DASTAAN - Critical Appreciation

A timeless tale of love and sacrifice – Dastaan is an acclaimed T.V Serial born from partition literature of Hindustan. Dastaan revives the pages of novel ‘Bano’ by Razia Butt. More than that it blows up the emotional, consequential and philosophical quotient of life through partition and in formation of Pakistan The expected historical monotony of the backdrop is absolutely shattered into pieces by romanticism and realism of relations that bind together ‘Dastaan’ Starring Fawad Afzal Khan, Sanam Baloch and Mehreen Parizad, the screen play traces changing identity through reality of time as it goes by.

Based in Punjab prior to partition, Bano is the youngest daughter of Naseerudin’s family. As beautiful as the moon itself she is nature’s child – shy, playful, desirous without a tint of deception or greed. She and her family are a symbol of idealistic love that persisted in uni -cultural Indian society before the partition. This may sound surreal, but the work done in Dastaan doesn’t seem to leave a stone unturned in creating such an ambience.

However, the dream of partition has already touched those concerned. Hassan – a distant relative of Bano works with Muslim League and rationally supports the formation of Pakistan. While Bano’s elder brother Salim is a ‘Congressi’ who can never imagine betraying his Hindu friends or the community they’ve lived in since decades.

Hassan through series of ‘hide and seek’ encounters falls in love with Bano. His love for her is supernatural. ‘Aasmano se utaara noor hai Koi’ say the song that laces their love story. Bano reflects it back as his aspirations find a space in her heart. His love is liberation for her, it gives voice to her undiscovered love for her ‘cowm’(community), and for Pakistan. She too rebelliously helps Muslim league with their work.  Their love is serene, as sweet fragrance in the air, as dedication, innocent respect and dignity as it remains for ever.

Struggles that shaped the formation of Pakistan place their root within the house. Women become the first subtle victims of partition stress. Salim and Hassan have political debates and arguments that build into hatred from Salim’s end. Bano, her sister-in-law and Hassan’s ‘Khala’ Suraiya, her mother Bibi and Hassan’s mother Rasheeda are silently torn apart in this rivalry. They are made to choose between Salim and Hasan. With a hard heart they pick the righteous Hasan. Each at their own level volunteers to compensate the thousands of Muslim victims of riots in Bengal; and to peacefully attain a place with out fear for the Muslims in India.

However, the inevitable takes place. Over the formal announcement of formation of pakistan the agitated Hindus and Sikhs resort to riots. Punjab and Bengal being the Muslim dominated states see outrageous crimes rates. Along with others, Salim and his family become astonished victims of betrayal by their childhood Hindu friends. The men are sliced into pieces; the women are raped and brutally killed. At this time Hassan, who had left for Rawalpindi with his mother , promising his fiancé Bano to return for her in a few months succumbs in pain as the news of violence reaches him. His entire family, his people and his Bano has perished. He too starts to live a soulless life seldom with his past engraved in his heart and memories of Bano.

All the character’s in the serial are so genuine and true to themselves that it is impossible to miss the strong catharsis that takes shape. Each subtly carries their past in the present moment. Hasan keeps up a smile for his mother but he can never love anyone like he loved the serene Bano. Between them was the mischief of nature, the fragrance of first love that quenches the soul. In absence of it Hassan has become a drowning man in need of scaffolds.

He finds this in Pakistan, in working for it and in Rabbia. She is a distant relative of Hassan and an inspired picture of Pakistan. Rabbia witnessed partition from far; hence she hasn’t lost herself to a hideous past like Hassan’s. A woman of dignity, poise and strength, she comes to Hassan as a sudden breath of air, a will to live.

