Abstract:
The play Where Did I Leave My Purdah? Mahesh Dattani is set against the backdrop of the theatre and is a tale that mirrored the stories of a multitude of women artistes who were consumed with a love for theatre during the post-partition period, and almost at the cost of anything. These were women driven by deep compulsion to fulfill their artistic needs, in spite of the fact that their work would live only transitory in memory. The play is the story of a feisty, passionate and self-absorbed octogenarian theatre artist, Nazia Sahiba, who has a successful career as an artist for sixty years. The story of the protagonist of the play Nazia is reiterated with the story of Shakuntala of Abhigyan Shakuntalam. Dattani has portrayed Nazia against the docile Shakuntala to portray her as an assertive woman who defies male hegemony and fulfills her ambition of establishing her own theatre company and successfully leads the career of a theatre artist. The utilization of plot-in-plot technique by Dattani for the development of the storyline in the play brings forth the travails of Nazia in the journey of her career as an artist.
Keywords: play-in-play technique, past, present, recognition, male hegemony
Where Did I Leave My Purdah?, is a Stage Play written by Mahesh Dattani and was opened on 27 October 2012 at Tata Theatre, National Centre for the performing Arts, Mumbai, with Lillete Dubey as the producer and director of the performance. Dattani is an internationally acclaimed playwright, film-maker, screen writer and stage director with several scripts and productions to his credit. He was awarded the prestigious Sahitya Akademi award in 1998 for Final Solutions and other plays. He has directed and scripted critically acclaimed films like Mango Souffle and Morning Raga. Dattani is also a workshop facilitator for several writing and acting courses and has conducted workshops in many countries, most notably at Portland State University in Oregon, USA. The plays of Mahesh Dattani have contributed splendidly to the Indian English drama. Dattani writes plays to be performed and not to be read as literary pieces and for the theme he draws content from the contemporary Indian urban society and with family as the backdrop. The readers or audience of his plays could relate the language and culture presented in the play with that of their own, thus reflecting upon the indigenous quality of his plays. Paul Woodruff has observed about theatre in his book The Necessity of Theater thus, “Theater is the art by which human beings make or find human action worth watching, in a measured time and place”(18). He further writes on the art of watching this;
And there is an ethical reason to practice the art of watching. Part of our need to watch theater grows from our need to care about other people. . . . You pay attention because you care, and paying attention allows you to care. Caring about people in the make-believe world of mimetic theater may strengthen your ability to care about people offstage. Healthy people in healthy communities do develop the capacity into a virtue – a virtue that I call “humaneness” (20).
Dattani’s theatre practice very well convinces him of this observation of Woodruff.
In this research paper an attempt is made to study the play Where Did I Leave My Purdah? with reference to the play-in-play technique utilized by the playwright to develop the storyline of the play. Dattani in this play has utilized the Abhigyan Shakuntalam. Therefore, this play too will be studied and an effort will be made to draw connection between the two plays and the connotations of Abhigyan Shakuntalam on the present play under study will be done.
The significance of using a play within a play is to underline the message of the outer play and to trigger the thought process of the audience by either drawing a parallel or by creating a contrast between the inner and outer plays so as to underline the message of the outer play that the playwright wishes to convey. The inner play may be entirely different from the outer play but there is always a connection between the two plays.
The play Where Did I Leave My Purdah? is set against the backdrop of the theatre and is a tale that mirrors the stories of a multitude of women artistes who were consumed with a love for theatre, almost at the cost of anything. These were women driven by deep compulsion to fulfill their artistic needs, in spite of the fact that their work would live only transitory in memory. The play is the story of a feisty, passionate and self-absorbed octogenarian theatre artist, Nazia Sahiba, who has a successful career as an artist for sixty years. Dubey played the role of Nazia Sahiba, addressed as Nazia in the play.
