‘He changed my life’

I had just landed in Mumbai from Gujarat on Friday night when a friend told me of Arthur Miller’s death. For a moment I felt lonely, ra...

I had just landed in Mumbai from Gujarat on Friday night when a friend told me of Arthur Miller’s death. For a moment I felt lonely, rattled by a sudden sense of loss. I had always wanted to meet this legendary writer who changed my life. Now that desire will remain unfulfilled forever.

Last year, when my play Salesman Ramlal (Hindi) — an adaptation of Miller’s classic Death of a Salesman — toured America, I had planned to go meet him. But I got involved in Anupam Kher’s play Kuch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai and cancelled my visit.

Miller wrote Death of a Salesman, about the tragedy of a common man’s life, when he was in his 30s. The character, Willy Loman, in the original play and Satish Kaushik in Salesman Ramlal are a metaphor for the search for human dignity.

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I first read this play when I was quite young. In the 1990s, Indian society went through a cataclysmic change. As the economy opened, it brought new challenges for the middle- and lower- middle classes. I adapted Miller’s Salesman and scouted for someone to play the protagonist for months. I still remember how several theatre and film biggies warned me against casting Kaushik.

‘‘You will ruin your career and Satish’s too,’’ one concerned friend had said. But I knew Satish would do justice to the play, which was not just a psychological melodrama.

A lot of things in Salesman and Miller’s other plays (All My Sons, The Crucible) came from his own difficult childhood and later experiences. Son of a cloth manufacturer, he faced the Great Depression of the 1930s. As a young man, he worked in a warehouse to fund his studies. One of his uncles was a salesman whom he watched closely.

I owe a lot to him. As part of my tribute to this great playwright, I am planning a show of Salesman Ramlal soon. Later I will adapt a few more plays and hold a festival on him.

— As told to Mohammed Wajihuddin