On the one hand it is altogether easy to let pass IPTA Mumbai�s HUM DEEWANE HUM PARWANE for just what its synopsis reads like. Two short plays by Sagar Sarhadi- the first in a series of plays that wish to commemorate the 150th year of the 1857 War of Independence, the centenary of Bhagat Singh and the 60th year of India�s Independence� After all it is what one expects from a veteran theatre institution whose history dates back to the Quit India Movement of 1942. But on the other hand, from where we are now, it appears that IPTA Mumbai is caught up in a time warp. That it simply has not been able to re-invent itself, in order to make its socialist underpinnings relevant to contemporary times.
And how�s that you may well like to ask for hasn�t IPTA Mumbai always championed the cause of the proletariat, the downtrodden? Haven�t its plays displayed a revolutionary fervour? Haven�t they been railing against the bureaucracy and the corruption it entails? Moreover, don�t these issues still matter? The last question is the nub of it all. To such a question the answer can only be an obvious yes. But why ask obvious questions? Why not ask something different? Isn�t that what a modern, dynamic theatre supposed to do? Why should the two short plays that make up HUM DEEWANE HUM PARWANE appear jaded? Were it not for the black humour accompanying the first play and Aasif Sheikh�s enhanced portrayal of freedom fighter Ashfaqullah Khan in the second, the production might as well have whithered down to an overdose of sentiments.
Asking a different set of questions and a critical self-examination (which by the way is not restricted to IPTA alone) will perhaps reveal the same old model of staging plays. This model extends to all areas of staging, be it in its choice of plays to the cast of its actors, reputed, senior and talented as they may be. There is no doubt that IPTA has always been known to encourage and support the youth but the quality of their annual and celebrated youth competition plays has significantly gone down in the last few years. In recent times, one can�t think of a single young writer, director or actor who has emerged out of these competitions to create a new face for IPTA. Recent winners like Irawati Karnik have been very active in Marathi theatre but there have been no collaborations with IPTA so far.
If IPTA were to revision its identity, it could possibly gain from talent in other language theatres. The young talent is very likely to bring in a new dimension to the existing structure of its professional company. Not that there are no young actors participating in its professional productions. In fact it has to its credit, a fine group of young singers but their potential needs to be further explored. At present they hover in the background, their young enthusiasm spilling into a plucky rendition of songs.
In HUM DEEWANE HUM PARWANE this talented group attended to the backstage, which included setting up the stage and singing the title song to a beat of four. The title song (music designed by Kuldeep Singh) appeared like a crudely designed intermission filler while the set design by M.S. Sathyu wasn�t particularly resonant either. For the first play, which revolved around the atrocities carried out by the army in the name of protecting sensitive border areas, a net spanned the background. If this design failed to achieve any lasting symbolic connotations, the creation of the jail chamber for the second, with three nooses in the background could not have been more obvious.
Sarhadi�s use of satire in the first play redeems the melodrama that it otherwise may have been reduced to. Aanjjan Shrivastav�s army general plays the twin roles of the character and the narrator who self-assuredly explains the routine skirmishes that take place between two borders. Javed Khan, who plays his menial aide, successfully assumes the same role. Between them and a younger officer (Sunil Shinde), the trio justifies its cruel actions, which lead to the rape of a poor woman who has strayed into their border area. Manju Sharma plays the victim and brings in the melodramatic element. For all its light-hearted conversational banter, a satirical ploy, the play is simply not captivating enough. After the play, an actor and friend commented that a piece of news is able to generate more interest than what he saw. He was not entirely wrong.
The second play, which is based on Ashfaqullah Khan�s imprisonment on account of the Kakori case, is designed to appeal to the brotherhood between Hindus and Muslims. Ram Prasad Bismil may have envisioned a Hindu state but Ashfaqullah Khan�s sacrifice makes him see Muslims in a different light. Once again there is no attempt to tweak the issue at hand or to make it come across in a manner that compels attention, well beyond the histrionics of its actors. By the end of it you are more likely to remember Aasif Sheikh�s captivating voice or the precision with which Avtar Gill�s Khan Bahadur studies his pocket timepiece. Attention has been paid to costume design.
So on the face of it there appears nothing that is not of merit, nothing that can be considered irrelevant. And yet you know deep down that this is not what a modern theatre should be. In the larger cause of the theatre, IPTA along with many other Indian theatre companies has to re-visualize its stories and attempt to move into territories that transform the familiar. It needs to take risks. It may falter and may be booed at in its nascent attempts but at least it will not atrophy. Not much good is going to come out of resting on the laurels of its past or on the illustrious trajectories of its senior members. It must think afresh.
*The writer is Editor of this site, a theatre critic and an academic keenly interested in Theatre Studies.