The play opens with Nazia in her eighties, and she is offered the role of grandmother in Bollywood movies with very few dialogues and modest space on screen. This upsets her to the extent that she decides to return back to theatre, which she expresses thus;
NAZIA: . . . I want more dances. Dances that nobody can take away from me. Oh! This van is too small! It can’t take my dancing. Your cinema is too small for me. My life is big. I am BIG and GENEROUS! Only the theatre deserves me! (MMP, WDILMP, 59).
She wants to revive her theatre company with the new name of ‘Post-Modern Indian Theatre’ with the performance of Shaku – the modern version of Abhigyan Shakuntalam to suit the experiences of the present day audience.
Nazia has been passionate about theatre and acting since her early age when she was in Lahore of Pakistan. She played Shakuntala in the dance drama Abhigyan Shakuntalam performed by her troupe. In one of her performances some rioters move in the performance in search of Hindus to kill them. It was the post partition period in 1948. One of the rioter shouts for Hindu artists and criticizes Nazia and her troupe thus;
MAN OFFSTAGE: We know the kind of plays you put up, prancing around naked on stage. And then you move around with that Hindu. Whores like you will find no place even in Hell! (MMP, WDILMP, 77).
The Hindu artist in their troupe was Suhel, who played the role of Dushyant in their dance drama. The man and Suhel have a scuffle. Nazia gets a gun from her vanity bag and shoots the man to save Suhel. The remark of man offstage clearly exemplifies the status of dance drama in Pakistan during that period. Suhel decides to leave the troupe and Pakistan as well that night by a train to Delhi, India. Nazia too prepares to leave with Suhel for India, as she dearly loved him. Suhel reminds Nazia of the dangers involved in doing so, but she opposes him with the words, “I don’t care. I would rather die with you than live without you” (MMP, WDILMP, 79). Nazia even convinces her sister Zarine, who played Anasuya in the play, to leave for India along with them, “Come with us, Zarine. We will go to India! We can set up our own company theatre there” (MMP, WDILMP, 80). Though Zarine was reluctant at the beginning, but later agrees to join them. The three board the train that night itself with all the things they could gather or use in the trunks. While doing this Nazia and her sister do not even care to inform their parents.
The train is stopped by the rioters before crossing the borders of Pakistan to kill Hindus boarded on the train. Nazia immediately offers Suhel a Muslim prayer cap to wear. And Zarine and Nazia both search for their burqas (purdah), Nazia is unable to find her burqa, therefore Zarine offers her burqa to her. Zarine even helps Nazia to wear the burqa. Nazia and Suhel now have Muslim identity, but Zarine does not have, therefore the rioters kill Zarine. Zarine bids final goodbye to Nazia with the words;
ZARINE: Goodbye, my sister! Do well! Make a name for yourself. Let your dreams be fulfilled! Inshallah, I will see you one day in Paradise! (MMP, WDILMP, 131).
Nazia and Suhel run away from the train and manage to cross the borders and enter India. In India, Nazia is gang raped by seven to eight Hindu men as she was wearing the burqa. Suhel does not make any efforts to protect Nazia from the Hindu rapist, in spite of him being a Hindu. Nazia is filled with the feeling of hatred and anger, and it is expressed by Nazia thus;
NAZIA: . . . . They pushed me down behind the bushes. Five or six or seven, eight of them. I don’t know. They tore at my clothes and at my flesh. All I could think of was why isn’t Suhel saving me? These are his people! I stopped looking at those eyes, so much anger and hatred! Hell-bent on humiliating me. I stared back with hatred too, but they hurt me even more till – I stopped looking into their eyes (MMP, WDILMP, 132).
Nazia somehow gathers herself and she and Suhel manage to board the same train they left in Pakistan. On the train they find the body of Zarine entwined with the other bodies. Nazia covers the body of Zarine with her torn burqa. And then she decides never to wear a burqa in her life.
Nazia and Suhel reach Delhi. They start their theatre company, Modern Indian Theatre Company. Their company had successful performances throughout the country of the plays – Yehudi ki beti, Bahadur Ladki, Jasma Odan to mention some; but the most successful of it was Abhigyan Shakuntalam. She played the role of Shakuntala for forty years, and took every care not to allow any other actor to play that role.
