Old age is the deadly foe of all charm. The spring of youth disappears, wrinkles find residence on face. Death comes when it does but not sleep to weary eyes. From dawn to dusk, from eve somehow to morn, the fortunate few live on nostalgia; the less privileged ones wander in the past. The body rebels, the mind plays tricks. Life is no autumn sonata; just a sad solo song. For proof one needs to watch Saleem Shah’s classic performance as an Alzheimer's patient in Sayeed Alam's tragicomic drama “Pakistan aur Alzheimer's”, a riveting take on India's Partition, an event that left millions uprooted, many others disoriented.
The play , a solo actor saga, is a showcase of Shah's wonderful talents. His impeccable Urdu diction, his ability to speak English the way an Urdu speaking man from Awadh would, and his ability to back that up with malleability of face all point towards an artiste for whom no challenge is too great. Here as Ghazanfar, Shah is the life and breath of the monologue. He is in fact the spirit of this two hour long play crisply well written and ably directed by Alam. The choice of words, the flows events, and of course, the ability to take potshots at our anomalies all combine to keep you hooked to the proceedings. It helps that Alam himself hails from the soil of Awadh, and has had close hand experience with Alzheimer's patient. Words like “Kha-m-kha”, “kufr”, Jahannum”, “nafil” bring alive the vocabulary of the region. These words are heard but rarely in the days of multiplexes and Hinglish speaking audience. That Alam is able to script together an entire drama around such language speaks volumes for his ability not to let the moment get ahead of him; his ability to speak the language he has grown up with. As a consequence, the play never rambles on.
Of course, it is not an easy play to begin with. Partition, as a literary or dramatic subject, has often been explored. There is a risk of sameness creeping in.Also, it is almost always about the wounds that time has failed to heal. So Alam takes the best alternative: turn it around as a tragicomic drama. It involves laughing at the past. Again, not without risk though. So, in comes the Alzheimer's disease, a progressively neuro degenerative disease which begins with short term memory loss and gradually overtakes a person's life. In this case, Ghazanfar is the only surviving members of his family on this side of the border. Bela, Mushtaq and the rest are all in Pakistan. With his wife dead and gone, Ghazanfar's is an uneasy existence. He switches between 1947 and 2016, not realising for a moment the huge time lapse. And waits endlessly for his brother-in-law to come for his wife's condolence meeting. It is in this long journey that Shah's talent is put to the crucible. He passes the test with elan, neither allowing the audiences to slip into sorrow nor making it so light-hearted that it could be just another satire.
“Pakistan aur Alzheimer's”, is a rare chance to laugh at the past, to even smile with a man suffering from erratic memory. It is well received by men young and old, women charming and timeless. Reason enough to take in the next show.
