Safar

A play by Desi Canvas
Reviewed by Ajay Pamneja

Safar is a play in Hindi/Urdu produced and performed by the Desi Canvas Theatre company, a company based in London.

They performed at the West London based Watermans theatre from the 3rd-6th Oct 2002 and what a performance it was!

The audience were delighted to see a bold and honest portrayal of life of an immigrant to this country from the Indian Sub-Continent. Two caveats for the play though - It is around 2 hours long (excluding the interval) and do not take your children with you (I would rate it for 16+ audience only).

Safar is about blurred boundaries between the original and the acquired. Blurred boundaries between the acquired set of moral values, standards we measure others by, social behaviour we come to accept relative to the ones we were brought up with (back on the sub-continent). Safar is about the wide gap between the reality (the current physical state of the place) and the nostalgia for the place seen a long time ago (or never seen!).

The three characters in the play have all emigrated to the UK from Delhi, Benaras and Lahore and have got so accustomed to the life here that going back to the homeland is like being dragged into a very suffocating environment, where you cannot survive for too long. Homeland is a good family destination, but not a holiday destination - according to one of the characters.

The protagonist of the play is Vishal Sahni, who has come to the UK from Delhi. His forefathers had a life of luxury and aristocracy in Bera, Sargodha (now in Pakistan) before the partition of India. The father never forgot his life there and made sure that his children were told stories of that life on daily basis. Hence, despite never having been to Sargodha, Vishal has this image of a place so much engraved in his mind and is his dream destination and he wants to ensure that this piece of heritage is passed on down the line to his children. Once in the UK, he does not want to go back to India, having been there once after the first four years here. He could not get used to the stench, the people and the stifling atmosphere there. The stories of Seema, a divorcee, now moving from one partner to another and Tariq, a married man with wife in Lahore, leading a bachelor's lifestyle in London are not too different. The three are friends despite the occasional banter about each other's past.  Vishal's nostalgia is depicted through his life in the UK, his marriage to Seema and the growing up of his children, who do not share the same feelings and penchant as him for the beloved Bera, Sargodha, and finally his downward spiral into depression and old age (depression caused by his daughter marrying a muslim??).

The play highlights lots of issues with subtle humour. Issues of the Indian-Pakistani differences, the Pakistani-Pakistani differences, the man-woman relations (especially a man from the sub-continent and his attitudes towards more liberal women in the west), how these attitudes change when the woman is 'their own', the Punjabi vs. Indian/Pakistani issue and many more. But above all, it is a story of nostalgia. How the images and stories of a distant land, which has been snatched from you, make you bitter towards those perceived as the snatchers to the extent that it blinkers your opinions about others and never enable you to accept the descendants from that society as your 'friends'. One is willing to tolerate their presence and laugh and joke with them, provided they do not enter your own 'home boundaries'. On a very broad term, the play is a dark tragedy about why different societies are always at loggerheads and never seem to be able to accept each other because of events of an era long gone by.

The performances by all three characters are of high calibre and the writing is exceptionally honest and brings to light all issues mentioned with sufficient humour and emotion. Perwaiz Alam, Hina Baxi and KK Tandon all deserve another applause for being bold enough to bring these issues to the stage and make it accessible to a wider audience by staging it in the second 'most spoken language' in the country.