After reaching Delhi, Nazia and Suhel marry. Nazia gets pregnant, not with the child of Suhel but her pregnancy was the result of gang rape. Therefore she nurtures hatred towards Suhel and her child, Ruby, as well. She hates Suhel because Suhel did not attempt to help Nazia and save her from the rapists and she hates her child because it was the result of the gang rape. She does not acknowledge before the world that Ruby is her daughter; rather she introduces her to be her sister Zarine’s daughter who died after giving birth to her. They both reminded her of that vicious past incident of her life. As a result Suhel leaves her forever and Ruby grows up with a feeling of an abandoned and isolated child. Nazia expresses her hatred for Ruby thus;
NAZIA: . . . I couldn’t look at you, without all that coming back! You were my flesh, wounded, humiliated. I didn’t cry when you came out. I was relieved – that the tapeworms infesting my belly, left by those pigs who ate at my flesh, were out of my body (MMP, WDILMP, 132).
Suhel has assured Nazia to father Ruby as his child, but it is of no use.
Nazia does not let all these past incidents of her life affect her in fulfilling her passion; she confidently pursues her career of dance drama. She tours India and abroad with her play Abhigyan Shakuntalam. For forty years she had played the role of Shakuntala and had never allowed any other artist to play that role. And even in her eighties she intends to revive her drama company with the name of Post- Modern Indian Theatre Company and aspires to perform Shaku, the modern version of Abhigyan Shakuntalam.
Abhigyan Shakuntalam is a classical Sanskrit drama by Mahakavi Kalidas and is in seven acts. The plot of the play is based on the story of Shakuntala which appears in the Adiparav of the great epic the Mahabharata. Shakuntala, a divine beauty, is the daughter of Rishi Vishwamitra and Apsara Menaka. She is deserted by her parents and is brought up by a sage named Kanava in his hermit in the forest. King Dushyant, while on a hunt in the forest, happens to see young Shakuntala. Mesmerized by the beauty of Shakuntala, king Dushyant marries her by Gandharava marriage. The king has to urgently return to his kingdom. Before leaving he gives Shakuntala a ring with his name inscribed on it and promises to send a royal entourage to bring her as his queen to the kingdom. After the return of king Dushyant, Shakuntala is lost in her memories of the time spent with the king, sage Durvasa visits their cottage and asks for water. Shakuntala, lost in her thoughts, does not respond to sage Durvasa and the enraged sage curses her that whoever she is thinking of, will forget her. Shakuntala pleads with him to take back his curse, but it was not possible for Durvasa to take back the curse, he alters it with the condition that whoever he is thinking of will recognize her only after the presentation of something he has gifted her (the ring). Hence Dushyant completely forgets Shakuntala and the time spent with her. Shakuntala gets pregnant with the child of Dushyant. After waiting for some months when she does not get any response from Dushyant, she decides to visit the palace of king Dushyant with one attendant. On her way to the palace, while drinking water from the river, the ring given to her by king Dushyant as a token of their relation slips from her finger into the river. Shakuntala reaches the palace, but due to the curse of sage Durvasa the king fails to recognize her and accept her as his wife. Humiliated Shakuntala returns to the forest. Time passes, she gives birth to a brave boy who is named Bharata. One day king Dushyant while attending his court is presented before him a fisherman with a royal ring having an inscription of the name of king Dushyant on it. Looking at it the king immediately remembers Shakuntala and feels guilty of not recognizing her and humiliating her when she came to his court. He is now concerned to find her, as after being humiliated in the court by king Dushyant she does not return to the hermit of sage Kanava but is taken away by some mystical forces to sage Marica’s hermit. King Dushyant, while returning from a mission, attempts to seek the blessing of sage Marica and happens to meet Bharata and Shakuntala. He apologizes before Shakuntala and takes her and their son to his kingdom and accord them due honour. Thus the life story of Shakuntala rests on abandonment and recognition. She is abandoned by her biological parents Vishwamitra and Menaka as a child; then as a young pregnant wife by her husband Dushyant, and accepted by him only after he recognizes her.
