Two to Tango

Salaam Bollywood

There is a new trend in recent times, of staging two performer plays and

what is surprising is that most of them are love stories and are usually successful

Decades ago when director Feroze Abbas Khan conceived ‘Tumhari Amrita’ inspired from ‘Love Letters’ played in English by Ratna and Naseerudin Shah with Shabana Azmi/ Amrita and Zulfikar/ Faroque Shaikh reading letters from their individual desks, the idea was given a thumbs down by the skeptics.

The purists argued that theatre was about voice projection, about performances, about learning lines and connecting with a live audience, so how can two apparently cinema actors restricted to their chairs in all earnestness engage a housefull of audience just reading lines from a paper? The reactions were unanimously negative and the dress rehearsal by their own admission, a dismal flop.Came the night of the premier, and all the speculations drowned.Shabana Azmi and Faroque Shaikh seduced the audience with an experience beyond their imagination and the star performer of the play was without doubt, the writer of the play, Javed Siddiqui.

Through fascinating insights into two contrasting personalities, Siddiqui traveled the highs and lows of an emotionally charged relationship that left the audience teary eyed and wanting more. In years to come there were many similarly formatted plays, ‘Saalgirah’ again directed by Feroze Abbas Khan and performed by Kirron and Anupam Kher was an anatomy of a marriage the coming together, parting and reuniting of a couple who never stopped loving each other. What worked for the play was that it starred a real-life couple.

A few years later, writer Javed Siddiqui who had penned ‘Tumhari Amrita’ based on the life of Amrita Shergil wrote in a way a sequel ‘Tumhari Sonia’ where Amrita’s daughter/ Sonali Bhendre writes letters to her father/ Faroque Shaikh. Unfortunately this was not a match on the original.In the summer of 2010, for an event organized by IPTA, and celebrating landmark anniversary of poet Jaan Nissar Akhtar, Javed Siddiqui on short notice, put up a show portraying the story of a poet and his wife titled ‘Safia & Akhtar’ where in Javed Akhtar played his father Jaan Nissar while Shabana Azmi played his mother Safia. Not many people knew until then that Safia Akhtar was an avid letter writer and a poetess in her own right. It was a special show for a special audience and was never performed in public again.

Two years later IPTA was inspired to stage another legendary poet Kaifi Azmi and the process was easier because Kaifis’s widow Shaukat had around that time released her memoirs of living with Kaifi Azmi. On the basis of Shaukat Kaifi’s autobiography and other extensive research Javed Akhtar adapted a screenplay ‘Kaifi aur Main’ where in Shabana played Shaukat and Javed Akhtar played Kaifi Azmi. What made this play unusual was the juxtaposition of Kaifi Azmi’s film songs rendered live by Jaswinder Singh.

In recent times there have been many two actor plays probably because it is economical and easier production to travel. Some of such noteworthy plays would include Nandita Das and Subodh Maskara’s ‘Between the Lines’ the story of a lawyer couple fighting with each other in court. The reason ‘Between the Lines’ is special is because Nandita and Subodh Maskara are the premier couple to believe and promote the concept of Cineplay that shoots and stages the play as a film. Once again the purists protested but by the end of the first screening, most of them were converts.

In the Hindi theatre, writer director Saif Haider Haasan a big fan of poet/ lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi combined his poetry and songs in the form of ‘Ek Mulaqat’ an ode to Sahir’s relationship with Amrita Pritam, a magical play of moonlight musings and lingering fragrance. Film actress Deepti Naval in spectacles and shawl played the Punjabi poetess, her debut on stage, while NSD graduate Shekhar Suman played the arrogant and hugely talented lyricist. Haasan also attempted a show on the life of singer Geeta and filmmaker Guru Dutt titled ‘Gardish Mein Ho Taare’ but without impact. Arif Zakaria was no match for the magnitude of Guru Dutt and Sonali Kulkarni could not sing like Geeta Dutt. If that was not disappointing enough the part fact part fiction script tracing the doomed romance of the legends was an embarrassment.

On this woman’s day two more similar shows will premier in the city. ‘Main Tenu Phir Milungi’ featuring sufi singer Kavita Singh singing poetry of revolutionary writer Amrita Pritam combined with exchange of letters with Sahir Ludhianvi read by writer/ director Salim Arif and his actor wife Lubna Salim at Prithvi Theatre and another marriage story ‘Mera Wo Matlab Nahi Tha’ starring Anupam Kher and Neena Gupta at NCPA. Anupam has made a statement that the play was to initially cast his wife Kirron, but after joining politics Kirron cannot spare any time for rehearsals.

Bhawana Somaaya/ @bhawanasomaaya