Play puts spotlight on issues plaguing progress

BENGALURU: When theatre practitioner Sumit Acharya read Habib Tanvir’s play Hirma Ki Amar Kahani, he was intrigued with the progress of the story progresses and the adept manner in which historical events were crafted into the story. At the back of his mind, he had always wanted to do a play on the life of farmers and tribals. “Keeping that as an idea and the story of Hirma Ki Amar Kahani, I started looking at the possibility of narrating something in current context. Multiple social and political issues are still as relevant as they were 60 years ago,” he says.

While his play stays with the original story line, the drama is devised by letting actors explore the context rather than enforcing the text word by word. “The effort is to tell the story of 1960s which was written by Habib saab in 1980s and make it relevant to the current audience. The play demands more than 25 characters and while devising the production, multiple characters are merged into single character and at the same time, some characters have been split into multiple characters. Satirical moments have got evolved while working with the text which are not in the original play,” says Acharya who has been working on the production for the last one year.  

The period drama, set in the early years of the Indian Independence, describes a heartbreaking story of a tribal and farmer community, which is caught in a conflict between the whims of a feudal lord, and the schemes of a supposedly democratic government. The title of the play, Hum, Bharat Ke Log, is derived from the preamble to the Constitution, which Acharya says is an important part of the play.

Acharya was particular that he didn’t want to make the piece preachy. “Have we achieved what was stated in preamble of our Indian Constitution or we have forgotten what was started many years back? Why do we have same issues affecting our farmers which were in existence 60 years ago? One can argue that we have progressed, but can’t ignore the bitter fact about farmer suicides,” he says, adding that he hopes the play will leave the audience asking critical questions.

Hum, Bharat Ke Log will be staged on Sept 28, at 6pm, at Alliance Francaise de Bangalore.