All this while, Bano is alive in Amritsar. She is hostage to a Sikh named Basanta Singh. In love with the beauty of his conquest he tries to gain her trust by a promise to send her to her Pakistan. Bano never reverts the love back. This drains Basanta’s lies and patience and he resort to having her forcefully married to him and bear his child. For five years Bano lived in this hell, burns in daily violence that slowly and completely wipes her identity, her purity, now reduced to a sole proud Pakistani against the treachery of non-Muslims. Alive only in hope to see her united and just Muslim nation she gets slaughtered and fights to preserve last this identity everyday

Bano’s condition is disgrace to humanity. A woman alone can survive such hardships as she is catapulted from one world to another. Yet again she is thrown into another world she fleets India with her son. When Bano’s sacrifices in India when come to face the reality of Pakistan: the disappointment drives her to insanity. Her past experiences have raised her expectations from Pakistan so much so that she is unable to accept the present for what it is.

Similarly Hassan is caught up in the turbulent of his past and present. He had proposed his love to Rabbia with a promise to never leave. But he is unwilling to betray to his duty towards Bano – his first love. He tries his best to pull Bano out of her depression and convience her to marry him. However Rabbia, sensitive to the situation, is against Hassan’s second decision for genuine reason. Bano - having forcefully lived with another man for five years and giving birth to a child she hates – doesn’t require a marital consolation. All she dreams is a corruption free Pakistan.

Towards the end of it Bano liberates herself by disposing an evil soul from Pakistan. The serial closes with Bano being jailed for her crime and Hassan married off to Rabbia. The serial is an epic tale of partition of India and its consequence which gives way to knowledge and sympathy towards the past among people. An excellent show of its time Dastaan is still highly appreciated and watched through the world in many languages.  

CLUB DESIRE - A stage play review

                                                     

Once I was struck by a curiosity bug carving to know the difference between music and literature.  After a lot of thinking, I came up with no answer.  There was no difference – they we both cognitive desires of human. Giving voice to that thought welcome to ‘Club Desire’ – a play which so realistically gives words to our ideas of desire. Placed in a night club, it revolves around the concept of love, tradition, possession, order, anarchy, where music and words form the driving components of the act. On a larger note it is the contemporary version of the 19^th century opera ‘Carmen’ – premiered at NCPA, Mumbai on 24^th of October 2103.

Adapting ‘Carmen’, the plot of the play remains the same while the values at stake fall in line with today’s world. Chahat, the female protagonist of the play is a dazzling singer at the club. She calls herself a ‘rebel’ and has a strong sense of self-identity and freedom which comes from her spontaneous singing. Jayam is a poet, who falls in love with Chahat, and has complete faith in the beauty and order of the world. Compared to the gypsy Carmen, Chahat is more complicated a story. She is out front, bold, and yet we see she has had hard time with her foster family as she breaks down after recalling them in her song.

She is feminist character with respect for woman’s occupation. We can relate her to the intervened fictional character within the play – Gulabo. Chahat sustains justifications for Gulabo’s position, who ‘Loves a man, yet sleeps with another’. She believes that Gulabo is not cheating on the fictional hero, but is obliging to her occupation as a ‘mujhre wali’. Chahat’s brave, ruthless temperament defies all stereotypes linked to women. She doesn’t adore beauty or order; she is wild, crazy, and outspoken. 

A very power statement comes from Chahat as a reply to Jayam’s argument about her hidden pregnancy. She says “You are the father Jayam, when I tell you that you are the father”. And in that scene she takes the goodies away, lust like in some other scenes too.  In her favorite song about an Armadillo, which is her connect to her true self and family, she shares the fate of the Armadillo who can not sing. Chahat knows that she too is not free from possession of love; she too can not sing and be what she wants. Yet, in an attempt to achieve her freedom, looses her life and attains her desire just as the Armadillo. Such manifestation of Chahat brings a female protagonist and her deep dug issues to the forefront of our mind.

 Jayam is an organized, beauty lover ‘buzzing bee’. A translator and a poet, he utters his memoranda of love at first sight with Chahat in a beautiful Hindi poem addressing is mother. While reciting the poem ‘Chahat Kya Hai Ma?’ the actor Rashid Faisal, allows himself flow with such exacting expressions of love. Many other poems of the play receive like wise treatment from him, mesmerizing the audience into the scene.

