Ramu Ramanathan’s 3, Sakina Manzil promises to be a poignant production with the backdrop of the 1940s, when both India and the world were fighting for their own share of peace. Part of the Jagriti Theatre Festival, this English play will be performed over 10 days in the city.
At the time, the world was being crushed by World War II and India was striving for Independence. In such a conflicting situation, our Hindi film industry was trying to find a foothold. Amidst all this chaos, two lovers were weaving their own dreams that were soon to be shattered. The play is performed by two leading actors Tarun Singhal and Puneet Sikka. Tarun states, “Through our characters Shashi and Shashi, the play depicts the lives of hundreds of people who were affected by the disaster that struck Bombay in 1944. As an actor, we had the task of moving back and forth in time from the 90s to the Bombay of 40s thus creating a sense of nostalgia as well as melancholy. Also, how despite disasters, life continued to move on with its ups and downs only to leave more memories behind. The difficult part as an actor was the portrayal of the Bombay Dock Explosion, without even moving an inch from our seats. The entire thing has been done using our voice modulations and sound and light effects!”
On how the idea for this play came about, writer Ramu Ramanathan says, “3, Sakina Manzil emerged from the inputs of Amrit Gangar, who played Virgil to my Dante. I visited Dongri, Keshan Naik Marg, Chinch Bunder with Amrit Bhai and he introduced me to the survivors and eye-witnesses of the April 14, 1944 Bombay dockyard blasts. They shared their stories and their life since the blast. Sometimes in the middle of the night, I stood in front of a building burnt that night and tried to relive those moments.”
The play has stood as a definitive work since it was first staged in Delhi. It’s a story of love born in the times of strife, shaken by a tragic twist of fate and a disaster, to be re-united in memory, nostalgia and a chance meeting.
Puneet Sikka who also plays the role of Shashi adds, “An aspect that we’ve worked upon more than the extraneous expressions, movements etc. was documenting an imagined back story to Shashi ji and Comrade Shashi. Personally, that’s helped me give more dimensions to Shashi ji. Of course, none of which is explained or spoonfed to the audience, but given the fact that 3, Sakina Manzil is a text intensive play — we had the task of reading between the lines more than just learning them by rote. Interestingly, very few plays allow that these days. Besides that, basically relying on the author’s vision and research of old Bombay was very helpful. How lucidly that comes across in our performance is subject to interpretation of course.” The play is being staged at Jagriti Theatre between October 16 to 25.
