Bamyan Chronicles

Salsal and Shahmaama entwines the mythology of the Buddha statues with contemporary realities of life in the war-ravaged country. In the play children are shown playing with toys as Taliban tanks rumble past. Hashemi brings alive Bamyan,one of the poorest and most liberal provinces of Afghanistan ,through a tight 75-minute act full of forgotten dances and songs. “I visited elderly people and tribals who remembered the days when these songs were still sung,but they could only give me a line or a verse. I pieced these together to create the pieces for the play,” says Monireh,who has visited India twice earlier,with her plays.

In the play,a little girl called Gol Bakth hears the mythological tales and sets off to talk to the statues. But in the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in which she lives,the Buddhas are “idols forbidden by the Sharia”. Little Gol Bakth finds herself witnessing a mighty explosion—one that blows away Salsal and Shahmaama,her legendary ancestors.

If there is a sense of impending doom throughout the play,it merely mirrors the situation in most of Afghanistan where,as Abdul Hakim Hashemi,general manager of the troupe and the script-writer of the play,puts it,“there are blasts every other day,even in broad daylight.” Censure is still rampant,particularly of women participating in artistic endeavours. “Our theatre company has 25 girls,of whom nine are visiting India along with seven boys. All of them are here in defiance of their relatives and religious leaders,” says Monireh. She herself was one of the few women to take up acting in 2004,three years after the Taliban government was overthrown and Afghan art and culture was taking its first hesitant steps again.

In keeping with the social diktats,the actresses on stage always have their heads covered. “These are small concessions. The big change is that we’re doing theatre,” says Tahera Anwar Ali,22,who plays a queen’s advisor. But it is a rare day when Monireh doesn’t receive a threat call. “I don’t know who these people are. They are usually just a phone number and a gruff voice. But the threats remind us that there are lines we cannot cross,” she says.