It was a regular Sunday evening. Nothing special.
Nothing except a play that we planned to see. Sunday evening entertainment.
Nothing prepared us for it.
Oh, we have read Manto before. Yes.
We have seen Partition-based movies before. We have also heard and seen stories of the horrors that accompanied that time and became the norm rather than an exception.
But nothing prepared us for it.
Tears flowed freely, as one story after another was enacted. Almost as good as Manto had written them, or maybe better, because they made accessible to a large audience, a widely misunderstood and misinterpreted writer. The pathos, anguish, and heart-wrenching pain of the characters coming alive through brilliant acting and phenomenal direction. Toba Tek Singh, Khol Do, Gurmukh Singh Ki Wasiyat, Sahay, and Sharifan, bruising you with their utter honesty to the harsh words written by the master, of pathos, and of naked, brutal, honesty.
So while Toba Tek Singh screamed his lungs out and left you wondering if he, in his madness, had more sense than any of the 'luminaries' who thought they would make lines on land and divide souls, a beautiful Sakina surrendered her body in 'Khol Do', signifying the surrender of the human spirit itself, to brutality and naked plunder.
Anguished sobs could be heard across the hall.
And while Sahay and Gurmukh Singh KI Wasiyat were precise, blunt, and sharp to the point of injuring your heart, it was Sharifan, drawing the curtain on the play, that made us want to scream out in pain. The expression of violence and brutality, and of vengeance in the form of rape of young girls from both religions, gave us goosebumps and tears, but in addition, made us question the complete futility of violence of any kind, just as Manto had intended.
So, this was not, after all, regular Sunday evening entertainment.
As I hugged Shilpi Marwaha, one of the lead artists of the play, I cried and said thank you. It was an expression of gratitude for translating so beautifully to life, the lines of pain and anguish written by Manto, to reflect one of the worst periods of communal tension in the world.
Well Delhi, it is your chance to understand and witness the work of a phenomenal writer, who is as contemporary as he is of a certain period. Do make the most of this opportunity by watching this enactment by the Asmita Theatre Group.
For more information, you can visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Asmita-Theatre-Group/289399154409346.
For information about an upcoming play of Manto in the city, please visit
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