A Masterclass in Visual Storytelling
Theatre is far from one of the most popular forms of performing art in Dhaka, so it was a refreshing change to see long, winding queues outside a hall for a theatrical performance long before the gates opened, under an ominously cloudy sky at the International Convention City Bashundhara. Naseeruddin Shah's Motley Theatre Company brought Dhaka's social elites and theatre aficionados alike for a performance of “Ismat Apa Ke Naam” on Friday, a three-piece performance of short stories by avant-garde Urdu litterateur Ismat Chughtai, and left a lasting impression on those who cared to pay attention.
In eloquent Urdu, Naseeruddin Shah greeted the houseful audience and gave an introduction to his troupe – comprising wife Ratna Pathak Shah and daughter Heeba Shah – and the legacy of Ismat Chughtai, a writer so far ahead of her time that her works are still considered bold and mold-breaking even today. He also explained that the production is not a typical theatrical adaptation, but a verbatim telling of three short stories – “Chhui Mui”, “Mughal Baccha” and “Gharwali”, each performed solo by the cast members.
Heeba Shah opens the show with “Chhui Mui” (which is what a touch-me-not plant that shrinks and folds upon contact with something, is called), a story narrated first-person from a young girls perspective about her sister-in-law's pregnancy. In a vivid act, Heeba takes the audience through a train journey with her pregnant sister-in-law and mother, ending with a visceral contrast of the classist divides of 19th century Muslim society in India.
Ratna Pathak Shah's name may not immediately ring a bell to the Bangladeshi audience, but she is an instantly-recognisable face to anyone who has followed Indian TV and film in the last three decades. Her presentation, “Mughal Baccha” is credited as “Ghoonghat” in many Ismat Chughtai catalogues, but Naseeruddin Shah explained at the beginning that they decided to keep the former name because it better describes the period the play takes place in. It is the tale of Kale Miyaan and Gori Bi, a dark-skinned young man of Mughal descent and a gorgeous, angelically beautiful young girl who get married but never get to see each other eye in eye. Post-Mughal era superiority complex of men and how Muslim women were automatically expected to be subdued and shy come alive as Ratna seamlessly switches between the characters and their complex emotional dynamics.
The final act, “Gharwali”, brings Naseeruddin Shah to the stage, and it is clear headliner of the show. The story between Mirza, a wealthy bachelor and Laajo, his beautiful maid-turned-mistress-turned-wife, is a magnificent journey of shifts and turns in their relationship filled with love, lust, affection, fear, shame and everything in between. The 66-year old actor effortlessly embodies the spirit of a flamboyant young girl, a moody young man, and a number of other smaller characters in an exemplary show of physical theatre, and makes the stage his canvas.
The minimalistic stage, with a simple backdrop and a platform with a few pillows, underwent subtle changes across the stories, and the use of props, while very limited, were on point. The music and lighting played a big role in setting the scenes as well, never too abrupt and always precisely timed.
While the numbers would definitely make organisers Blues Communications (who by the way did an expectedly superb job managing the event) and title sponsor City Bank happy, it is the quality of the audience that was a bit of a bad taste in the mouth for the serious audience. It was rather unsettling to see a steady stream of front-row attendees walk out of their seats mid-performance to go buy sandwiches, ice cream and coffee, or taking phone calls. While the language (the entire performance was in Urdu) may have been a barrier to appreciating the performance and many of the attendees may not be theatre regulars, but their callousness revealed a rather ugly truth: Dhaka's social elite are not nearly as cultural as they like to think of themselves.
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