Hindi has been Sunil Chaudhry’s language since childhood, he says, having grown up in the City of Nawabs, Lucknow. “Hindi and Urdu flow in my blood, so writing this play wasn’t particularly tough," he says referring to Bhoot, a stage play directed by him, adapted from Munshi Premchand’s eponymous story.
Bhoot is a tale of a husband and wife, Pandit Sitanath Chaubey and Mangla, who long for a daughter, and bring the wife’s younger step-sister, Binnie, into their home and raise her as their own. When the wife dies suddenly, the man, despite promising to marry the girl off, begins to see her as a potential wife under the influence of family members and relatives. Though family pressure convinces the young girl to agree, the ghost of the dead wife continues to haunt him.
“Munshi Premchand, a pioneer of Hindi and Urdu social fiction, lived in Banaras,” Chaudhry tells TMS, “where he imbibed the culture of both rural and urban India. He was an emotional thinker, and the social evils he wrote about then are still present in contemporary times. That is why we picked up this story, since it has the same relevance in today’s society.”
Supper and stage
The cast of the play comprises four group members–Manoj Verman, Sangeeta Rathi, Saritha Nair, and Deepakshi Kochhar. The play has been produced by Madhu Kandhari, a corporate communications professional who has been based in Gurugram for over two decades.
According to Kandhari, Gurugram is a city commonly known for its pubs and malls, rather than for the performing arts. “Delhi is full of auditoriums. But I felt Gurugram, as a millennial city, also needed a platform. Since I couldn’t create an auditorium myself, I thought, why not convert existing venues into theatres?”
This idea gave way to the concept of “supper theatre.” Dreamcatchers as a group has been performing short, contemporary plays in Hinglish at venues like The Piano Man during afternoon slots–times usually considered “dead hours” for the venues. Over time, audiences have multiplied, and the experiment was a success. “Initially we had 15 to 20 people coming in,” Kandhari points out.“Now, sometimes we even have to turn people away because the house is full.”
Premchand for today
Bhoot is a serious period drama in Hindi. “We wanted to focus on traditional theatre as well,” the producer explains. “Premchand’s writing is timeless. We decided it was time to add a conventional play to our list. The story had only four characters, which fit our criteria. And more importantly, I wanted to do something in pure Hindi to promote the language, and connect audiences with content that has substance.”
However, according to Kandhari, adapting Premchand’s detailed prose into a script was not easy. “Premchand writes in such a manner, that at least two or three times, we had to rework the script to retain the essence of his descriptions in his writing.” Eventually, it was decided to introduce Premchand himself as a narrator in the play, to connect with the audience.
Eternal issues
Actor Sangeeta Rathi, plays the wife, Mangla. Representing a woman from an era when women were seldom heard, has been quite intense, she notes.
A scene that feels special to Rathi is the one depicting the wife’s conversation with the husband. “She [wife] sensed what could happen after her death, even though she couldn’t say it openly. She asks him questions, and this shows how witty she was,” Rathi expresses. “ It’s very emotional, and performing this scene on stage, especially just ten feet away from the audience.”
As a “modern working woman”, the actor says, she finds it difficult to revisit a time when women were objectified and treated as commodities. She points out that although society has progressed, the play is a reminder of how things were back in time, and how some of those attitudes still linger today.
(The play will be performed at Excelsior Auditorium, near Excelsior American School, Block C2, DLF Phase 1, Sector 43, in Gurugram on Saturday. For tickets, check bookmyshow.)