In Where Did I Leave My Purdah? there is no mention of the performance of Abhigyan Shakuntalam and also about the role of Shakuntala. The play opens with aged Nazia’s disapproval of her role in movie and that she has expressed thus;
NAZIA: . . . There’s always a time in your life when the truth strikes you. (A moment of realization for her) Why didn’t I see it? What am I doing here? I don’t belong here! . . . No more grandma roles for me. I am going back to the theatre! Dancing! That’s it. I am leaving (MMP, WDILMP, 132).
This clearly establishes Nazia to be a passionate theatre artist. Then in Scene II there is mention of Nazia intending to revive Abhigyan Shakuntalam with the new name Shaku. In the modern version of the play she does not want to have Kathak, instead some modern music and dance which she has downloaded from the iTunes store. She briefs the story of Shakuntala to the young artist willing to play the role of Shakuntala. The scene ends with Nazia going down the memory lane in Lahore of 1948 and to one of the performances of Abhigyan Shakuntalam in Hindustani. Along with this, the scene also establishes Nazia’s love for Suhel in her early years.
The performance of Abhigyan Shakuntalam is further picked up in Scene III of the play. Nazia is playing the role of Shakuntala, her sister Zarine of Anasuya and the role of king Dushyant is played by Suhel. During this performance there is commotion caused by the Muslim rioters to search for Hindus to kill them because of partition trauma. And in this very scene there is mention of Nazia, Zarine and Suhel leaving for Delhi, India. Also there is mention of Zarine being killed by the Muslim rioters, the gang rape of Nazia and also of Suhel not attempting to protect Nazia from the rioters. This scene tells of the distressing past of Nazia which had laid an impact on her personality drastically.
With Scene IV the story of the play moves to present and there is again discussion on Nazia’s revival of her Theatre Company and performance of the modern version of the play Abhigyan Shakuntalam with the artists, Nazia gets a phone call from Suhel after fifty long years. Nazia has buried her past and past relations as well, but Suhel’s phone call disturbs her and compels her to remember her past which she expresses thus;
NAZIA: You think it is so simple? . . . Things don’t get finished. They just hide in a dark corner like a ghoul and grab at you when you are not looking. And sometimes you have to beat the shit out of the ghoul to make it crawl back into its dark corner (MMP, WDILMP, 89).
And Nazia again goes down the memory lane in the 1950s when Nazia and Suhel perform the role of Shakuntala and Dushyant respectively, and are putting on their costumes and accessories in the make-up room for the post-intermission act. Here the scene ends leading to Scene V which is enacted on the same set where Act III is performed. Suhel urges Nazia to show more feeling in the scene instead of getting stiffened up. Their conversation in the make-up room gives a hint that they are not cordial in their off stage relationship of husband and wife. Whenever Suhel tries to be intimate with Nazia, she is repulsed, whether onstage or offstage. Nazia feels he is accusing her of her past and pities her for being with her in spite of her abused past. This is evident with these dialogues;
SUHEL: Look, a lot has happened to us but we need to –
NAZIA: To me! A lot has happened to me! Nothing happened to you!
SUHEL: I know! I know that, but don’t you think it has affected me as well? I try not to show it because I don’t want to upset you.
NAZIA: It shows!
Pause.
NAZIA: Why is it that when you play Dushyant – especially this scene – I feel that – you are accusing me? (MMP, WDILMP, 95).
Suhel tries to soothe Nazia and sympathize with her and suggests her to come out of her past and live in the present. Whereas, Nazia thinks Suhel pities her and this is evident from their conversation thus;
SUHEL: I don’t pity you, I want to help –
NAZIA: Oh, so I am helpless! And I need you to help me? So you can take control over my life. Oh, there are too many women in dance and theatre who have succumbed to those tactics. Too many who allowed men to ruin their lives. But I am not one of them . . . (MMP, WDILMP, 98-9).
