JOIN USOf love, friendship and poetry
Amrita— A Sublime Love Story’, a Hindi play directed by M S Sathyu, was recently staged at the Chowdiah Memorial Hall. The play narrates the life of the well-known Punjabi writer Amrita Pritam.
It talks about the important events that took place in her life, the people who were especially close to her as well as the inspiration she sought to write her poems.
The entire play is narrated by Amrita herself, in conversation with a mysterious old bearded man, dressed in white, who it is soon revealed is actually Father Time, or Waqt. The sets on stage lent to the dreamy, ethereal air of the play. There were all the trappings of a living room — including lots of cluttered furniture and vases filled with roses. Large drapes were also hung around the stage, which had been painted with the silhouette of a woman from different angles, in shades of dark blue and grey.
During the course of the play, Amrita describes some of the important relationships in her life. She begins with a description of the time when her mother died— she was all of 12 years at the time— and how she had prayed fervently to God to save her mother’s life. However, she soon passed away and Amrita pegs this at the moment that she lost all faith in God.
She also describes the relationships she shares with some of the important men in her life: an Urdu poet named Sahir, whom she fell desperately in love with, as well as a man called Imroze whom she also loved deeply and lived with for almost four decades. In one scene, she describes how during a press interview, she wrote Sahir’s name again and again on a piece of paper and later feared that it would show up on a photograph that was taken. However, when the paper came out, she realised that the camera had been focussed on her, and not the photograph.
She also talks about a dear friend of hers, named Sajjad. His visits were clearly very important to her, and it was evident that he too was very fond of her.
She narrated how he visited her on her daughter’s first birthday, bringing a cake with him, and how he named his son after her son. Later on, when her son fell sick, he wrote her a letter comforting her. Her friendship with Sajjad taught her that sometimes poems could be inspired by deep friendship, rather than passionate love.
One of the more touching incidents that Amrita describes revolves around a young soldier who visits her before leaving to fight in a war.
He gives her his entire collection of poems, and instructs her to hand them back to him if he returns, or print them if he dies during the battle. Unfortunately, he is killed soon after and Amrita has the entire collection published in his memory.