In the last few weeks, I have watched two plays by the ‘Motley’ group – ‘Ismat Apa Ke Naam’ and ‘Prophet’, which have been a rendition of the author’s work without much change in the language as the author wrote it. Both plays seemed to go down rather well with the audience, which leads me to wonder why the ‘Motley’ group doesn’t do a pure poetry-reading session. I think it would be great to hear Naseeruddin Shah, Benjamin Gilani and Ratna Pathak Shah delivering poems (reciting seems a childish and inappropriate word to use in this context). To make it more interesting, they could select poems based on a theme, wherein each poem could take the thread of a story forward.
For instance, let’s take the theme of love (not the platonic variety), attraction, lust etc and all the myriad emotional hues that surround these.
Imagine Naseer trying to woo Ratna with the poem 'To His Coy Mistress' by Andrew Marvell. Once he ends, the lady could, in a scornful aside to the audience, recite the first verse of 'Bloody Men !' (by Wendy Cope) – ‘Bloody Men are like Bloody Buses / You wait for about a year / And as soon as one approaches your stop / Two or three others appear’. Then she could look down her nose at Naseer and proceed to mock his protestation of love (?) through the words of 'His Coy Mistress to Mr. Marvell' before exiting the stage. After the lady exits the stage, the gentleman could ruefully enact 'The Time I've Lost in Wooing'. No audience would find poetry boring if they saw the duo enact these – they bring the right blend of mischief and elegance to the stage, as anyone who has watched ‘Dear Liar’ can testify.
There could be a couple of disinterested bystanders who could give their sound-bytes on the nature of love once the couple has left the stage. One, mocks the lovers in the words of D. H. Lawrence as detailed in 'True Love at Last'. Another, a hypocritical, sanctimonious type, shown in true colours in the poem 'True Love'.
The latter poem, somehow reminds me of those who protest against Valentine’s Day by taking out morchas, ransacking shops and harassing couples. While I agree that Valentine’s Day is a fraud perpetuated by Hallmark, Archies and other companies, I feel that these louts are a much greater menace to society than lovesick young un’s wandering around with soppy expressions and red roses. In fact, maybe these two poems and a few more that you, generous reader, will bring to my notice, could be better utilized to highlight the hypocrisy of society’s moral police in a separate set. Imagine a store, bells chiming as some couples enter, fluffy red hearts with white frilly lace on the edges (how disgusting they look!) in the windows, heart shaped chocolates, pink flowery greeting cards etc – the typical Archies / Hallmark store in fact. And our two friends, Mr. Superior and Mr. Sanctimonious, leading a morcha outside. ‘True Love At Last’, mocks Mr. Superior. ‘True Love’, rants ‘Mr. Sanctimonious.’ And with what poems shall they be answered ? I know not. It is yours to decide, good (i.e. one who will save me from further effort) reader.
More hues of love. Imagine Irrfan Khan (yes, I know he is not a part of ‘Motley’, but this is a blog, and one can hope) reciting 'My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun', in the same casual, matter-of-fact tone he uses in the Hutch ads. And Benjamin Gilani reciting 'They Say' and 'To My Wife - With A Copy of My Poems'.
And the sad, bitter, cynical poems too. One marvelous one I would select is by Steely Dan - 'Things I miss the most', there could be someone reading it out with the music playing in the background. A poem with a different tone, 'Threnody' by Dorothy Parker. Somewhat similar, 'The Tree of Song' by Sara Teasdale.
p.s. I hope that the outlines I have described above, bare though they are, succeed in motivating you to click on the links and read the poems – they are really interesting ones. Also, if you can think of more poems to add depth and detail to the scenario, do write a comment.
p.p.s. The second theme I can think of is anti-establishmentarianism – think ‘August 1968’ and ‘Epitaph on a Tyrant’ by W.H. Auden. A post on that follows soon.
Awaiting comments,
Zenobia D. Driver
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