A new play brings Sindh to life on stage

Unlike migrants from West Punjab and East Bengal, the Sindhi population never got a state to call its own; not much is known about its rich cultural heritage. The play aims to spotlight the latter

MUMBAI: One of the plays to be staged at the annual Prithvi Theatre Festival, which opens tomorrow, is ‘Everything we forgot to say’ by Lillete Dubey’s Primetime Theatre Company (PTC). Dubey, the artistic director of PTC, is staging the play to depict the world of Sindhis—both modern and pre-Partition – which not many are familiar with, though the enterprising spirit of migrants from Sindh post-Partition is well-documented.

A new play brings Sindh to life on stage

Unlike migrants from West Punjab and East Bengal, the Sindhi population never got a state to call its own; not much is known about its rich cultural heritage. The play aims to spotlight the latter.

“This play was triggered by my father’s love for the talented Sufi Sindhi poet, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, whom he described as the Shakespeare of Sindh,” shares Dubey, a Sindhi by birth. “I wanted to showcase some of Shah’s wonderful poetry by having it sung live on stage.”

Playwright Adhir Bhat got into the act as soon as Dubey shared that she wished to honour her parent’s memory. “Hailing from Larkana and Sukkur, Sindh, they spoke a lot about the poetry of Sindh, including that of Bhittai. That was all the brief I got – it was great because I started with an emotion rather than a plot,” says Bhat.

“I am a Kashmiri Pandit who knows what it means to lose a home and identity. I didn’t have to imagine a Sindhi family packing their lives in a few bundles. I had seen my mother, one night, putting all she could in a trunk, by the dim light of a candle. And we had left our home, quietly,” he shares. “Together, with that trunk, we carried our unsaid grief. This play, finally, gave me an opportunity to speak a bit about that grief.”

Remembering, he points out, is not about nursing grievances. “The displaced have been able to hold the memory of loss without being consumed by it; and, therefore they have been able to build something better,” he says. The play mirrors this perspective.

Dubey adds, “It is the story of a race that went through its traumas but came out with resilience and courage. It flourished despite losing its homeland.”

And the play celebrates this through music and dance. “We have incorporated the music into two timelines, chronicling the lives of two strong women in the narrative, where Sindhi culture is more than just a historical background. Through the relationship between these two, we explore how culture, memory and identity are passed down through generations, even when geography, history and time try to erase them. At the heart of the play is a world where people who have suffered loss know how to deal with it; and we have used the context of a civilization where religions and different identities co-existed organically and music transcended religious boundaries,” says Bhat.

Music composer Ashish Painoli adds: “In some of the songs, we have deliberately retained much of the traditional Sindhi music in its unembellished form to preserve its authenticity. But, in others, I’ve blended traditional influences with contemporary textures to reflect the characters’ emotions.”

Lending further authenticity to the look and feel of the play, costume designer Pallavi Patel chose traditional Sindhi clothing staples of the 1940s, such as the farshi salwars and topis for the scenes set in Sindh, with details shaped by each character’s community and social background. “For Mumbai of 2010, I moved to contemporary, urban clothing in neutral, modern colours and varied cuts to reflect the city’s pace and mix of influences. The contrast will help the audience recognise the time and place of action,” she says.

For an audience whose Sindhi references are dal pakwan and Runa Laila’s passionate rendering of ‘Duma dum mast kalandar,’ the play will offer a fresh insight into how a displaced community negotiated with loss and rebuilt its identity.

(‘Everything we forgot to say’ will be performed at Prithvi Theatre on November 13.)