At Jashn-e-Rekhta, a true story about a forgotten Urdu writer, her progressive husband

Ardent movie buffs might know her as the mother-in-law of actor-politician Raj Babbar. What is also lost is the story of a rebel, an unconventional man who stood behind and beside Razia, encouraging and empowering her to move forward.

This was her husband, Sajjad Zaheer, an Oxford-graduate lawyer, the son of the Chief Justice of the Awadh Chief Court after whom the Wazir Hasan Road in Lucknow is named, a lover of Urdu poetry or shayari and a Communist, who was jailed in Pakistan alongside Faiz Ahmed Faiz and others.

Now,  Razia  and Sajjad’s granddaughter, Juhi Babbar Soni, the daughter of the couple’s third daughter, veteran actor Nadira Zaheer Babbar, is revealing the story in Ek Lamhaa Zindagi – A Love Story (1938-1979).

She draws the spotlight not only to an eminent writer from the challenging Independence and Partition years but also to the role of a man in his wife’s life.

The solo play, by Mumbai-based Ekjute Theatre Group, is directed by Makrand Deshpande and Juhi and will be performed at Jashn-e-Rekhta on Saturday. The three-day cultural festival, in its tenth year now, began on a high note on Friday.

One of the scenes is when  Razia and Sajjad get married in Ajmer and are returning to Lucknow, their home, by train.

As the train draws close to the Lucknow station, she reaches for her burqa. “He said, ‘No, leave it there’. She says,’ How will I step out?’ He offers his hand and says, ‘Laao, apna hath mere hath mein de do (Give me your hand)’. She just looked at him with shock. What was this man saying? But, she walked with him off the train and into their eventful life,” says Juhi.

Of course, people, including his mother, were livid with Sajjad and  Razia .“Are you crazy?” she yelled at him, ‘Firstly, you don’t make her wear a burqa and then you take her for these meetings where there are only men,’” says Juhi in the play.

The actor has added the period in the title because 1938 was when the couple got married and 1979 was when Razia died, around six years after Sajjad.

Sajjad was in Punjab, working for the Communist Party, not knowing that the region would come under Pakistan during the Partition. “The party told him to go underground and work to form the Communist Party of that country. He spent years in jail. He was an Indian and dying to return to India,” says Juhi.

“The times were when society was completely patriarchal and this was accepted by the women also.  Razia made several tough decisions, especially once Sajjad was in jail. I think that it was amazing that it was her decision that she would not leave India during the Partition but return to the house Sajjad brought her to after marriage. She remained strong through the crisis of her husband being in jail in another country, raised her daughters and discovered herself through the books she read and wrote. This is a love story entwined in the history of the country,” says Deshpande.

In January 1955, the Pakistani government agreed to free Sajjad – but the Indian government did not want to not take him back. “My nani reacted with such rage. She went to Teen Murti Bhavan with her three daughters and made sure Pt Jawaharlal Nehru intervened,” says Juhi.

Sajjad soon returned home. Juhi has referenced a book on the couple written by their youngest daughter, Noor Zaheer, called Siyahi Ki Ek Boond.

“With my team, we put in a lot of research about my grandfather and my grandmother,” says Juhi. Nadira had created a poem and a performance on her mother, Meri Maa Ke Haath, but this play goes beyond a daughter’s perspective.

“Juhi is among the most outstanding actors on stage. She has a strong voice, body language, stage presence, an understanding of languages and a rare emotional flexibility. Before your eyes, you see how she changes emotions. This capability makes her portrayal very authentic,” says Deshpande.