Email
Print
ShareMumbai: Creating an interest towards Hindi writer Munshi Premchand's works among youngsters is IDEA (Ideal Drama and Entertainment Academy) -- a theatre group that performs plays on socially relevant topics. The group, which was started by Mujeeb Khan in 2003, has been staging plays in Hindi, based on stories written by Premchand. It is being performed every weekend for the last three years.
Being staged since year August 2005, just after Premchand's 125th birth anniversary celebration (July 31), the group is all set to perform the last leg of the plays this month.
"Premchand is an inspiration. Not only his stories, but his life too is an inspiration for all. Today, the world needs to remember his life and works," says Mujeeb Khan, the man who has been instrumental in staging these plays.
Reasons Khan for starting such a venture, "The government had announced celebrations for Premchand's 125th birth anniversary but nothing was really executed. That's when I realised that the works of such a great man are going to soon vanish. I wanted to pay a tribute to him and from the week thereafter, our theatre group started performing plays based on Premchand's stories; a new story every week."
He feels that every play has been a revelation. It has taught him and the actors of his group a lot in terms of language and content.
"Premchand's stories teach you so much about life and also about the way commoners lived in the early period. The stories tell us about the realities of life," says Arvind Ghosh, a member of the group.Ashok Anand, another member, had not read a single book by Premchand until he acted in some of the plays. "I was so impressed by the stories that I went out and bought seven books by Premchand," he says. Not only him, but many others in the group have bought Premchand's books after acting in the plays.
Taj Khan, an interior decorator who is also a member of the group says, "The stories are so beautiful that I am moved to tears every time I read them. They are truly inspirational and I have learnt so much from them."
The most exciting part for the members of this group is that they get to enact a new play each week. "Most theatre groups perform the same play over and over again. Here we get to perform new plays and that too based on stories of such a great writer. It is very exciting," say 18-year-old actor Divya Sachdeva. The group has so far staged 202 plays and they plan to stage six more plays by mid-July. Khan aims to stage a total of 280 plays based on Premchand's stories. The remaining 72 will be staged by 2010.
Khan also plans to have a two month festival in August-September 2010 in which he will stage all the 280 plays based on Premchand's stories.
Khan believes that through the stories he is promoting Indian culture, literature and values. "These days every one is reading Harry Potter and other English novels. We have such a rich literature with writers like Premchand and Tagore. Youngsters must be exposed to them," he says adding, "Through our plays we are passing on our literature to the next generation."
Agrees Dr Sheetala Prasad Dubey, head of Hindi department, K.C. College, "Even though Premchand's stories were written nearly 80-90 years back, they are still relevant. These stories were about moral and social values. They spoke about doing away with social evils, problems of urbanisation etc. All of these still hold relevance in society and these stories need to be revived as they can prove to be an inspiration for many."
The plays being held on Saturday July 4 are Meri Pehli Rachna, Kisanhari ka kua and Lalchan at Geeta Bhavan, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Girgaum Chowpatty.
Contact: 2363 1261
