Director Aziz Qureshi presented a woman-centric Hindi play Aur Ek Sacch that is inspired by Ismat Chughtai’s Dozakh at the 9th Delhi International Arts Festival. Neeti Nigam finds out that the drama has beautifully woven the atrocities faced by women powered by good performances
There are writers who pen down stories that are contemporary. But there are few like Ismat Chughtai’s who has unfolded issues that are universal and timeless. While she is best known for her short story lihaaf, her lesser-known work Dozakh is equally thought-evoking. Recently, director Aziz Qureshi presented a play Aur Ek Sacch that is inspired by Dozakh. He has also woven other stories showing how woman of every age group is exploited and disrespected by men and society in general.
The play starts with a news clip (shown on a screen) on a Yemeni child bride who had died, four days following her wedding, after being tied up and raped. This report prepares us for the strong theme that Qureshi plans to show. We are introduced to a lonely old woman who is conversing with Samay (time shown in smoke and torch light). She tells Samay that she is a Mada an equal to the man but unfortunately they aren’t treated the same.
Director Aziz Qureshi says, “I read this news clip and it provoked me to pen down this play. I wanted to show how a teenager, young and old women are oppressed by the society.”
The focus shift at the stage where a teenage bride enters with her dolls waiting for husband, a middle-age man. He rapes her and nobody comes to rescue her. The second part shows how people gossip on women who doesn’t get pregnant in the first two years of marriage. A young woman is taken to the religious saint who tries to take advantage and when she refuses, she is ridiculed and termed atheist.
The action then moves on to two old women — Salma and Bano — a widow and a destitute. Both are living together in a miserable circumstance at the mercy of their neighbours to feed them. The scene starts with one sleeping and the other is irritated by the bees buzzing around her. Salma wakes the other by cursing her and get an equally quirky reply from Bano. Their teases and arguments, laced with idioms and catchy phrases, is a breather in the otherwise serious theme.
We feel that both women can’t stand by each other until Bano’s husband’s niece shows up. She secretly wants to take the old woman for the household chores. Bano tries to negotiate to get Salma along, but realises her real intentions and stays backs. Their arguments continues and the lights go off from the stage. The conversation between Samay and the Mada resumes. While Mada narrates the plight of the women, Samay points that it’s the women who make the society and they should teach right values to their children so that when they grown up, they respect women.
The USP of the play is its actors. The female lead played by senior artistes Shobhana Bhardwaj and Kajal Suri has delivered fine performances. So is Qureshi who scared us as rapist husband and peer baba.