Bridging cultures through historic plays

Stories on and around Partition will never elude creative pursuits of performing and visual arts. So when the capital recently hosted a four-day Pakistani Theatre Festival titled ‘Humsaya’ by Lahore-based Ajoka Theatre, it as expected, received overwhelming response. The plays featured stories of history’s prominent personalities and the plot was contemporarised to fit into today’s milieu.

 Written and directed by Pakistani eminent playwrights Shahid Nadeem and Madeeha Gauha, Delhiites gathered in huge numbers at Kamani Auditorium to witness traces of shared history between the two nations.

The festival opened with Bulha, featuring the story of Punjabi Sufi poet Bulleh Shah, the beacon of hope and humanism, on September 14. A true and loyal portrayal of the times that Bulleh Shah lived in, the play was broadly based on the events of his life, as communicated through his poetry, historical records and popular myths.

As Nadeem rightly quotes, “Language is never a barrier for theatrical representation,” the play, despite being staged in Lahori Punjabi, succeeded to touch every heart in the audience. It was first performed in Lahore in 2001 and has been performed widely in
Pakistan, India, Iran, Oman, UK and the US.

On the second day, story of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s eldest son, Dara Sikoh’s story was narrated in the play Dara. It is surprising that Dara’s liberal views and ideology lie dormant and so does his vision of India as a country where all religions co-existed and intermingled, and where all subjects were treated equally and fairly.

While we all have read stories about Mughal rulers like Akbar, Babur, Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb and many others in our history text books, it is a sad reality that Dara is
almost non-existent.

Written and directed by Nadeem, the play involved a wide range of emotional outbursts and dramatic portrayal of the irony that lays in Aurangzeb, Dara’s brother, as a Muslim hero. Nadeem articulately attempted to bring out the realities, using lyrical Urdu language, supported by a strong script.

Another historical character that the play brought out in the forefront is of Princess Jahan Ara, a mystic and scholar; poets Zaib-un-nissa Makhfi and Sarmad Kashani, who like Dara find no space in our history books.

The third day was a treat for prolific writer Saadat Hasan Manto fans with the play Kaun hai ye Gustakh.

The play highlighted his life, works and events after he migrated to Pakistan in 1949 and how the Partition affected lives of people.

From Siah Hashiay, to Toba Tek Singh, Thanda Ghost and Khol Do, each story showed the struggles of people and the author who was harassed and persecuted by the courts and the press in Pakistan. His iconic, semi-autobiographical take in Toba Tek Singh reflected the wounds of people caught in Partition.

The last play, Lo Phir Basant Ayee (LPBA), recreated the happiness and celebration that comes with the arrival of spring every year. The story revolved around a beautiful “lively” city where people believed that the walls built around the city wouldprotect them from intruders all the time.

Lahore, which was held hostage within by the military, used to be a beautiful zinda-dil city, where people loved flying kites during basant (spring), and all other festivals, which were destroyed by the ‘Rok Tham Committee’, a fictional take on the military regime in Pakistan.

With a very subtle and playful tone, LPBA brings to light various hindrances that were faced by people. It became a country where young boys would be arrested for flying kites, students were not allowed to study science, geography, literature or even indulge in their hobbies like drawing and music.

However, despite all these impositions, the play highlighted how the high-spirited Lahore will never stop spreading the colours and joys of spring.

 “All the plays performed had a common message of peace. We may be different countries, culturally,  politically and socially, but we will always be bound by history, culture,language and geography,” sums up Nadeem.