Suhel suggests Nazia to forget all that had happened to her and ‘move on’ in her life. Here Nazia’s statement is worth noting;
NAZIA: Move on? I am trying – trying to do that, but you keep reminding me of what happened . . . I just have to look at you and it all comes back! I can’t play Shakuntala because of you. The first time I see you as Dushyant, I look away because it reminds me that I once made the mistake of falling in love with you. When you kill the bee it reminds me that I killed for you. When you take me in your arms as Dushyant I – I want to throw up! (MMP, WDILMP, 99).
Suhel pleads guilty for not rescuing Nazia from the rapists. But Nazia cannot take it simply. According to her, the pain and suffering for her and Suhel are not the same. This expression of Nazia finds vent through the reference of the play Shakuntala thus;
NAZIA: And in the court – when you spurn me, the look in your eyes! You mean every word you say! I know where that comes from. It all comes back! I cringe at your touch. When you reject me in the court, I wish I could wipe out every memory of you, Zarine and . . . and everything else! (MMP, WDILMP, 100).
The only wrong of Suhel was he did not do anything to stop the gang rape of Nazia. Suhel becomes aware of the feeling of Nazia for him; he then gives talaq to Nazia. With this make-up room conversation the final bell for the post-intermission act of the play of Abhigyan Shakuntalam rings and they two hurriedly proceed with their performance. The scene of the play is the famous court scene, it is the court of king Dushyant and pregnant Shakuntala has arrived at the court with an elderly woman, Gautami to accept her and their child. Dushyant, unable to recognize Shakuntala due the curse of sage Durvasa, refuses to accept her as his wife. Thus, the performance of Shakuntala is instrumental towards surfacing Nazia's feelings towards Suhel.
The story of the play then moves to its denouement and to the last scenes of the play; wherein there is discussion about the sponsorship, artists and performance of the play Shaku. Nazia has hushed the past incidents and relations down her memory lane, but then certain twists and turns in the climax make her disclose before Ruby that she is her daughter and not of Zarine. Moreover, about her relationship with Suhel she accepts that it was her fault that she remembered his only mistake and not the love she had for him. Nazia thus has undergone a psychological journey with lots of ups and downs. She has expressed her regret thus;
NAZIA: . . . maybe it was me – every time he came close to me I could see that look in his eyes, I could sense it in his touch. Somewhere, we had forgotten each other . . . We only remembered the pain (MMP, WDILMP, 134).
The older Nazia is touched by the memory of Suhel to the extent that she desires to call Suhel, but unfortunately the same morning Suhel died and Nazia is filled with remorse thus;
NAZIA: Why? I was doing fine until you brought it all up again! Why can’t you all just leave me in peace? I have a production to plan, don’t you know? Where are those actors? . . . (MMP, WDILMP, 137).
In Where Did I Leave My Purdah? Nazia intentionally do not want to remember her distressed past of her gang rape, Zarine’s murder and her about the birth of her daughter Ruby, whereas in Abhigyan Shakuntalam Dushyant forgets her love and marriage with Shakuntala because of a curse. Both Nazia and Dushyant remember their past when circumstances or some external agency trigger them for so. Dushyant remembers his relations with Shakuntala when he is presented with the ring that he gave to her as a token of their love before leaving for his kingdom. Nazia remembers her past relations with Suhel and Ruby when she is forced by the circumstances in the final act of denouement by Ruby and her daughter Nikhat. And then she too, like Dushyant who accepts Shakuntala, wants to forgive Suhel for his shortcomings and rejuvenate her relations with Suhel after fifty years. Dushyant gets his Shakuntala, but Nazia could not reconnect with Suhel.
