A solo play based on the short story by a renowned Urdu writer Sadaat Hassan Manto’s Aankhien was staged here on Saturday at Gandhi Bhawan.
The play was adapted and directed by Chitransh Pawar. The play was splendidly performed by Chitransh as he played the character of Manto on stage. Chitranch is an artist of Children’s Theatre Academy Repertory Group in Bhopal.
The play defines the spontaneity in Sadaat Hassan Manto’s writings. It also clears the concept that how Manto was able to peek through the minds and hearts of people and can write on any subject given to him. His flow of writing enables his readers to understand that he actually put emotions into life when he used to pen down each word.
Aankhien is one of those stories. This was like a challenge for him when one of his friends Farad Zaidi challenged Manto to write something about eyes. Zaidi told Manto that he like the eyes of a girl ‘Mujhe Uski Aankhien Bahot Pasand Hain’. Manto changed this sentence into a beautiful short story that revolves around a girl who has very beautiful eyes.
Personifying himself as the admirer of the girl’s eyes Manto expresses his deep thoughts in his word through the story where he meets the girls and fall only for her eyes. later, Manto realizes that the girl is actually blind and cannot see the world with these pretty eyes that Manto admires a lot.
The solo play was like a narrative act where Chitransh beautifully explained the whole scenario starting from the beginning of the challenge. His expressions were the main highlight of the play and the way he delivered the dialogues was commendable. The audience were awestruck to watch the play as the matured acting skills of Chitransh mesmerized the spectators.