It is sheer serendipity that Hyderabadis will first get to see Yahin kahin… bahut dur written and directed by Mohan Maharishi. Mohan Maharishi and Mohammed Ali Baig sat down to discuss the theme, how the play came about and whether the audience is ready for plays that test taboos and tolerance.
“This is my seventh play. And because I was here and met Mohammed, I decided to stage it here,” says Mohan who is also the director of the play.
“When he met me and spoke about the play at the end of the discussion, he said we needed to scout for the two characters as he had already found the first one,” says Mohammed who plays the role of Eeshwar in the play that explores human relationships with the theme of lesbianism forming the subtext. “I liked the way the play is structured, the way it moves back and forth and the way the relationships develop,” says Mohammed about the play where the man falls in love with the young woman, who appears to reciprocate but is actually attracted to another woman.
“I don't see lesbianism as just the theme in the play.
"It is one of the major themes in a play that explores human relationships and how they are interconnected and which it provokes. It is about spaces. Like atoms in space that interact, come close, collide and then drift away. The play leaves us with an existentialist question,” says Mohan Maharishi whose earlier plays include Natak Ke Beech, Raja Ki Rasoi, Vidyottama, Main Istanbul Hoon, Einstein, Andha Yug, Dear Bapu, Othello, Oedipus , and adaptations of Brecht, Sartre, Kafka, Strindberg, Sophocles, Shakespeare and Moliere…
“Homosexuality has acquired considerable proportions internationally. Even our legal system has responded to the issue with courage and wisdom. I felt it is time that such issues are articulated through the medium of theatre,” says Mohan about exploring the subject.
So, does the society accept it? “No. It shuffles between apathy, empathy and sympathy. Right now we are tolerating it,” he says.
“I feel many of our plays are too archaic and 99 per cent of the time they leave me bored. They don't obey what is called Natya Sahitya, plays are about movement, action and drama,” says Mohan Maharishi promising two evenings of good theatre experience.
