To Sara,with Love

On stage,Delhi-based actor Seema Azmi will communicate that pain to her audience when the play opens in Mumbai shortly. Written by Shahid Anwar,it is mostly based on Shagufta’s letters to noted Punjabi poet and novelist Amrita Pritam. “When I read the script,I kept crying for about two weeks. I went into a depression. She had such a turbulent life,all because she had wanted to assert herself,” says Azmi,a 2001 alumna of the National School of Drama (NSD),Delhi.

In Shagufta’s trials — she was one of the few rebel poets during Zia Ul-Haq’s rule,who stayed on in Pakistan,when several others had gone into exile,and wrote verses on democracy — Azmi found glimpses of her own defiance. “For two years,my family didn’t have a clue I was doing theatre. They didn’t think of it as a respectable profession. I would rehearse in central Delhi and then rush home to Sarojini Nagar through the winter fog and summer heat,all the time scared that somebody would find out,” says Azmi,who was part of the Delhi-based Asmita Theatre Group for a decade. “When I finally came clean,my parents hit the ceiling,” she says.

Azmi,in her thirties,is a veteran of more than 40 plays at NSD and has worked with the capital’s most prominent directors like Ram Gopal Bajaj,Anuradha Kapoor and Mohan Maharishi. By 2006,she was itching for a new challenge. “I decided to move to Mumbai. Within six months,I had landed my first film,Chak De India,as Rani Dispotta,” she recalls.

Though she became well-known as “the hockey player from Jharkhand” after Chak De …,Azmi kept returning to theatre. Two years ago,she asked her old friend Anwar,to write a script for a solo play for her. The result was Sara,which Azmi calls a “bigger challenge than I had expected.”

For one hour,she fills the stage with multiple personalities,playing not only Shagufta but 15 other characters,ranging from the poet’s four husbands to her mother and brother. Dattani,she adds,”gives actors their space.” Says Negi,”Shagufta’s poetry was lyrical yet hard-hitting,and has everything from love poems to ones on politics. So the acting has to be equally nuanced.”

The Shiv Sena has already voiced its dissent over the play,but Azmi says she isn’t bothered. “There will always be problems. Some,you shouldn’t bother about,” she concludes. Shagufta would have approved.