Mumbai Mirror, Saturday, December 1, 2007
“No twist in the tale”
The dramatisation does little justice to Razia Sajjad Zaheer’s stories, in Ekjute’s latest production, Sach Juta Namak
Ekjute’s latest play (directed by Hanif Patni) dramatizes three short stories by Razia Sajjad Zaheer, eminent writer from the progressive writer’s movement and wife and collaborator of Sayed Sajjad Zaheer. Ekjute has been doing this kind of theatre for as long as one has been around – simple social messages, easy entertainment and a form unperturbed by the restless quests of modernism. A practiced teary meltdown at will is great acting, realistic box sets and flat lighting are aesthetics, and mannerisms coax laughter. The stories similarly, are reminiscent of the past in style, content and aspiration, albeit in a more pleasant way than their dramatization.
Sach is a clean story about a morally corrupt barrister’s failure to teach a village simpleton how to lie. Juta is about a man who is adamant on defining his own relationship with God outside of prescribed rituals. Namak humanizes the keepers of law and laments the irrelevance of partition. The stories drip popular progressive and socialist values of the 50’s and 60’s and the pre-emergency kind of idealism that believed the ‘system’ can be ‘changed’. They might seem a tad naively romantic now and might have nothing new to say, but the tone of these stories is still pleasing to the ear. The delicate turns of the western U.P. dialect are a delight, as are the storybook kind of characters. The writer’s voice – soft, polite yet deeply ironical, beams through her words. It is easy to like the unassuming and subtle intelligence of her perspective. Her stories are more syrupy than you might expect from the progressive cadre but their humorous and human approach to staid issues is disarming. The dramatization however, does no justice to their worth. This is no twist in the tale kind of storytelling. The stories are so delicate that they fall apart on stage. The director just cannot get the pacing and emphases right. The sub-units of thought within the writing are completely misplaced. The impact that should have gently emerged is forcibly thrust to no avail at the end of every piece. The actors are so preoccupied with their mannerisms that they lose focus of the essence of the work. There are but a few sparks amidst the ensemble of actors until Nadira Zaheer Babbar gets on stage. Whatever school of acting she might subscribe to, her presence on stage is simply magnetic. Her characterization of the writer (also her mother) rings in resonance with the heart of the stories themselves. Besides, all assertions of an objective analysis of art aside, it is hard not to yield just a little bit to the sentimentalism of a daughter paying tribute to her mother’s stories, especially when she has flagged off the play with a touching poem written in the latter’s memory.
–PRAGYA TIWARI.
Pragya Tiwari 