There is no greater pleasure than seeing someone buck the trend and successfully transcend all cultural and racial boundaries. I first saw Rani Moorthy 13 years ago in a Singapore production of Strindberg’s Miss Julie. Her performance was worthy of note and I had a strong feeling that someday this feisty young lady would be making waves in a much bigger pond. In 1996 I met Rani again just before she left for Manchester but heard nothing more about her until her return last week – majestic and triumphant – to stage the Asian premiere of Pooja, a multimedia one-woman play she wrote and first performed in Manchester three years ago.
Rani Moorthy’s prolific accomplishments include acting roles in popular British TV series like Coronation Street and Cold Feet, writing a sitcom (Stardust and Shakespeare) about an ambitious young Bollywood star in London, later commissioned as a series by BBC Radio 4; a play about Bharatha Natyam dancer Rukmini Devi (Dancing Within Walls); a couple of short films (Curry Favour and Cupboard Love); hosting cross-cultural programmes on BBC Radio 2; writing for the TV soap series, Doctors; and now, as artistic director of her own company, Rasa Productions, she’s putting the finishing touches to a new play, Manchester United and the Malay Warrior – to be directed by Krishen Jit, and premiered in Kuala Lumpur and Manchester (in May 2002). All in all a pretty astounding track record for someone who claims to have been born under a bad sign.
Pooja is at the same time a personal as well as transpersonal exegesis and exploration of Ms Moorthy’s Sri Lankan Jaffnese and Hindu roots (she was born in Malaysia and educated in Singapore and the UK). It is very much her own story, told with intelligence, scintillating wit, and sweeping passion. And yet she speaks for every Indian woman with a mind of her own – indeed, ALL women seeking an equal voice and the right to be openly themselves – in a stultifying, patriarchal world.
With the support of artfully integrated pre-recorded video sequences (produced by her real-life hubby Arthur Smith), Ms Moorthy convincingly portrays a dozen assorted characters – including her own mother and father, grandmother, a Tamil Tigress, a Chinese vegetable seller, an imported concubine, a sexually repressed convent schoolmarm, and herself at various ages. Ms Moorthy has the audience eating out of her hand from the outset with her irrepressible warmth, sparkling humour, transfixing stage presence, impressive vocal range, and enormous vitality. It also helps that Ms Moorthy’s script is remarkably well-crafted, with all the transitions carefully worked out, her narrative textures and characterizations beautifully fused into a satisfying, dramatic whole.
What makes Pooja work so well as a cross-cultural theatrical showcase for Ms Moorthy is her ability to examine her own ethnicity and femininity from within and without. This she does with empathy and a disarming lightness of touch that belies the depth of feeling and insight she invests in her excellent portrayal.
Welcome back to Bolehland, Rani Moorthy. To acknowledge a true talent like you, born on these beloved shores – who, beyond all cultural confusion, cringe, and puerile jingoism, definitely boleh – does us all proud. On Tuesday night I was sitting next to Ida Nerina (who makes her directorial debut with Jit Murad’s Visits) and her unmitigated enthusiasm was rather infectious. At the close of Pooja, Ida was the only one who jumped spontaneously to her feet, wildly applauding and throwing imaginary bouquets. I regret now that I didn’t join her in celebrating the return of the Queen but I did manage to shout, “Bravo!”
First Published: 24.01.2002 on Kakiseni