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Ludhiana Personality :: Harpal Tiwana
The quest for excellence in Punjabi performing arts and the desire to spread it globally was a dream nurtured by Harpal Singh Tiwana. He soon came to be recognized as a legend in his field and the term professional Punjabi Theatre became synonymous with him.
Born on 8th August 1935, Harpal was the son of the late Jagir Singh Tiwana, the famous hockey player of Punjab, who was also a distinguished police officer of Patiala state and a poet of the Urdu language. Harpal was a gifted child. He started his illustrious career in performing arts at college. As the leader of his college’s Bhangra team, he was instrumental in introducing Bhangra into National mainstream of folk dances. His team was also selected to represent the country abroad in folk dance festivals. The dizzying popularity of Bhangra at present was a source of great delight and satisfaction to him. It manifested his vision of the dissemination of Punjabi culture worldwide through the medium of performing arts.
Harpal was studying in MA (English) at Government College, Ludhiana, when he along with his wife Neena Tiwana got admission to the National School of Drama, Delhi. He was the first Punjabi student to join this course scholarship from the Punjab Government of late Partap Singh Kairon. He trained intensively for four years under the able guidance of the famed theatre maestro Ebrahim Alkazi. After the completion of his course, it would have been easier to stay on in Delhi or move to Bombay to try their luck in Hindi Films. But he did not compromise on his mission of promoting Punjabi language, culture and most importantly theatre and returned to Punjab to set up his own theatre group.
He staged productions that took audiences by storm nationally and internationally. Prithvi Raj Kapoor and Balraj Sahni after seeing one of his productions in 1967 in Bombay commended him & remarked that he had succeeded in establishing Punjabi Theatre, where others like them had failed. His masters pieced include Chamkaur Di Garrhi, Hind Di Chadar, Mela Munde Kuryan Da, Mard Aurat, Garam Bazar, Nasha Kursi Da, Long Da Lishkara & Diva Bale Saari Raat.
However, his main achievement was the successful running of a truly professional theatre in Punjabi Bhawan, Ludhiana. for a ticketing Ludhiana audience for eight years. Each season, new productions were put up for an avid audience. Harpal also invited other theatre & performing troupes from around the country to perform during breaks in his season. His success did not make him complacent and he continued to perfect his skills by doing various courses such as diploma in choreography from Nritya Bharti Calcutta and a T.V. and Film direction course from Simon Fraser University in Canada. His two ventures into film making ‘Long Da Lishkara’ and ‘Diva bale Sari Raat’ became landmarks in Punjabi Cinema. He also directed two television productions – ‘Sanjhi Deewar’ and an unfinished project on ‘Maharaja Ranjit singh’. It was in connection with the shooting of this movie that he visited Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, and was involved in the fatal accident on the Jwalamukhi-Hoshiarpur road on May 19, 2002. He died at the spot along with an actress, Harpreet Kaur.
In his long and triumphant career, he was not only supported by his wife but individuals’ like Dr. M.S. Randhawa, Dr. Mulk Raj Anand, Dr. Harcharan Singh, Dr. Vishwanath Tiwari, Sh. Brij Mohan Munjal, Capt. Amrinder Singh, Sh. N.S. Nanda and many other well wishers and friends whose encouragement kept Harpal’s spirit from flagging. Many aspiring performers polished their skills under his guidance and the triumphs of his some his students such as Raj Babbar, Om Puri and Girja Shankar along with Desh Gautam, Nirmal Rishi, Sukhvinder Sohi, Mahindra Sandhu, Deepak Seth, Sailesh Prabhakar, Kuldeep Singh, Gurdeep Chauhan and many others were a source of tremendous satisfaction to him.
His contribution was recognized by Punjabis worldwide and some of the honors conferred on him include : Natya Samrat of Punjabi Theatre, Shiromani Punjabi Filmkaar Award, The Indo-Canadian Trust award and the Punjabi Cultural Society of Chicago Award. Remembring his last words that he was born for the theatre and will die for it, Harpal Tiwana was the true custodian and Champion of the Punjabi Theatre movement whose legacy will continue to inspire generations to come.
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