Comedy in tragedy

It has been more than six decades to Partition but the sore wounds of separation, loss and despair still inflict pain to thousands of survivors. The division of the country has always been written with moist pen and heart-wrenching words. But there are few who choose to find a funny bone in this tragedy, while hitting the bull’s eye with their satire and humour.

One Mr Hussain
Ghazanfar Hussain is all about Partition. “Interestingly, the play addresses the issue from the perspective of an old man and an Alzheimer’s patient. Hence, it is full of factual mistakes about Partition and Pakistan as the protagonist narrates his personal accounts of the tragedy. This is where the audience finds the play quite comic and hilarious, but if, when and as it delves deep into the story of the old man, the play projects Partition as a tragedy that haunts a large section of people even today,” explains writer and director M Sayeed Alam who also heads the Delhi-based Pierrot’s Troupe which is producing this play.

Personal take
Alam says that it is one of his favourite scripts. “It is based on a personal story... that of my grandfather who refused to migrate to Pakistan, not because he was a nationalist or anti-Pakistan, but because he could not fathom the idea of leaving behind the graveyard where his parents were buried,” he says.

Wrong side of history
Ghazanfar Hussain is a running dialogue between the title role and several offstage characters. The play takes a comic, satirical and fresh look at the Partition of the country in 1947. The story unfolds in the form of a 90-year-old man as well as an Alzheimer’s patient — Ghazanfar Hussain — recalling the Partition and its immediate as well as long-term aftermath juxtaposed with the memory loss that he suffers from. In the process, the old man’s funny and factually incorrect accounts of the Partition question a range of stereotypes about the event  — its genesis, its causes, its worth, its effects.

Double act
“The Partition still haunts a large section of people on both sides of the border. Moreover, it affected not only the ones who witnessed it, but the coming generations also which we are all part of,” says Alam. A special mention for the actor who performs the solo act.

“Noted stage and screen artist Saleem Shah portrays Hussain. I must admit that despite being a young man he has done absolute justice with playing an old and cranky man in his 90s,” adds Alam.

When & Where
January 11 at Mysore Association Hall, Matunga, from 8 pm onwards.