Vivid retelling of classic romance

We all tell stories. It's quite amazing something so mundane and commonplace in our lives can be such an art when done by the right persons. On Wednesday at the capital's KIB Auditorium, two masters of the craft held a small but discerning audience captive for nearly two hours with a simple yet enchanting story of love between two people. Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar, two gems of Indian cinema and literature, presented “Kaifi Aur Main” – a theatrical narrative of the life and love of Shabana's parents Kaifi Azmi and Shaukat Kaifi. Jaswinder Singh's smooth ghazal vocals interspersed the story with songs written by Kaifi Azmi.

The play, if it can be called one, opens with an intro to a memoir, “Yaad Ki Rehguzar” by Shaukat Kaifi. Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar, sitting next to each other on separate reading tables, assume the personas of Shaukat and Kaifi Azmi in precisely-interjected intervals and take the audience through the duo's early lives, encounter, falling in love, beginning a life together, struggles of being a part of the progressive Indian movement in the '40s and '50s, and final days.

The performance is a combination of two streams: Shaukat Kaifi's fond remembrance of their 55-year romance, right down from the first time they met to their tumultuous days of long-distance romance, to their marriage and struggles together right down to Kaifi Azmi's death. All this is taken from her memoir, and thus is one coherent story. The part enacted by Javed Akhtar is a little trickier, as it combines excerpts from his interviews and letters written to his wife, chronicling mostly his personal background, philosophies and vision. Akhtar, who himself wrote “Kaifi Aur Main”, and director Ramesh Talwar put this part together beautifully to the point it feels almost as seamless as the other half, expertly interjecting recitation of Kaifi's poems and his songs to create a wholesome story.

The result is a fluid narrative oozing romance and spirit, from young fluttering hearts to taking difficult life decisions together, and riding the waves of success and failure, good and bad fortune, bliss and depression. Kaifi Azmi was a renowned Urdu poet and was influential enough to introduce Urdu literature to Hindi cinema so his writing prowess is beyond question, but it is Shaukat Kaifi's writing that is a pleasant surprise. It is her attention to detail and the expressive nature of her writing is what makes “Kaifi Aur Main” a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

It should come as no surprise that Blues Communications is the company behind bringing such a production to Dhaka; they have been holding culturally and artistically rich events in the country and abroad for a good while now, and continues to provide the Dhaka audience with opportunities of such unique performances.