Hameed's stunning show culminates five-day Urdu drama festival

New Delhi: The five-day Urdu Drama Festival organised by HumSub Drama Group of Ghalib Institute culminated on Saturday evening with a stunning performance by stage artist Tariquee Hameed, who enacted the Patras Bukhari’s ‘Marhoom Ki Yaad Me’ in a solo show that left most of the audience that filled about half the theatre in splits.

Hameed performed two plays -- the first was Bay by Shaukat Thanvi and the second was Marhoom Ki Yaad Me by Bukhari, written in the pre-independence era.

“Bay was the first story. It was written by Shaukat Thanvi. Bay is the second letter of the Urdu alphabet. I have tried to make it a bit contemporary,” said Hameed after the performance.  

The second story, ‘Marhoom Ki Yaad Me’, was the one that got the crowd almost on its feet.

“I had wanted to enact this play for a long time. Our first performance was in 2022 in Dehradun. Today, I did my 46th performance,” said Hameed who was born in Bihar.  

“I am a theatre artist and activist but received no formal training. Life has taught me, as I have not been a student of any drama school. I saw a play as a child and got inspired. I began theatre in 2004 and made my own group, Wings Culture Group in 2009,” says the artist who delivered a flawless monologue.

The story was funny. It was about a man who bought a cheap bicycle from a man which he thought was a steal. But to his horror he realised that his 40 rupees went waste as the parts of the bicycle he had bought disentangled at every little distance forcing him to throw it into the river. Through that entire story, the buyer is shown to have funny conversations with mechanic, whose dialogues Hameed delivers after seamless transformation between characters.

The five-day festival showcased many other good and interesting plays like ‘Gharwali’, based on ISmat Chughtai’s story of the same name.

The director of the play, Rajesh Tiwari, did a great job with the flow of the play and the usage of the stage. More importantly, each of the actors of the Delhi-based Trust Theatre Group, which is run by Tiwari, were immaculate in their performance. Each one playing their role to perfection.

A lot more crowd should have attended this but since this one was clashing with another Urdu Drama Festival underway at the Shri Ram Centre for Performing Arts, the audience was divided.

Tags : Theatre, Urdu, Drama, Tariquee Hameed, Patras Bukhari