New Delhi, April 22 : As his daughter, he treated her with the utmost care and was loving and protective. As a student, he was a hard, even harsh, taskmaster and pushed her to give her very best. But when she designed costumes for some of his productions, he treated her as a professional and gave her complete freedom to express her creative ideas.

Former Chairperson of the National School of Drama (NSD) Amal Allana, who recently wrote 'Ebrahim Alkazi: Holding Time Captive' (Penguin), told IANS that in all these associations, her relationship with the father of modern Indian theatre altered, thus giving her an insight into different aspects of his character, personality, and sense of aesthetics.

Alkazi was not just the founding director of NSD but also someone who lent new metaphors to Indian theatre and metamorphosed it through his unique vision, as through his production of Girish Karnad's 'Tughlaq' at Delhi's Purana Qila in 1972, which is considered to be one of the finest theatre productions till date, and trained a generation of theatre persons who have been instrumental in breaking new grounds in every sense of the word.

Allana said that in writing this biography, she has had the opportunity to study her father's life and work in greater detail, albeit more dispassionately.