![\"Delhi](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-132049668,imgsize-160171,width-400,height-225,resizemode-75\/mk-raina-at-his-sector-26-residence-in-noida.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\nPerched in a corner near a busy traffic light but veiled by a prosperous tree, \u2018Rainawari\u2019 can be defined by the phrase, hiding in plain sight. Fierce red hibiscus flowers command centre stage in the front garden, while a fecund orange tree laden with sour fruits, adds a dash of the avant-garde. It\u2019s a snug double-storey residence that theatre personality MK Raina and his pediatrician wife Anjali have built in Sector-26, Noida. But the actor-director still carries the lingering ache of his lost Srinagar home as many other Kashmiri Pandits. \u201cI can never say, I am going back to my ancestral home,\u201d says Raina, now 77.Yet memories of his childhood and teenage years breathe in him like a living organism. Raina\u2019s earliest experience with theatre was as a Class IV student in an opera, \u201cNeki Badi\u201d written by Kashmiri poet Dinanath Nadim. \u201cI played the part of a kid who gets lost in the forest,\u201d he says. He remembers listening to Mohd Rafi sing \u2018Chahe koi mujhe junglee kahey\u2019 in Srinagar\u2019s Bakshi stadium, watching Dilip Kumar\u2019s \u2018Insaniyat\u2019 through a keyhole at Amrish cinema and acting in plays at Kala Kendra, an influential theatre group then.Early 1960s were vibrant for progressive art in Kashmir. Writer Sajjad Zaheer, theatre personality Habeeb Tanvir, painter SH Raza and others would visit Srinagar, interact with local artists. Raina recalls performing in a John Galsworthy\u2019s play, translated as \u201cJannat Ke Darwaze Tak\u201d. Theatre elders collectively decided to send the dentist\u2019s son to Delhi\u2019s National School of Drama on a J&K state scholarship to study dramatics in 1967.NSD trained him in theatre, groomed him for life. The open-air theatre Meghdoot was built by students, the devoted NSD director Faisal Alkazi joining them to carry bricks. Among other things, the theatre titan would urge students to read, visit the Sunday book market. Copies of \u2018Life\u2019 magazine on Egyptian art bought there are part of his personal collection. \u201cAlkazi not only taught us theatre, but also how to live,\u201d he says.Raina had just finished his NSD course and was sitting in his hostel room, when one of his juniors, Naseeruddin Shah, told him that a film director had come to meet him. \u201cI initially thought it was a joke,\u201d he says. It wasn\u2019t. The director was Awtar Krishna Kaul. The gentleman accompanying him was Hindi writer Ramesh Bakshi. After a brief chat, the trio went to Bengali Market, ate golgappas and carried on the conversation at Bakshi\u2019s South Delhi residence where more food and alcohol followed. In time, Raina learnt that Kaul, who had driven taxis and studied films in New York, wanted to make a film on Bakshi\u2019s novel, \u2018Attarah Suraj Ke Paudhe.(Saplings of 18 Suns)\u2019. \u201827 Down\u2019, the award-winning film of 1974, rewarded Raina with recognition. But Bombay wasn\u2019t what he wanted. \u201cI had no intention to stay in a film industry where you had to network for work. It is not me. I couldn\u2019t stay in a city without trees,\u201d he says.Theatre, his true love, beckoned. In Delhi, serious theatre groups such as Abhiyan, Dishantar and Yatrik, were active. So was NSD\u2019s repertory. Om Shivpuri, Sudha Shivpuri, Surekha Sikri, Uttara Baokar and Manohar Singh were stars in their own right. Raina plunged headlong into theatre activism. He would travel to Punjab, Manipur, Ladakh and other areas trying to create a theatre movement. During the Emergency, his play, Bertolt Brecht\u2019s \u2018Chalk Circle\u2019, was banned.In 1977, he founded Prayog with friends, their own experimental theatre group, starting with Badal Sircar\u2019s \u2018Julus\u2019. Bhisham Sahni\u2019s \u2018Kabira Khada Bazaar Mein\u2019 followed. \u201cWe thought of the group as a lab where new forms could be experimented with,\u201d he says. In their play, \u2018Tum Saadat Hasan Manto Ho\u2019, the lunatics\/characters of the gut-wrenching Partition short story, \u2018Toba Tek Singh, put Manto on trial.Through the 1980s, the actor mostly worked in parallel cinema: Mani Kaul\u2019s \u2018Satah Se Uthta Aadmi\u2019, Kumar Shahani\u2019s \u2018Tarang\u2019, to name a couple. But his film career found a second wind with Taare Zameen Par (2007). \u201cWith Taare\u2026 Many children became my fans,\u201d he smiles. He is also fond of the more-recent Kabir Khan\u2019s INA-inspired, \u2018The Forgotten Army.\u2019 \u201cI do films because I am a trained actor, a professional. But for me, it is a deviation, a picnic,\u201d he laughs. His dictum: \u2018Earn and Burn\u2019 \u2014 earn money from films, invest it in theatre.Even today, Delhi is a theatre hotspot. \u201cLots of young people buy tickets and watch plays. That\u2019s encouraging,\u201d he says. There are downsides too. Raina details how production costs, especially auditorium rentals, have soared. \u201cHiring an auditorium cost Rs 3,000-5,000 in the 1970s. Now you pay Rs 1 lakh or more for eight hours. Even if you factor in inflation, that\u2019s too steep,\u201d he says. He also observes that many young actors are in a hurry to join Bollywood and don\u2019t spend enough time learning,\u201d he says. And it worries him that NSD\u2019s permanent faculty has dwindled and short-term courses have proliferated and there\u2019s a shift from quality to quantity. \u201cNSD has deviated from its mission of being an apex national institute of theatre excellence,\u201d he says.What endures is Raina\u2019s love for Delhi. \u201cThe city sheltered me, gave me the space and courage to carry on. I sleep in Noida but I work in Delhi,\u201d he says. Advancing age hasn\u2019t fleeced him of enthusiasm. The actor\u2019s eyes light up like a child\u2019s discussing his forthcoming play, \u2018Conference of Birds\u2019, interpreted from a 12th century Persian poem. Or, when talking about \u201cTo do or not to do theatre,\u201d a book on Prayog to be released when the group turns 50 next year.But his voice trails into sadness when the conversation turns to Woofi wandering in the drawing room. The elderly Indie has lost his eyesight and has to be fed by hand. Even its bark has lost its bite. \u201cWe never chain our dogs,\u201d he says.<\/div>\n