A theatre festival brings out the humour hidden in the lives of three legendary personalities of India.
Those who have read Hindi authors and know about literature on Indian society, economy and culture will agree that Premchand’s writings were a clear reflection of our social malaise and issues. His greatest works speak of the hardships of Indian farmers and exploitation of the poor. Can his writing inspire comedy? Others may laugh at this proposition but M Sayeed Alam of Delhi-based Pierrot’s Troupe begs to differ.
Alam alongwith Mumbai’s Kirdaar Art Academy has found humour from the lives of India’s three gems — Mirza Ghalib, Premchand and KL Saigal — and roped it into plays for his theatre festival Class ’n’ Comedy.
The people’s writer
“People took Premchand’s serious stuff too seriously. It is difficult to find a humbler and simpler humour by any Indian writer than Premchand,” says Alam. The play Big B, which is an acronym for Bade Bhaisahab and has nothing to do with superstar Amitabh Bachchan, is a short story penned by Munshi Premchand. Set in the 1930s, it revolves around two Hindi-speaking brothers — Kamta Prasad and Samta Prasad — who attempt to communicate with each other only in English after they learn the language. What follows is a hilarious series of incidents wherein the duo thinks they are speaking impeccable English when they are just making a mockery of the language. “There’s no forced comedy in his writings. You can distinguish humour from comedy in Premchand’s work,” asserts Alam.
A legendary singer
“Doing this amazing play has made KL Saigal, for me, into a human being, and not just a legend. I realised that he was a human being of immense dedication and passion and pain,” says Tom Alter who plays an old man narrating life and experiences of this great artiste in the play KL Saigal.
“We have not written the play chronologically. The play show the lengendary singer’s life but we have tried to show people not the popular Saigal of Mumbai but the hard working and passionate Saigal of Kolkata, Delhi, Kanpur and Muradabad,” says Alam. The play is a life story of The popular actor-singer who started off as a struggler in Kolkata and later became a superstar in Mumbai. “Though very introvert, Saigal had a great sense of humour and his wit was much talked about,” Alam informs.
The eccentric poet
Though he performed Ghalib In New Delhi on his last visit to the capital, Alam says that he had to include this play in the fest on public demand. “People loved us in this one and wanted to see it again, what choice we have then?” asks Alam. The play is a funny take on rebirth of legendary Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib in his much loved city Dehli, now called New Delhi. Alam says that there was no need for forced humour in the script. “Ghalib behaves like any other old man will behave while experiencing sudden change in environment,” he says adding that though the play shows that the poet is astonished by new technologies and advanced infrastructure, he is not averse to modernisation. “Ghalib was a visionary. And the message is simple. If he was alive, Mirza would not have hesitated to adapt to his New Delhi,” Alam says.
The three-day festival kicks-off from February 28 at Rangsharda Auditorium, Bandra
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