As a character,  Jayam is a man with feet in too many boats. ‘You can’t love and be in order’ this Chahat tells him. In fact, his tragic story is prey to this feature of his, where he losses everything he has at his own hands. He loves Chahat, loves his mother, loves poetry, and he links all three together so tight that it leaves him and Chahat breathless. His mother is old and sick with probably Alzimers, she serves as his only family that he wishes to cling on to. Chahat becomes his love and inspiration for his poetry similar to his mother and he wishes her to follow protocol of women-cum wife and meet his mother. Obviously Chahat doesn’t give in to him.

Motifs

Love – Desire

Club Desire explores the true and fatal nature of love and desire in a man’s and women’s lives. It is a pigment that binds together Yin and Yan such as Jayam and Chahat. For all that is known from their character, they could have gone separate ways with out challenging each other’s existence. But, alas! They fall so deep in love that it hurts Jayam to stay away from Chahat while she too can’t resist his charms. ‘Mujhe to dard ho raha hai use dhoor rehne se’,  ‘Kya mein usse chu lu’, Shayad na chunese hum dono adhure rehjaye’, all this composites the poetry of Jayam. And for all we know the fire flares equally on the other side.

As the love blooms among the two, so does the feeling of jealousy and possession. This, especially in Jayam , who tries to bar her from drinking, and talking to DJ Abeer in the night club. He even grows insecure when Chahat’s boss touches her in a casual bar habit.  Jayam replicates the love for his mother in Chahat, and with her being his source of happiness and inspiration; he goes to an implausible extend of possession and finally kills her for not being possessed by him.

For Chahat love is what does not cling on, it does not want to possess.  Her character would want to be accepted by its lover and not changed. ‘He wants to enter her world and change it, what crap?’ are her words in referring to the failed love story of Gulabo and her lover. Love means more to her than just ‘exclusive sex’ which is not guaranteed in Gulabo’s case.  She has had great time with Jayam who soothes her familial wounds and is there in the happy moments where she recalls her dead father’s song. That seem a neutral position to be in and beyond that is beyond Chahat’s capacity. Her sexuality, her pregnancy and her sexuality does not change her definition of love.

Family

Jayam’s father had left his mother and him.  His mother lost her memory in depression. This left Jayam in haywire to figure life on his own. So he does, and he tries to grasp on to what every family ties he has got, even if they be the ugliest. In fact it is his family that bestowed upon him the passion for poetry. His mother, an ex-Hindi literature teacher, responded to him for the first time after he recited a poem to her. Further on Jayam is exploring the field he hopes for his family to mother to return back to him.

The case of Chahat is different, because for her family has been a ‘catastrophe’, and she a ‘veteran’ of it. It is lost, yet she too is in search for her origin as she recalls her father’s song. And she too is inspired by her father to pick music as a career. But unlike Jayam she isn’t obsesses about her past, she has let it go and relishes the world of today and now. Jayam on the other hand cherishes am imaginary order of life where family is of chief importance. Dedicated to that thought, he has no hobbies, no habits, and no life. He seems ‘some kind of slave’ as Chahat frames it. Asking of Jayam to choose between his original family and Chahat, the play marks a contemporary split between modernity and tradition.

Words and Sounds – Order and anarchy

The protagonists standing for their own profession highlight the contrast between their tastes. Words and sound both compliment each other but when they fight against each other in form of Jayam and Chahat a massacre is bound to occur. Jayam doesn’t like Chahat’s music and refutes her unthoughful use of words in them. ‘All words are precious’ he says and Chahat apparently flings them out, distorts them in her songs. This contradiction and love between the two leads to death of one of them.

Conclusion

Club desire entertains a very rare but capitulating theme of life and death, Music and Literature and the love for them. It gives a kick to the audience and gives them a desired illusion of love at the stake of life.