A snapshot of the play 'Tumhari Amrita' The play that has a starcast of Shabana Azmi and Farooq Sheikh,is always a must watch. Ever sinceI had read about the play, I was looking out for any performance happening in Mumbai. Luckily, I came across one at the Tata Theatre, NCPA.

Yes, the tickets were slightly costly i.e. 320, which is more than our average budget of an IITian’s play watching allowance (which is not more than 80rs on a Tuesday Prithvi Show).

But then, not every day you get a chance to watch Shabana Azmi and Farooque Shiekh perform, and that too on the prestigious stage of the Tata Theatre at NCPA. ‘Tumhari Amrita’ is a play in Hindustani written by Javed Siddique and directed by Feroz Abbas Khan. It is an Indian context adaptation of A. Gurney’s hugely popular American play, Love Letters (1988) in Epistolary form (a form of play written as a series of documents like letters, diary entries or newspaper articles).

It made its debut on the February 28, 1992 and has been performed more than 300 times in the past 19 years. It is a love story told through the exchange of love letters spanning 35 years between two people from very different backgrounds. The story revolves around the two chief characters, Amrita Nigam (Shabana Azmi) and Zulfikar Haider (Farooq Sheikh), starting with Amrita’s eighth birthday party in the 1940, when she first wrote to the ten-year-old Zulfi. The play has the simplest production and lights and sounds that I have seen in theatre. Surround Sound Speakers Placement Ceiling Speakers more. There were just two chairs and two tables in terms of prod.

Apr 3, 2015 - 7 min - Uploaded by Shariq AliBeside many successful art and commercial films, he has written a remarkable stage play.

The actors remained seated all the time, did not memorize the script and just read out the letters kept on their writing desks throughout the performance. In terms of lights, there were just two overhead spots on the two actors and no background music at all. The beauty of the play lies in the way the story unfolds through the letters. It spanned over a period of 35 years and the pains and joys that the characters go through from childhood to adulthood, are depicted utmost convincingly only by the emotions and modulations in the reading by the two accomplished actors. There must have been more than 50 letters that each of them read and the flow of the story was brilliant. Among the things I liked the most about the narrative, were the casual “Naye Saal ki Shubhkamanaaye” and “Happy Birthday” letters that came during the course of the story. The casual non-chalant use of these provided perfect pauses between the interactions through the letters.

Although the play had a serious story and relationship budding through it, the humour through the some of the letters and specifically the description of the sketches made by Amrita Nigam (Shabana Azmi) kept the audience alive and smiling. There were times in between, possibly post interval, when the narrative started to get slightly lengthy but it was more than made up with the amazing end. The last letters by both the characters ended the play on a great high. Farooq Sheikh was really good especially his Hindustani diction, with the flavour of his typical Urdu accent.

Although, it is tough to compare between actors of such stature, but Shabana Azmi stole the show for me. It must have been because her character gave her a lot of variety but her smile and the depiction of the wild streak in the painter, Amrita Nigam came out amazingly well through her portrayal. Lastly, I’d say it surely is a play worth watching for a completely different theatrical experience. It teaches you the power of a script.

It shows that you don’t necessarily need awesome technical requirements to create an impactful play; you just need a story worth telling and the vision to tell it in a unique yet simple manner.

HYDERABAD: A hushed auditorium, a spontaneous applause to a standing ovation. 'Tumhari Amrita', the story of unrequited love read out through reams of love letters, took Hyderabadis through a journey which was moving, thrilling and entertaining all at the same time. On Tuesday night at the packed to capacity Shilpa Kala Vedika, Day 5 of the ongoing Times Hyderabad Festival, it was Feroz Khan's acclaimed play and the understated yet powerful performances of Shabana Azmi (Amrita) and Farooq Shaikh (Zulfi) that had the audience hooked through its length of over one hour 30 minutes.

It was almost 18 years ago, that this Feroz Khan production had made its dazzling debut at the Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai (then Bombay). But despite 300 odd re-runs across the globe since then, the play based on A R Gurney's hugely popular 'Love Letters', still had the same sheen, sharpness and sensitivity on Tuesday. Decades could have faded the pages of the letters, but the emotions still seemed untouched, absolutely virgin. Adding brilliance of the script, penned by renowned playwright Javed Siddiqui, were the two stalwarts of Indian theatre, Azmi and Shaikh who essayed their roles with an earnestness that has almost become synonymous with their names, their performances. The fact that the setting of the play did not change anytime through the 1 hour 30 minutes of the show and that the two characters (the play has only two actors) remained tied to their writing desks all through the performance, failed to bring any monotony to the experience.

Instead, the audience, who had filled every corner of the Shilpa Kala Vedika, were completely engrossed in the lives of the two protagonists as many seasons and occasions, such as Eid, Diwali and birthdays kept flying through the pages of their lives. In fact, the reactions of many on the stands kept changing with the changing content of the letters that Amrita and Zulfi had written to each other over a tumultuous 35 years. If the happy moments brought a smile to their faces, they were seen silently wiping their tears when the two parted ways, forever. 2003 Ford Ranger Cd Player Install. In the past, reviewers of the play as well as Shaikh himself have termed this act as a 'new experiment, new experience'. And that it clearly is so, becomes evident the moment the curtains go up on Amrita's eighth birthday party in the 1940. That only words can convey such a complex story of friendship that soon blossoms into love and is dotted with moments of intense pain and bouts of happiness, is hard to imagine.

The unmatchable expressions of Azmi and Shaikh as they read each other's letters, only adds to the intensity. So much so that it makes the spectators almost visualise the characters— a dreamy-eyed Amrita who wavers off into a different world each time she sits to write a few simple words and instead pens something like 'Jhoot badi resham ki lehaf ki tarah hai. As the characters age, even Indian history drifts from independence to partition to emergency and so on. And the same religious differences that tear the country apart, make their love story horribly unsuccessful too. The mind-boggling script of conversations is dotted with humour, scathing comments and witty one-liners as Amrita and Zulfi argue and patch-up with equal fervour, making the entire experience more than memorable for the audience who walk out still trying to soak in what they just saw. Known for exploring new forms and bringing much fame to Hindi theatre, Khan's brilliance as a director comes across at all stages of the play and reminds one of his other great works such as 'Mahatma vs Gandhi' (with Boman Irani in the theatre version that was later made into a film 'Gandhi, My Father' by Khan himself) and 'Saalgirah' (with Kiron and Anupam Kher) that too were astounding pieces of art. So, Khan's vision blended with the fineness of the Azmi and Shaikh make 'Tumhari Amrita' a cult play that has been staged at venues across India, Europe, US and Pakistan over the years.