Saif Hyder Hasan’s plays narrated the unfulfilled love stories of Guru and Geeta Dutt and Sahir ludhianvi and Amrita Pritam. He shares with Shrabasti Mallik that the pathos of such relationships and the purity of such stories appeal to him the most
Stories — the cosmos is filled with zillions of them. Some can soothe a broken soul; some can tickle the funny bone while some can propel one to think. There are stories which end on a happy note and others which leave readers with a not so pleasant feeling. Then there are stories which appear cheerful and happy but deep inside are tainted with pangs of sorrow — stories of unrequited love much like that of Amrita Pritam and Sahir ludhianvi and of an unhappy marital life like Guru Dutt and Geeta Dutt.
We know of their stories from the numerous articles that were written about them and also from the letters that were exchanged between them. One can call them star- crossed lovers and recently two of them became the subject of director Saif Hyder Hasan’s plays titled Ek Mulaqat and Gardish Mein Taare. Ek Mulaqat, “loosely based” on the life, relationship and the love — unrequited love — between poet Sahir ludhianvi and Amrita Pritam, has recently completed 25 shows. Yet the emotions remain fresh to the director. Gardish Mein Taare, on the other hand, reminded the audience of the relationship that Guru Dutt and Geeta Dutt shared — confined in marital bonds.
“Both the plays are based on the real story of their lives. Yes, the setting is fictitious and a few alterations were made in the script so as to not directly pin-point the real characters,” said the director.
Ek Mulaqaat opens on a cold winter’s night and the setting is on the terrace of Pritam’s house in Delhi. She receives a trunk call from Bombay, making her wonder who it can be, as she doesn’t know anyone out there except ludhianvi. Before she could answer, he appears in front of her and they engage in a conversation which reflects soulfully the deeper relationship that they share. Hasan gives a twist to the tale at the end, where Imroz, Pritam’s illustrator partner, informs her that the trunk call was to inform her of ludhianvi’s death. The play is a delicate tapestry of the emotional graph of two creative people, who never tied themselves down in earthly relationships of commitment, fixities and expectations. They were fluid and flowed into each other’s being completely, passionately and whole-heartedly, beyond any definition. Pritam’s earthly reality was Imroz, whose voice we listen to in the background. But her soul communion was with Sahir. And never was there a collision of affections.
Although the structure of the play is primarily that of conversation, there is more than meets the eye. The conversation that they share is gripping and full of moments that are funny and moving. Add to that the occasional shayari and poems by both and the experiment of presenting ludhianvi’s famous old songs in new tunes — the play acquires a distinct character with poetic ecstasy.
Interestingly Shekhar Suman was not Hasan’s choice but was suggested to him by Deepti Naval. “When I was making the script I had Deepti in mind. She loved the script and suggested Suman and I realised that no one could be better,” he said.
Suman, who started his career with the SRCC repertoire, said that he was happy to be back to the city. “I was gifted Sahir ludhianvi's Parchhaiyan by my uncle when I was young. It was beyond me that I would portray him on stage some day,” he said.
Unfulfilled love stories appeal to Hasan. “There is a certain purity about such stories and I am overwhelmed by the entire notion of unfulfilled love,” he confessed, quite candidly. The fact that we, Indians, are in love with love stories was what gave him that confident push to go ahead and work on these plays.
Stepping into the lives of Guru and Geeta Dutt were actors Arif Zakaria and Sonali Kulkarni. The narrative of the play gave the audience a glimpse of their tumultuous marital life. According to Hasan, “The play is an extension of the theme of unfulfilled love. Just because people are married does not necessarily mean that they have to be happy. Even when their marriage was on the rocks, there were very mature emotions between the two. Geeta Dutt, more than her husband, experienced the pangs of unfulfilled love.”
Several movies have been made on their story and a lot have been spoken, too. So when we asked about why he chose their story, the director promptly replied, “Why not themIJ So much has been said and written about them already, so, I decided to go with the flow and directed a play.”
This story began with a suicide in the beginning and moved forward through letters. “letters,” said the director, “played an important role in bringing out the pathos and pain that these two individuals were in. We had a few letters which Guru Dutt had written to Geeta where he acknowledges that the marriage had gone wrong. But there is a very deep sense of affection in those letters.”
There were a few common underlying strings that connect both these plays in terms of music, art, unfulfilled love and death. Guru and Geeta Dutt both reigned during their time — he as an actor and director and she as the demure actress. ludhuanvi and Pritam, however, were both creative and charmed the audience with their poetry.