21 August,2011 09:57 AM IST | | Yoshita Sengupta
A set of two plays under one title, written by the master, premieres this Tuesday. Both feature women protagonists and are based on short storiesu00a0-- one by Tagore and the other by Gulzar
Ab chhilne lage hain haath/ paaon aur kitni kharaashein ubhri hain/ Kitni girahein kholi hain maine/ Kitni rassiyaan utri hain... Those with even an inkling of contemporary Urdu writing, would easily be able to recognise these lines and the man who penned them.
A rehearsal of Sunte Ho in progress. PIC/Nimesh Dave
From his first song Mora Gora Aang Lai Le, back in 1963 to Piya Tora Kaisa Abhiman in 2004, to the recent Ab Mujhe Koi Shikwa Kahan, the protagonists in Gulzar's writings have predominantly been women. And a new theatrical production written by Gulzar that premieres this Tuesday, promises to be another masterpiece that deals with issues that women face.
Titled Sunte Ho, it is a set of two plays -- the first one is based on Rabindranath Tagore's short story Strir Potro (A Wife's Letter) and the second, on Gulzar's short story called Mard. With Lubna Salim as lead, Strir Potro is the story of Mrinalini, a beautiful and intelligent village girl who is married into an educated urban family. Mrinalini, like most Indian women (both then and now), is treated like an expensive piece of furniture -- to be seen but not heard.
Mard's protagonist is Rama (also played by Lubna Salim), a married woman with a son. Rama's husband parts ways with her and marries someone else. Their son, who lives in a hostel, isn't aware of his parents' separation and Rama doesn't know how to communicate the news to him. To her surprise, when the son returns home, he asks if his father has married another woman. Some years later when the son hears that his mother is pregnant and living with another man, he calls the unborn child a bastard and walks out on her.
Salim Arif, the director of the play, explains the connection between the two plays, "The idea behind both stories is the same. A woman, whether in Tagore's or today's time, is answerable to a man." The two stories are presented together as a reflection on the status of women and how men have treated women, through the ages. "The two stories will be staged separately and the common weave between them will be the poem Kitni Girahein Kholi Hain (mentioned earlier) written and recited by Gulzar sahab," says Arif.
According to him, the second play Mard perfectly complements Tagore's story. "Strir Potro would be a museum piece if it was staged solo. Tagore's story is undoubtedly still relevant but with Mard as an ending, it seems more complete," he adds.
The plays, he feels have a very distinctive "Gulzar touch" about them. "The beauty of Gulzar sahab's writing is that his characters are not black or white. In his writing, the grays are the most important," he says.u00a0 A look at Gulzar's 50 year-long career reveals the poet's ability to present the grays that affect the lives of women.
On: August 23, 9 pm, Prithvi theatre, Juhuu00a0
Call: 26149546
