For over a quarter of a century, Dharamvir Bharati edited the Hindi weekly magazine Dharmayug and shaped it into a publication whose every issue was eagerly anticipated. Few readers were aware that its editor was a major Hindi writer, equally proficient at writing prose and drama. His first delicate novel, Gunahon ka Devta, a tale of the love of two young people set in Allahabad of 1950s, was brilliantly translated into English by Poonam Saxena. The book has also been adapted for the stage and small screen, but with limited success.
Andha Yug, certainly an iconic play of the last century, displays a completely different aspect of the writer’s talent. In bleak, rhyming verse he creates the post Mahabharata world, full of wounded survivors who seem to be emerging from a nuclear winter. Performed almost every year in some parts of India, the script has intrigued several directors who have returned to it at many moments in their careers. Among the most memorable was Ebrahim Alkazi’s production in the ruins of the Purana Qila in Delhi and Ratan Thiyam’s transcreation of it into Manipuri.
Suraj ka Satwan Ghoda exposes yet another facet of Dharamvir Bharati’s genius. Recently staged in Delhi by Happy Ranjit, it explores life and love in rural India. This story was also made into a delightful film by Shyam Benegal over 20 years ago.Four friends meet and urge Manek to regale them with some stories, and as he tells the stories of three very diverse women, and the stories come to life.
Jamuna, the chulbuli neighborhood girl, hangs out with Manek when he is very young, though she hankers for the attention of Tanna, the son of an extremely patriarchal zamindar. As life goes on, she is married off to a widower who never consummates the marriage, but she goes ahead and has a child with their virile tonga wallah. The theme is replete with many threads of an all too recognisable gendered reality.
Manek then goes on to describe the fortunes of the naive and spineless Tanna, whose father forces him to marry the English speaking Lily, and their marriage is disastrous.
Finally, he tells the tale of the Banjaran Satti, whom he loves but can never have.The script as realised by Happy Ranjit is episodic, and returns again to the four friends as they comment on the lives of others. His directorial style is extremely theatrical, blending realism and stylisation, punctuated with video graphics and dramatic music. As a result, the play rises above the mundane realistic rendering, and achieves a poetic truth. The actors on the whole perform very well with energy and clarity of characterisation.
The writer is a Delhi-based theatre director.
feisal.alkazi@rediffmail.com