135 stories of Premchand take centrestage on 135th birth anniv

MUMBAI: Over a century ago, Munshi Premchand charted an extraordinary path of struggle to emerge as India’s finest author.
The orphan child studied at a village madrassa in Lamahi near Benaras, later moving to Kanpur. Modern comforts like electricity and fountain pens had yet to reach small town India. Under the light of an oil lamp, he dipped an old “qalam” in ink to craft hundreds of stories and novels on dowry, widow remarriage as well as 21st Century concepts like corporate farming and live-in relationships.
Friday, July 31, marked Premchand’s 135th birth anniversary. A theatre group led by director Mujeeb Khan is staging a festival of 135 plays based on his stories. “Prem Utsav” began on July 30 and will go on until August 8 at Sathaye College in Vile Parle. Entry is free.
Rehearsals were held in the basement of a Chinese shopping bazaar at Seven Bungalows in Andheri. “Each play is faithful to Premchand’s style and language. “Seb” is one minute long, “Jadu” lasts two minutes, while “Dosti” tells you the full story in four minutes. “Alahdgi” lasts a full hour,” says Khan who holds a Limca record for staging 315 plays based on 315 stories by the author.
His 25-odd artistes are out-of-towners here to train in acting and diction. Siddharth Arora, the lead in a TV serial on Krishna, who hails from Premchand’s Benaras says, “Each of us is enacting two or three characters. Yet audiences will feel they are seeing him for the first time because the costume and mannerisms change so rapidly.” Actor Varun Mehra has developed an abiding respect for Premchand. “He not only wrote about widow remarriage but himself wedded a child widow,” he says.
Khan once visited the ramshackle garage in Kanpur where Premchand wrote masterpieces like “Godaan” and “Bade Ghar Ki Beti”. Not a soul in the vicinity knew the writer's name. Khan urged local MP Murli Manohar Joshi to help preserve the site but received only empty assurances.
Premchand’s relevance remains undiminished, though. He affords rare insight into human psychology and calls for social reform using beautiful metaphors. “Nirmala” held a mirror to incompatible marriages between old widowers and young women at the time.