The protagonist of the plays; Where Did I Leave My Purdah? – Nazia and Abhigyan Shakuntalam – Shakuntala, are the characters who are opposite to each other. Shakuntala is docile, but Nazia is not. Shakuntala submits to male hegemony, her life is dictated by the terms of males that come in her life, then be it Dushyant or Durvasa; whereas, Nazia controls her life. Nazia does not let the travails of her life and also the men that play crucial roles in her life affect her fortune. Rather she alienates herself from all that was disturbing her; Suhel and her daughter Ruby and the memory of her dead sister. Neither the trauma of gang rape nor her hatred for Suhel could deter her from pursuing her passion of dance drama. Nazia thus is an assertive woman. Dattani has portrayed Nazia against the docile Shakuntala to portray her as a powerful woman as compared to Shakuntala. Shakuntala waits to be recognized by king Dushyant, whereas Nazia creates her own recognition. Nazia is an epitome of modern women.
Dattani himself has noted about the play in Me and My plays, An Essay thus;
. . . It explores the life and travails of Nazia, a stage actress who has lived a life in the theatre for sixty years. The play is a tribute to the great actresses of company theatres, who were courageous enough to pursue their passion for the stage at a time when stage actresses were looked down upon. For this I have as my inspiration the legendary Zohra Sehgal. Again the play is not a biography, but somewhere the spirit of the doyenne lives in Nazia (40).
Throughout the play at many instances Nazia mentions clearing the cobwebs. These cobwebs are a metaphor for Nazia’s troubled past which though she poses she is not concerned of. She has expressed thus, “Cobwebs! I hate cobwebs . . . What are these? (MMP, WDILMP, 69). Then, “Look at these cobwebs! No matter how often I clean them all, they keep coming back” (MMP, WDILMP, 107).
Nazia is a character who looks back in time and also looks to her memory and forgetfulness but towards the climax realizes her over sightedness and wants to revive her relations, but it’s too late, as Suhel dies and the life of her daughter, Ruby is spoiled. Ruby grows up with a feeling of abandonment and isolation and in turn gives the same to her daughter, Nikhat.
The connectedness between the play Where Did I Leave My Purdah? and Abhigyan Shakuntalam is appropriately figured out through the dialogue of grieved Nazia towards the climax of the play when she comes to know of Suhel’s death she immediately connects with the present and her rehearsals of Shaku thus;
NAZIA: . . . we are going to start rehearsals in ten minutes . . . We are going to do the scene when they first meet – no, no, let’s not do that. We will do the scene where he leaves her . . . no! No! . . . Let’s do the scene where he insults her saying he is not the father of her . . . or the scene where he recognizes her but . . . Let’s not do Shakuntala, let’s think of something else . . . (MMP, WDILMP, 137).
Dattani has utilized the technique of play-within-play technique to validate the theme of the play. The fictitious story of Shakuntala is related with the traumatic life incidents of Nazia to bring about the catharsis those entire women artists have gone through to accomplish their artistic passion during partition and post partition period. And according to Nazia the modern version of Shakuntala, Shaku connotes to thus;
NAZIA: . . . You see, this is the interpretation I always wanted for Shakuntala! Not this whiny little creature whose entire future depends on whether her husband can remember having slept with her or not (MMP, WDILMP, 112-3).
Dattani has skillfully executed the technique of play-within-play with different parts and levels of the stage displaying different sets of past and present period as per the requirement of the scene, lighting effects, music effect and with limited actors who played different roles and costumes. Lillete Dubey played the role of Nazia, Soni Razdan played the role of Ruby as well as Zarine, the role of Suhel and king Dushyant was played by Siddharth Makkar, daughter of Lillete Dubey, Neha Dubey played the role of young Nazia, Shakuntala and Nikhat. The play has moved to past and present and throughout the play the audiences are never uncertain of the time frame only because of the technical competence of the crew and spectacular acting of the cast.
Lillete Dubey in A Note on the Play has opined about the play that;
The present, the past and the play within the play (where we rediscover a classic, Kalidasa’s Shakuntala) flow seamlessly into each other, but with their own individual rhythms and beats. Each segment mirrors and echoes the other, the whole coming together like one piece of music, underlining the trajectories of the protagonists on many levels, including off the stage and on (A Note on the Play, WDILMP, 49)
Works Cited: