A jugalbandi of joy and melancholy

Life goes on in circles but some loops don’t close. It’s a vicious circle for a few. Sometimes the path we take is easy, everything is going our way and we can calculate our next step. And sometimes, we are lost and it feels like we’re going round in circles, no closer to our destination.

That’s the theme of the play ‘Round & Round & Round’, by Sifar, a theatre group in the city. The setting of the play portrays a bar, a table and two restless souls- an old man and a youngster- sharing their solitude. The old man is caught in a whirlpool of the post-emergency period trauma and the youth is a victim of religious fundamentalism. The narration of this journey would take a toll on you; make no mistake about it- the play is meant to make you cry, weep, and choke. But, in the middle of all this, there’s a man who is laughing his guts out at everything around him. Wouldn't you want to see who this strange soul is?

The old man, a widower, recollects his experience after being oppressed by the state and the society during the emergency. He invites another person to sit on his table and reveals the story about how his wife died while being tortured by the police during interrogation. The old man’s wife was a revolutionary activist during the emergency. She used to distribute pamphlets to the people highlighting the real intention of the rulers. After the death of his wife, the old man was also arrested by the police. He pleaded innocence and said he was unaware about the activities of his wife. He was however released after being brutally tortured. But the man was in a dilemma, over why his wife did not share the details of her activities.

But with time, the old man has come to terms with the trauma he underwent and says, “Insaan ek hi daire ke irdh girdh ghumten rehte hai…Round & Round & Round.”The young artist who was listening to this, narrates his side of the story of how he was shunned by the so called “cultured moral police” for his blasphemous art.

This is infact a true story which happened a few years ago. Both of them were seen recollecting their past, in bits and pieces, which halted their lives forever. For the young man however, it was still the beginning of that vicious circle and was still wandering. Joy and pain is aptly depicted in the play through music composed by Amit Dasani & Suhit Chiruthapudi and it is meaningful. The monologue, enacted by Feroze and directed by Junaid is touchy.