An evening with Tumhari Amrita

An evening with “Tumhari Amrita”

Play: Tumhari Amrita (Yours Amrita)

Writer: Javed Siddiqi

Cast: Shabana Azmi and Farouque Shaikh

Disclaimer:

This is an independent sharing of experience of an audience who saw the play and was mesmerized and disturbed at the same time by this poignant story.

IN NO WAY WHATSOEVER IT IS INTENDED TO COMPROMISE THE LEGACY OF THIS GREAT PLAY!

It’s through letters that they talk but they talk. A rationalist mind would have advised them to stop it immediately but emotions often score over rationalism and end with Amrita.

Born into a Dewan’s family Amrita had a good upbringing at least from the economic point of view. Her proximity with Zulfi (Zulfikar Ali Hyder) began on a birthday party when the innocence of childhood was sublime.

The letters (or as advertised love letters) that Amrita and Zulfi write to each other covers the journey of how mutual attraction at the first place soon blossoms into a close friendship and with adolescence into love and finally to a tragic end.

The daring attempt of the child Zulfi of expressing an honest infatuation through the numerous mentions of “a wonderful handwriting”, “a beautiful face” or “a wonderful painting” are sarcastically but lovingly put down by an equally adorable young Amrita, only through letters though.

The letters and thereby the exchange of feelings only get a little more expressive when the two enter their adolescence.

While Amrita hailing from Lucknow initially seems to be a girl who is a pretty rationalist in her bubbly yet at times emotionally intense outlook, it’s Zulfi who seems to be actually the person who is in control of things and omniscient of his responsibilities to his “family”, “mulk” (country) and “kaum” (religion).

It’s well understood right from the very start that the love would never culminate into a marriage as Amrita is a Hindu and Zulfi a Moslem.

However, it’s only these two characters that seem to be at times oblivious of this fact and keep up their daring though most of the times futile attempts to meet.

Emotions run high through letters than through any carnal means.

Nonetheless, love is blind and the two lovers never seem to realize until the end what they have done to themselves.

As Zulfi moves on to Aligarh to complete his B.A. and his dream of an I.C.S. officer in a post independent India, Amrita stays on in Lucknow often transiting to Dehradun as a punishment for putting down a marriage proposal.

Regretfully one wonders if she had accepted any one of such proposals maybe her life would not have ended prematurely in a hospital and Zulfi would not have lived the rest of his life in guilt. But that’s just maybe.

Amrita’s journey to Bombay is triggered by a host of events with her father marrying his erstwhile “mistress” (a singer from Meerut) and her mother slipping into a severe depression. 

With Zulfi only reachable through letters and an occasionally ill-timed visit, Amrita takes few steps, which all disturbed minds may, to keep running from the emptiness within her.

Despite a passionate appeal and rebuke by Zulfi, Amrita is now a step closer to alcohol and cigarettes besides the one-time escapade to Juhu with one of her college-mates. Luckily, this did not do much damage to Amrita and Zulfi’s relationship as the escapade culminated into nothing more than a forced kiss on Amrita by her college-mate who had taken her open-mindedness as her slut-hood.

It’s here that Zulfi as a character scores over Amrita. Zulfi is not only more balanced in his life and knows his priorities well, but also shows tremendous maturity when he plays down the “kiss-scandal” with not more than a communication-snap for a few months.

However, this makes the audience feel if only Zulfi had shown a little more far-sightedness and forced Amrita (often referred to as half-mad by Zulfi) to get settled to a groom chosen by her parents. If it happened so then the play “Tumhari Amrita” would have ended with people leaving the auditorium smiling. But that’s again maybe.

Amrita after being rusticated from college in Bombay soon takes up a self-destructive journey though professionally successful.

Her interest in arts and paintings brings her to Paris where she meets Andy and marries him after Zulfi’s nuptial rites are solemnized with Shaheen by his father’s diktats.

Zulfi on his father’s orders gives up the idea of I.C.S. and takes up the cause of representing “Moslems” in India to which he is occasionally confused if he is defending the cause of a particular section of society or a few criminals, as confessed to Amrita.

Throughout all these the two main characters or rather the only physically visible characters keep in touch with each other albeit through letters.

When Amrita marries Andy the audience expects “All’s well that ends well” but the plot takes a turn and for worse.

Andy breaks the marriage and Amrita suffers from chronic alcoholism and gives up painting. This episode is well brought out through the exchange of letters and one can feel the pain in the words being read out from the letters.

Amrita recovers somehow after some moral boost up by Zulfi yet again only through letters and returns to India where she earns a decent name as a painter.

By now her biological parents are no more and she takes up the care of her step-mom though reluctant initially.

It is at this time that these two love interest meet after a long time and realize life has not turned out what they wanted it to be, more specifically for Amrita. Zulfi would soon be also affected.

As some of the letters of Amrita recently sent to the Member of Legislative Assembly Zulfikar Ali Hyder(Zulfi) are leaked out to a press reporter Mr. Mathur from the MLA's office, the gloom only darkens.

Zulfi puts a proposal to Amrita to marry her to save his political and family career. And in his words more importantly Amrita.

A question pops up into the mind of a few in the audience “Why now Zulfi?”

Shaheen steps into Amrita’s “haveli” (palatial bungalow) in Lucknow one fine day with her two sons. With fear in her eyes and shiver in her limbs, she stares at Amrita.

Amrita fathoms the pain a woman has when she is going to lose just everything she has.

With a firm “NO” to Zulfi, Amrita ends her life.

Zulfi quite expectedly takes the blame on himself as the murderer of an honest soul.

Few questions remain unanswered at the end of the play:

1.    Would Shaheen’s sons idealize Zulfi as a father much as Zulfi idealized his father?

2.    Would Zulfi ever be able to come out of the guilt that if he had only made some strong though difficult choices, half-mad Amrita would have been full alive today?

3.    And the most importantly, would you like to play the part of Zulfi or Amrita?

Would you?