Abhishek Majumdar’s new Sahitya Rang Manch Puraskar-winning play Des, is a satirical comedy set on the eve of India’s Independence
The play is set in Delhi in 1947 and follows the story of a couple. Pic courtesy/Minal Sancheti
On August 14, 1947, a young couple in Delhi is about to discover their love and differences, along with others who visit their home that evening. India is on the brink of getting its Independence. While the premise of Des, a play written and directed by playwright, Abhishek Majumdar, sounds simple, it is far from that; much like the complex history of our nation. Apart from focusing on the era, the story explores the ramifications of political incidents on our identities, the leaving of the British, and how these events land up in living rooms and have a role to play in one’s everyday life. It looks at how families are affected by agreements or disagreements, and where we are politically.
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Written before the lockdown, the play was awarded the Sahitya Rang Manch Puraskar in 2019. While the first production was directed by Rasika Agashe in 2022, the play has now been directed by Majumdar, and will open at Prithvi Theatre this weekend. The 90-minute Hindi production stars Irawati Karnik, Sandeep Shikhar, Ajeet Singh Palawat and Avneesh Mishra in lead roles.
“I was always interested in writing comedy, especially political satire. While I observing everything around me, I felt that the time of the eve of Independence was similar, in some ways, to today’s times, because we are on the cusp of major changes. Many personal and social laws and legal developments are taking shape, the public discourse is high and there’s a feeling that we are about to change fundamentally as a society,” says Majumdar.
Majumdar was keen to look at the period that most history books ignore. “I’ve been intrigued by the fact that they stopped at the time of Independence. It’s like saying that we got our Independence and everyone lived happily ever after. However, what we know from our families and non-mainstream history is that it was a far more complex time and I wanted to capture that,” he tells us.
When we ask if people are too sensitive these days to appreciate humour, he offers an interesting take. “Powerful people have lost their sense of humour. It has a role to play in society when you can make fun of the king, the minister, the ruler — all these positions of power in society, mostly male power. I think when men who are leaders lose a sense of humour, we are in trouble. As common people, we still have a culture that engages in humour, which is helpful. We need to be able to laugh at ourselves,” Majumdar says.
One of Majumdar’s main focus areas was to explore Indian satire in current times, and the history of satire in folk theatre through playwrights like Habib Tanvir, where he wanted to draw from their works to derive a contemporary urban form. He was equally keen to capture the politics of the contemporary. “Countless changes that are being made to history are by omissions. Changes would be interesting if somebody said, ‘Look, there is this other evidence also, which presents an opposing viewpoint and encourages us to relook at a certain event. This is what the process of writing history actually is. Historians would guide their students to re-look at their own work and re-examine what we know. But omission is not rewriting history. The great thing about plays is that because they are stories, you can choose to say a lot through fiction that you might struggle to say through facts.”
On: February 3, 6 pm and 9 pm; February 4, 5 pm and 8 pm
At: Prithvi Theatre, 20, Juhu Church Road, Janki Kutir, Juhu.
Call: 26149546
Log on to: in.bookmyshow.com
Cost: Rs 500
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