:: Kishwar Desai

Secret lives of gardens

Kishwar Desai

June.20 : It’s summertime, and the roses are blooming… It is also the busiest season here with politics hotting up, parties proliferating and people popping up from all over the world. It’s the time to put your shoes away and take your sandals out for what promises to be one of the hottest years in London. It is also time for Wimbledon and cricket and theatre. And, of course, Ascot. With so much happening one is spoilt for choice — especially as the days get longer and you can sit out in the garden till almost 9.30 at night enjoying the last lingering rays of light from the dying sun, with a glass of wine and some good friends.

Luckily, in the hectic pace of life there are some memorable moments. Recently I attended an interview session with Simon Beaufoy fresh from the success of Slumdog Millionaire. He was also carrying his Oscar with him — which enabled the still-to-be-discovered screenplay writers in the audience to fantasise that one day they would be sitting up there, among the great and the glorious. I have to say (before Slumdog) I had admired most of Beaufoy’s films: the brilliantly executed The Full Monty (not to be confused with our own deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia) and the very sensitive Yasmin. Both films were adventurous and really pushed the boundaries with their completely original screenplay. Yasmin (which is about a young Muslim girl growing up in a mill town in the UK) began as a film about Islamophobia. However, when Beaufoy interacted with the Muslim community, he discovered that the real problem lay with the young girls who were struggling with the demands of their conservative families and the very modern environment in which they were growing up. So the film brought in all the post-9/11 problems, but through a very empathetic portrayal of the life of Yasmin.

The Full Monty too started out as a film about unemployment but evolved into a highly entertaining script about out-of-job blue collar workers who form a gang of professional male strippers. During his research for Slumdog Millionaire, Beaufoy said that he spent many days drinking chai with Mumbai slum-dwellers, trying to evolve a story out of a book which was admittedly very difficult to adapt. It was through these interactions that he realised that the dominant concerns of the slum-dwellers were the local mafia and the cops — and these issues began to dominate his script. But what impressed us most about Beaufoy was his admission that he actually translated parts of the Bollywood genre into a Western film. When asked how comfortable he was in making a film where coincidences dominate, he said that this kind of film was only possible in Mumbai, with its "heightened sensibilities and operatic qualities". He maintained that the film kept faith with the spirit of the city and that it would not have been possible to write a similar script set in either New York or London… so does this mean that feel-good fairy tales can only be made in Mumbai?

MEANWHILE, BECAUSE it is the time for a glorious season of theatre, the streets are full with American tourists dropping in for a night at West End. There are specially-constructed theatre tours in which groups book a whole week and even get to meet the cast from various plays. Among the highlights of the season has been a chance to watch the devastatingly good-looking Jude Law playing Hamlet. The fact that so many film stars (including Dame Judi Dench and Vanessa Redgrave) move so easily between film and theatre, adds a touch of glamour to the productions. Therefore, even though there is a recession, theatre hasn’t as yet fallen into the red. Compare this with our starved theatre world back in India where it is difficult enough to stage one play, forget a continuous season.

One production well worth viewing, albeit an old play with a new cast, is Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, which, for me, provided some unexpected insight into the role of politics in the evolving styles of British gardens! Gardens are an old obsession that continues till today. But, of course, the styles of gardens are no longer dominated by international affairs, but more by the latest plants available in B&Q or Sainsbury’s or for the more fanciful, the Chelsea Flower Show. But like in all his plays, Stoppard amalgamates many different strains of thought and philosophy and examines attitudes towards research in the arts and sciences: the gardening aspect was only one strand in a complex play, but somehow it turned out to be fascinating.

The play alternates between two distinct eras, the modern and the 19th century, when certain events take place in Sidley Park, the setting of Arcadia. It is through the grounds of Sidley Park that Stoppard reminds us of the evolution of the very "British" garden landscape, in the same way that fashion evolved for clothes. In the 1750s, for instance, gardens apparently had a more formal design, with straight lines, terraces, hedges and so on — these were considered part of the political will of the "Frenchified Stuart kings" who wanted to subvert the will of the British. The rebellion came through Lancelot "Capability" Brown who promoted a more naturalistic style of gardening, with asymmetrical groupings of trees and plants. These were also influenced heavily by the paintings of Monet and others. The straight lines gave way to curves — a revolutionary idea which was thought to demonstrate the British spirit — as the country became more self-confident and powerful. But then the gardens once more underwent a change and the natural gardens of Brown took on a more "picturesque" mantle in which the open plans of the previous gardens gave way to a desire for privacy — mainly because now it was the polite middle class and not the aristocracy which began to dominate morals and manners. So instead of an open display, gardens now included the idea of seclusion. At the political level in the 19th century, the decaying oaks and falling Gothic ruins included in the gardens symbolised the still feudal Britain, threatened by democratic politics. Often these were gloomy, yet fantastical — like something out of a gothic novel. This was of special significance for women it seems, as it allowed the release of the "romantic imagination" perhaps…

However, it was surprising to go for a play and find oneself educated on the secret lives of gardens, something I had taken completely for granted. The architecture of which I always thought was dominated more by the owner of the garden than by the political, social or moral trends of the period! West End can be educating, as well as entertaining.

The writer can be contacted at kishwardesai@yahoo.com