the play was staged at Indian National Theatre festival with Dina Pathak,Kalpana Lajmi and Dolly Thakore in the cast among others. A Touch of Brightness became memorable theatre. The BBC Third Programme first broadcast it over radio in 1967 with Judi Dench in the cast. The music was composed by Pandit Ravi Shankar. Fighting for creative freedom,says Thakore,was one of Sharma’s most remarkable qualities that stayed with him till he breathed his last on Wednesday in Mumbai after a prolonged illness. He was 71 and is survived by his wife Susan and two daughters–actor Tara Sharma and Namrita,who lives in Shanghai.

Sharma,a leading English playwright,was also a novelist and author of children’s books, apart from being a commentator,actor and documentary film-maker. In 2002,he played Jawaharlal Nehru in the international film The Bandung Sonata,based on the first Asian-African conference held in Bandung,Indonesia in 1955. Popular Nehru’s voice,this was Sharma’s second interpretation of Panditji after the 1989 film Nehru: The Jewel of India.

Since 2002,Sharma was battling emphysema,a pulmonary disease. As his condition aggravated,he would occasionally make public appearances with an oxygen cylinder in tow. Not that it deterred him from his work. Some time ago,he recorded Macbeth and Julius Caesar,enacting all the characters,to be released as audio CDs. The richness,depth and resonance of his voice made him a sought-after voice over artist. He lent his voice to a number of Film Division projects,earning sobriquets such as “the golden voice of India”,“the voice of India” or simply “the voice”. Even now,he is heard during son et lumière shows,including one running for more than four decades at the Delhi Fort.

He was more than a mere voice. “Anybody who thinks of Partap Sharma as a playwright,a writer,a voice-over artist or actor,misses the point a little as he is all of this but when all the four are put together,they made a character and a talent that’s rare,said stage and film actor Gerson da Cunha in an audio-visual projection made in honour of Sharma when he was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Thespo event three years ago. “In many ways,he contributed to this generation of Indian playwrights who now write in English,” says Toral Shah of Q Theatre Productions. His famous plays are Bars Invisible,The Word,The Professor Has A War Cry,Queen Bee,Power Play,Begum Sumroo and Zen Katha. One of his recent plays,Sammy ,directed one Lillete Dubey became a big success. It mapped the journey of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi from being a tongue-tied lawyer to the Mahatma.

Sharma was decorated with numerous awards including the ‘Dadasaheb Phalke Award’ which carried the citation ‘the voice of India’ in 2005 and the META Award for Best Original Script for Sammy in 2006.

Thakore,who did many recordings with Sharma,says that with his death,“a piece of my life is gone”. His recordings live on.