Name game

Delhi-based Pierrot’s Troupe isn’t used to empty halls,especially when it premiers a play in the city. But in December 2007,when the group staged Rahe Naam Pakistan Ka,about the Partition,the lack of footfalls was deafening. M Sayeed Alam,the playwright,set about investigating,plying his regular audience with questionnaires,until the answer seemed clear: “People thought the play glorified Pakistan. They were offended,and stayed away,” he says. On June 14,he will re-launch the play at Shri Ram Centre with a new name,1947.

For more than a year,though,Alam had stuck to Rahe Naam Pakistan Ka,confident that the intriguing storyline of an 85-year-old Alzheimer’s patient Ghazanfar Hussein,whose memories tumble over the hurly burly of the Partition,would attract the cerebral audience. “But,I was wrong. This was the first time that one of my plays was being staged to near-empty halls. Even Ghalib,a musical we created in August 2008,has had 19 full-house shows across India,but Rahe Naam was staged only four times in more than a year. I meant the name as a satire but people thought that I was praying for the well-being and prosperity of Pakistan,” he says.

The ill feeling became all the more obvious when Alam announced two shows in December. “Post 26/11,many Indians were crying for a war against Pakistan. The prevailing mood made me realise that nobody would ever watch a play called Rahe Naam Pakistan Ka,” says Alam. He decided to rename the play after its protagonist,but found that Ghazanfar Hussein — 1923-1947???? didn’t excite too many of his colleagues. “Finally,we came up with 1947,” he says,keeping his fingers crossed.

He has also roped in Bollywood actor Saleem Shah (Fanna,Mammo and English August) to enact the role of Ghazanfar Hussein. A new name and tinsel glamour— this may finally be the perfect combination.