Love for humanity, Love for art, Love for language, Love for the sake of Love. This World Theatre Day, presenting before you a tale of ‘living letters’ which encapsulate love in most variegated forms.
Why ‘Tumhari Amrita’?
In times, when Bertolt Brecht and Jean Paul Sartre; Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett become so relevant in a geopolitical and existential crisis, where and entire human populace is at halt, what makes an epistolary play about two ‘simple’ lovers so special? The answer might not be substantiated by the mere witnessing of this modern play, that initially even made its makers skeptical about its reception and future but would actually require a study in entirety surpassing the actual stage.
When acclaimed Indian Playwright and director Feroz Abbas Khan got hold of American writer A. R. Gurney’s Pulitzer Nominated Love Letters, he thought of developing something akin and approached veteran screenwriter Javed Siddiqui, who re-narrativised the play in an Indian context and etched the greatest Indian Play of modern times.
Two people reading out letters on a stage amidst an audience that has never seen something like this before seemed very experimental and interesting, especially when the only two actors comprised of legends like Shabana Azmi and Farooq Sheikh.
Love for Language
Perhaps, Love has no language and can never be explained through words and utterances but if there is any known colloquial diction that can provide this emotion a script, it lies in this expression by Khushwant Singh, “Agar Aap Urdu Seekhna Chahte hai toh Ishq Kar Lijiye, aur agar Ishq karna chahte hai toh Urdu Seekh Lijiye.”
When Khan modelled the Indianised version of the Love Letters he believed Urdu to be the only medium that could ‘move the audience emotionally’ and ‘paint word pictures’, the language was popular both among the theater practitioners and viewers equally, he fused Urdu with a touch of Hindustani and hence the ‘jazbaats‘ were draped in these ‘khutoots‘. Moments of silence sometimes speak more and give us the language of love.
Love for Humanity
Amrita Nigam and Zulfikar Haider are attached with nothing but the string of love which has shreds of passion, understanding and respect; despite belonging to different religions and culture, the shared emotion transcends a timeline of thirty five years from a period before independence and then attaining it with partition following till emergency.
The play has not only been humanitarian in act but also in approach with more than thirty percent of the entire screening done for charity, the play has traveled the entire globe and has raised money for victims of Earthquakes in Lathur and Pakistan, the Kashmiri Pandits and a special drive at the United Nations.
Love for Art
The play was an experiment in Indian theatre and has brought the stalwarts Khan, Siddiqui, Azmi and Sheikh together to create the longest running modern play in Indian History, the journey that began in 1992 lasted upto Shaikh’s death in 2013. Over the years, the play has brought immense honor to the art and to the country, with acclaim and emotional offerings the makers received and is still registered on the memories of the audience.
Love for the sake of Love
In today’s world, envy and jealousy has rigged the human system, the low means and harsh actions are resultant of the lost love and compassion that can only be filled back by something like ‘Tumhari Amrita’, Zulfi and America’s love for each other was propotianate to their respective emotions that resonated in their actions while arguing and getting back.
It cannot be mere coincidence that this epic tale of love had it’s final screening at the Taj Nature Walk, against the backdrop of Taj Mahal. The fortunate will always remember the departed Farooq Shaikh and living legends – Shabana Azmi, Javed Sahab and Feroz Abbas Khan.
Image Credits: The Caravan Magazine
Faizan Salik
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