Play explores love in the time of war

A political crisis or a failed love story have been the perennial favourites of playwrights.
Director Mohit Takalkar combines both the plots to narrate two parallel stories in his captivating play 'Main Huun Yusuf Aur Ye Hai Mera Bhai' that was staged recently as part of National School of Drama's 19th Bharat Rang Mahotsav here.
Set in the backdrop of 1948 Palestine, when the British mandate was ending and the United Nations was voting for dividing the country into two, the play tells the story of a small village straddling between an 'imminent war resulting in a refugee status' and an 'unlikely love story'.

Narrated in the voice of a mentally challenged Yusuf, the play is the story of how the boy's handicap as "Gaon ka sabse bewakoof ladka" (the most stupid boy of the village) came in the way of his brother Ali's marriage with the love of his life Nada.
As the war plays out in the backdrop and 'land owners' in the village turn refugees, the production captures the anguished existence of the villagers through nuanced performances by the actors.
One of the most striking scenes in the narrative where a villager carrying an uprooted tree fearing that it will forget him once the new ocupants arrive, evokes a heart wrenching sense of loss and uprootedness.

"Hopefully I will plant it again," says the villager, holding the tree over his head.

Peeling off deep layers of 'guilt' and 'forgiveness', the play ends with Ali's purgation as he confesses of throwing Yusuf in a well during their childhood that resulted in his handicap.
"I am the one responsible for your condition. I threw you in the well when we were children out of jealousy. I didn't want, but then my hands pushed you. Please forgive me," Ali tells Yusuf, as the latter helplessly pleads with his brother not to leave him.
What follows is Ali's hopeless pursuit of Nada accompanied by the doggedly loyal Yusuf, that culminates in Ali's death.

Takalkar's production is an adaptation of the Hindi-Urdu translation of the original play by Palestinian playwright Amir Nizar Zuabi.
"Zuabi's play was powerful, elegiac, exploration of history, memory and different forms of love.
"I rehearsed everyday with a certain zeal and enthusiasm to unearth multiple layers and narratives of this fascinating play and left everyday with moist eyes and a parched throat," says Takalkar.