The on-going conflict between Israeli and Palestinians
over the Gaza strip has been going on since decades. The conflict which was started
in mid-20th century is adversely affecting both the countries and
its citizens. When such a wide ranging conflict goes on endlessly between two
warring countries who are hell bent on playing power games its mostly the common
people who are suffering due to the century old war.Aasakta, theatre group from
city which is renowned for staging experimental plays tries to bring forth the
plight of the common people and how their lives are affected due to decade old
conflict through the Hindi-Urdu play Mein Hoon Yusuf Aur Yeh Hai Mera Bhai.”
Mein Hoon n Yusuf Aur Yeh Hai Mera Bhai is a
Salima Raza’s Hindi-Urdu translation of Amir Nizar Zuabi’s play,directed by
Mohit Takalkar.Winner of META 2016 , “Mein Hoon Yusuf Aur Yeh Hain Mera Bhai” has
won many awards such as Best play, Best director,
best actor, best sound design and best light design and was staged at prominent
festivals such as Rang Shankara festival,Prithvi festival,META,Vinod Doshi
Festival,B V Karanth festival,Navrang festival,Genius festival,Rashtriya
Rangostav, Rang-E-Mahaul festival et al. “ It was well appreciated in all these
festivals. We have done 18 shows of the play all over India in cities like Delhi,Jaipur,Banglore,Begusarai,Gulbarga
and Nashik . When it was staged in Pune during
Vinod Doshi festival in February, the auditorium was jam packed ”informs Mohit.
Talking about how he thought of staging the
play based on the decades old international conflict, Mohit says, “It is
originally a Palestinian play and we have translated it in Hindi and Urdu. I
found the script when I was in London. I was planning to adapt the play in
Marathi. Initially I thought that it should revolve around today's Kashmir
which is going through similar conflict. We wrote the draft in Marathi but
after writing the draft we realized Marathi language is not suitable for that particular
socio-political scenario.so last year we modified the draft. We also realized
though the conflict in Kashmir and its social scenario, cultural and political
references are very different from Palestine. Keeping that in mind instead of
drafting it on the backdrop of Kashmir, we just translated the play in Hindi
and Urdu.”
The play is set in 1948 Palestine and the
story is told through the point of view of Yusuf, an adult who has an IQ of a
child. The play is not only about the international politics and power games
which keeps the war going but it is also about the people who scapegoat of the
war and how they are living in the constant fear.
“Initially we were little apprehensive about
whether the layman will get the politics that is shown in the play which is the
crux of the story, but even in small towns like Gulbarga, common people
understood and appreciated the play.
Today people are very aware about the latest happenings in the world and read about
the scene in Palestine on social media.”
While usually Aaskata’s most of the plays
have actors from their own theatre Group, this play is an exception “We have
casted two actors from Jaipur. Amit Singh one of them portrays the main
protagonist Yusuf.” The cast also includes Marathi actors Jitendra Joshi,
Mrunmayee Godbole and Sandip Shekhar.
Though the play talks about the conflict and
how it affects the socio-political scenario in Palestine, however it doesn’t
try to convey any message. “It’s an account of what happened in 1948, how lives
are torn, villages razed, loved ones dead. It asks us to get up and feel for
the people of Palestine, to question the politics and to be more humane and
sensitive.” explains Mohit.
You can catch the play “Mein Hoon Yusuf Aur
Yeh Hain Mera Bhai”on Sunday September 18th at 9pm at Yashwantrao
Chavan Auditorium, Kothrud.
