Latest revision as of 22:11, 6 July 2015

[edit] 1954: "Andha Yug"

Dharamvir Bharati’s ‘Andha Yug’, directed by Ebrahim Alkazi for NSD, was staged at Ferozeshah Kotla in 1963

Kim Arora

The Times of India, Oct 9, 2011

After 48 years, Bharati’s Andha Yug’ returns to Kotla stage

It’s historical – not only because of the subject but also for being a landmark production in Indian theatre. It’s Dharamvir Bharati’s 1954 play, Andha Yug (The Blind Age), which was staged in the city for the first time in 1963. From October 15 to October 19, you can catch it at the same venue where it was staged 48 years ago under the direction of Ebrahim Alkazi – Ferozeshah Kotla ruins. With Bhanu Bharti as director, the play has actor Om Puri giving the introductory voice over, TV and film actor Zakir Hussain playing Sanjay and Uttara Baokar enacting the role of Gandhari. Mohan Maharishi, who plays Dhritarashtra in this production, played Sanjay in the 1963 one.

The five-act play in verse – written in the aftermath of Partition – unfolds on the last day of the war in Mahabharata. Bharati (1926-1997) made a political statement against war and violence through this work. The play’s initial success came at a time when Marathi and Bengali theatre were dominating the scene with Hindi theatre lagging behind. Satyadev Dubey, who first staged this play in 1962 for a smaller audience, is said to have looked around for a director for 10 years. Theatre doyen Ebrahim Alkazi is widely credited with having brought the play to mainstream limelight with his production the following year. It soon became one of the most significant plays of the Indian theatre repertoire.

“Any director worth his salt has done this play,” says Bhanu Bharti, who has done the play twice before. “It is one of the modern classics of Indian theatre. It’s the kind of play that fits all audiences The anti-war sentiment of the play is relevant even today with violence and terrorism all around,” adds Shekhar Vaishnavi, secretary, Sahitya Kala Parishad.

The cast and the cult-classic status of the play apart, the stage, Ferozeshah Kotla, is expected to be a big attraction. “The ambience amplifies the feeling of total loss that is the focus of the play. An old location serves the same purpose here that the ancient setting of the Mahabharata itself served for Dharamavir Bharati in writing a contemporary play,” says Bharti, who has also designed the set.

Chairperson of NSD Amal Allana was a girl of 16 when her father Ebrahim Alkazi first brought the play to Delhi. “Jawaharlal Nehru had come for that play. I remember, my mother had designed the costumes and she kept the look very raw and primitive. But the play was grand in the way it was done. Om Shivpuri was unsurpassed as Ashwatthama in that production. His speech is still rings in my ears. Alkazi really set the benchmark for this play,” she says.

With Mahabharata itself having been interpreted in multiple ways, this play too continues to be approached in a manner relevant to different eras. Allana says a classic play like A n d h a Yu g needs time and a change in political climate to avoid becoming a repetition. Bharti, who once did the play in Kathmandu in the late 90s, says it was then seen in the light of the Maoist insurgency. This year too, he is trying to experiment with the subject.ss

“Everyone unanimously interprets this as an antiwar play. This time, I am trying to explore not just the after-effects but even the causes of war and the way human psyche leads us to it time and again,” says Bharti.