In an age of various forms of entertainment, theatre still manages to draw crowds with meaningful stories. It lets one ponder on critical issues of society that often go unnoticed. Keeping up with the tradition of thought-provoking drama, the National Theatre Festival will start in the city this weekend. It brings critically acclaimed plays, such as Barff directed by Saurabh Shukla and Ek Mulaqat Manto Se directed by Ashwath Bhatt. While the former brings powerful performances by Shukla, Sunil Palwal, and Aanchal Chauhan, and will keep the audience on edge over its suspenseful plot, the latter is a stirring saga chronicling Manto's reflections during Partition.
Plays like Barff have been performed in Delhi several times. Shukla says that each time the audience has reacted to the play in a "very positive" manner. “The Delhi audience gets the satire, jokes, and the thrill. They understand the deeper meaning and that has been very welcoming. The city has been a very good audience and we have had packed shows almost all the time," Shukla says.
Barff is an award-winning theatrical production. It is set in the beautiful mountain countryside of Kashmir. It follows Dr Paul, who stumbles upon a mysterious village that unravels a thrilling story over a single night. The play is designed in such a way that it brings the beautiful backdrop of the valley with its snow-covered mountains to great effect.
The backdrop enhances the suspense and emotional depth of the story, which revolves around the quest for truth. “The play talks about whose truth is the truth as everybody has their own perception of it. When I did my first opening play in Mumbai, a girl came to watch it for the fourth time. I asked her, ‘did you like it that much?’ She said that it has changed her life and told me a story of her having fought with her family ten years back and her leaving, thinking they did not understand her point of view. But after seeing the play, she went home and kept thinking ‘is my truth the only truth?’ The next day, she called her mother and they patched up. There is nothing more moving than this.”
Mulaqat Manto Se, meanwhile, is based on the stories of Saadat Hasan Manto, one of the most controversial yet realistic writers of his time. The performance explores his life, the times he lived in and the social changes that he witnessed at the time of Partition.
Bhatt plays Manto in the play which is woven with singer Begum Akhtar's ghazals to underscore the pathos of Manto's life. “Manto had a huge impact on me from the very first time I read him. I could relate to his writing as it deeply examined the human psyche. His work and life made me fearless in many ways,” says Bhatt adding, “The day Manto becomes irrelevant, that would mean, we as a society have learnt our lessons, and the world has become a better place.”
The National Theatre Festival will be held on March 7 and 8, Shri Ram Centre for Performing Arts, Mandi House, 7pm onwards