from The Kansas City Star
May 18, 2003

A question of opportunity
'Indian Ink' shines light on skilled South Asian actors
By ROBERT TRUSSELL

Samrat Chakrabarti, actor and composer, decided after college that it was time to visit India - the land from which his mother and father had emigrated, first to England, then to Canada and ultimately to the United States.

He had been there several times in childhood but always with his parents. This time he went alone and decided to backpack in Rajasthan in northwest India. He had no idea that the experience would give him a point of reference for the role he plays in Tom Stoppard's "Indian Ink," now on stage at Missouri Repertory Theatre.

"I fell in love with Rajasthan," Chakrabarti said last week. "I don't know why I went to Rajasthan but something drew me there, I guess."

Near Jaisalmer, a 12th-century fortress city, he spent two nights in the desert with a camel driver.

"There's about 25 camel drivers there, and all the camels are called either Michael Jackson or Shah Rukh Kahn. Shah Rukh Kahn is a superstar in India.

"And one guy kind of spoke broken English that I could understand ... and he brought these Gypsies, because I was really interested in the music and the melodies of Rajasthan. Very guttural, very raw - I can't explain it, it just really hit me hard. And a family of Gypsies came and just sat down around a fire ... and just sang songs, played instruments like two-headed flutes, while little kids danced to it. "It was so colorful, you know. And I was, like, 'This is my favorite place in the world.' Who knew five or six years later I'd be playing a Rajasthani character?"

As a matter of record, let it be said that never have more actors of South Asian descent been seen onstage at Missouri Rep than in "Indian Ink." Chief among them is Chakrabarti, London-born and Boston-raised. The Brandeis University graduate plays Nirad Das, a Rajasthani painter who in 1930 falls in love with an English poet, Flora Crewe.

Chakrabarti, 27, said this is his first significant professional job since earning his master's from the American Repertory Theatre and Moscow Art Theatre School's Institute for Advanced Theatre Training, based at Harvard University. That was almost a year ago.

"As one of the lead roles, coming out of school, this is really something I can sink my teeth into," he said. "I'd done some stuff in New York, some readings, and I've done two indie films in the last year. In one I actually had the lead role ... but as far as a big, meaty role is concerned in the professional world, this is it."

Chakrabarti, who is based in New York, and Mary Beth Fisher, who plays Flora, deliver memorable performances in a well-acted production directed by Risa Brainin. Stoppard's play shifts in time between 1930 and the 1980s and depicts, among other things, how Nirad and Flora are drawn to each other as artists and fall in love.

Among Chakrabarti's acting colleagues in the Rep show are Sanjiv Jhaveri, who has appeared in a previous production of "Indian Ink" in Washington and has performed often in the New York area; Nikhil Kamkolkar, a native of India, who wrote and directed "Indian Cowboy," an independent film; and Krishen Mehta, a stage and film actor who has worked in New York and India.

In New York, where Chakrabarti moved last fall, there is a community of South Asian actors and writers that he has gradually gotten to know.

"Going to A.R.T. (American Repertory Theatre) and even before that, going to Brandeis, I didn't have contact with too many other South Asian actors. In fact at A.R.T. I was one of the few minorities in a class of 18.

"So moving to New York and seeing all these actors was nice and really encouraging, and it was great to see that there's a group of people who are going to school or working or trying to write roles ... that are three-dimensional, that are telling a very unique story, because I think that's what is needed at this time."

Indeed, aside from Stoppard's play, few works in English featuring South Asian characters have been performed in this country. British playwright, novelist and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi ("My Beautiful Laundrette," "My Son the Fanatic") has no equivalent - at least not yet - in the United States.

" 'Indian Ink' is a great opportunity to actually play a role with so much depth and to play it fully," Chakrabarti said. "But, yes, there's not enough of those opportunities.

"I remember in college, even at Brandeis back in the day, talking to my teachers and saying, 'Is this even something realistic for me to go into?' And the teachers would say, 'Well, you know, (we're) growing into a multicultural world, and I think it's going to work out.'

"However, you turn on the TV and look at the movies ... "

Things could be changing incrementally. Mira Nair's "Monsoon Wedding," released here in 2002, became one of the most popular foreign films ever shown in the United States. The movie depicted the chaos surrounding a wedding involving two upper-middle-class families in Delhi.

Lately, Chakrabarti said, he had auditioned for more than one TV pilot for which he learned a Middle Eastern accent. Apparently his appearance qualifies him to play terrorists.

"Sadly enough, that's part of it," he said. "I think it's also the challenge of the actor to take a role that may be two-dimensional and fill it in more. All right, I'll take this as a challenge and see how I can make this more cultural, more rounded, more human. That's what a lot of South Asian actors are having to do."

The ultimate goal, Chakrabarti said, was for South Asian actors to land roles that weren't specifically written for South Asian actors - best friends, neighbors, doctors, lawyers, judges.

"It doesn't have to be about the South Asian experience," he said. "It can be about the human experience in America, wherever it's set."

Chakrabarti has a second career in New York, writing pop arrangements and recording demos for up-and-coming singers. In terms of artistic goals, he draws no clear distinction among film, theater and music. Chakrabarti had never met Mary Beth Fisher, a Chicago-based actress, before beginning rehearsals for "Indian Ink." But together they have created a convincing portrait of complicated people falling in love. "I think even at the first reading there was a connection there," he said. "She's a wonderful partner. I trust her. You go back to your beginning acting classes ... and they do these 'trust falls' - you know, you close your eyes and fall backward, and someone catches you.

"With Mary Beth, she's so wonderful and present and generous, I could close my eyes and fall, and I'll know that she'll be there.

"It's a very technical show. There's many props. It's a revolving stage. There's a lot of text, God knows. There's a lot going on to worry about. When I'm out there with her, something could go wrong ... but I know we'll come out on top somehow."

To reach Robert Trussell, assistant arts editor and theater critic, call (816) 234-4765, or send e-mail to rtrussell@kcstar.com.

The show:

The Missouri Repertory Theatre production of "Indian Ink" runs through May 25 at the UMKC Performing Arts Center.

Call (816) 235-2700.