‘Kahi Ankahi’, a blend of two powerful short stories

Nagpur: Two powerful short stories — written by legendary writers Khwaja Abbas Ahmed and Sadat Hassan Manto — were brought together in Hindi play 'Kahi Ankahi'. Staged at Vasantrao Deshpande Hall on Wednesday evening, the play was a translation of the Marathi play that bagged the first prize in the 57th Marathi Rajya Natya Spardha in Nagpur division which concluded recently.
"Our play won several prizes in the competition. In an attempt to take it outside Maharashtra, we converted it into a Hindi play," said Abhijeet Athawale, one of the organizers. The play has been written and directed by Rupesh Pawar of Miraki Theatre. Saurabh Bilamwar, Ruturaj Wankhede, Sneha Khandare and Swati Kulkarni were the lead actors of the play, among a cast of 22.

The first act of the play depicted Manto's story 'Licence'. In the play, a horse cart rider Abu is shown to fall in love with Inayat, but is arrested under the pretext of kidnapping the underage girl. He soon dies, leaving Inayat to fend for herself. The play shows Inayat's will to rise by riding the horse cart herself, but her empowerment ruffles feathers with chauvinistic mentality of men who only see her as an object of pleasure.

The play asks pertinent questions to society and holds up a mirror to the audience. Apt use of background sounds as well as songs added a poignant quotient to the play and made it engaging. Minimal props and lighting made the storytelling effective.

The second act of the play was based on Ahmed's story, Lal aur Pila. Presenting a juxtaposition between reality and dream, it presents the story of a downtrodden painter living in a filthy chawl. Even in such environment, the painter created images of fairies, gods and palaces on his canvas. He tries to participate for a competition but is restricted due to lack of colours. With only a black and red colour, his perspective changes, and he starts to paint reality — beggars, transgenders, and even widowed woman Inayat from the first act. The play merges two stories with one theme skilfully, leaving audience with unsettling questions that linger on even after the performance.

Quotes

The stories were based on real life, and the actors worked hard in playing their characters well. I loved seeing their sincerity.

Pratibha Duma | fashion designer

The first act of the play was so powerful, that in the end, when the characters are seen screaming on stage, it gave me goosebumps. Second act was a little lengthy.

Kalpana Joshi | Doordarshan librarian

I loved the presentation as well as the theme of the play. The actors were amateurs but they acted their roles well.

Vaijayanti Ghosh | retd lecturer