It is a matter of joy that Aamir Khan's film 'Lahore 1947' based on our beloved writer Asghar Wajahat's famous play 'Jis Lahore Nai Dekhya O Jamyai Nai' has been completed. The director of this film is Rajkumar Santoshi. The main roles in it are played by Sunny Deol, Shabana Azmi, Preity Zinta, Ali Fazal, Karan Deol and Abhimanyu Shekhar Singh etc. Earlier this film was to be released in India on 26 January 2025, but now it is likely to be released in February 2025. Rajkumar Santoshi wanted to make this film for about twenty years and he bought the rights to film it twice from its writer Asghar Wajahat. Earlier there was a controversy over 'Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh' Meanwhile, Santoshi made a film named 'Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh' last year on another play of Asghar Wajahat 'Godse @ Gandhi.com' and released it. There was a lot of controversy in both the right wing and left wing camps about this film. Sunny Deol has played the role of Sikandar Mirza in the film. Shabana Azmi has played the role of Budhi Mai in Lahore 1947 while Sunny Deol has played the role of Sikandar Mirza and Preity Zinta his wife and Karan Deol his son. Now a little discussion about the play on which I had edited a book in Hindi and English in 2009 'Jis Lahore… ke do Dashak' (Vani Prakashan) Producer and director got threats. Scene 1: The show of the Marathi version of Asghar Wajahat's play 'Jis Lahore Nai Vekhya O Jamyai Nai' was going on in the 'Rang Sharda' auditorium located in Bandra area of Mumbai. The director was Vaman Kendre and the Marathi adaptation was done by Shafat Khan. This show was housefull. During the interval, suddenly there was some commotion in the background. When Shafat Khan reached there, he saw that a man claiming to be a local leader of Shiv Sena was threatening the producer and director to stop the play or else the consequences would be very bad. That man left the play in the middle. The play did not stop. A person said- 'This play should not stop' After the last performance, a surprising incident happened. That man came backstage again. He put his hand in his pocket. There were tears in his eyes. When he took his hand out of his pocket, he had bundles of hundred rupee notes in his hands. Giving them to the producer, he said – 'Forgive me. That day I had seen only half the play. Today I saw the whole play. This play should not stop and if you need money, please call me.' People climbed trees in Pakistan to watch the play Scene 2 is from Karachi city of Pakistan. Here Khalid Ahmed submitted the Urdu version of this play to the Police Commissioner and asked for permission to stage it. The administration did not give them permission, although several housefull shows of the play were held in the German Information Centre 'Goethe Centre'. When people did not get space on the ground, they sat on the branches of trees and watched the play. Lucknow tour cancelled after protest Scene -3 is of January 2009. In the 11th Bharat Rang Mahotsav of National School of Drama, there was uncertainty till the end whether this play, to be directed by Karachi's Seema Kirmani, would be held or not. The reason for this was that some Hindu fundamentalist organisations had threatened. Somehow, amidst heavy police security, this play was held in Delhi, but the Lucknow tour of the drama group had to be cancelled. Seema Kirmani returned to Karachi with her group in despair. Australian woman cried so much that the operation was postponed Scene -4 is that a housefull show of this play was going on in Sydney, Australia. There was a woman sitting in the audience whose eye operation was to be done the next day, because her tears had dried up. While watching the play, she cried so much that tears came to her eyes again. The next day the doctor said that now he does not need an operation. India and Pakistan have a similar attitude towards this play. What is there in this play that Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists unite against it. The governments of India and Pakistan also adopt a similar attitude. It is important to remember here that this play was prepared at the time when BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani's Rath Yatra had already taken place. Babri Masjid had been demolished. Terrible riots had taken place in Mumbai and many parts of the country. In the poisonous atmosphere of hatred, distrust and violence, this play talks about human love and compassion, warns against the political use of religion and brings forth a global perspective of peace and co-existence beyond the boundaries of nation, region, religion and race. 'Jis Lahore Nai Dekhya O Jamyai Nai', staged in many languages in 35 years, is perhaps the only Hindi play that has been continuously staged in Hindi as well as various Indian languages for the last thirty-five years. It is also being staged in many cities of the world like Washington, Sydney, Karachi, Abu Dhabi, Dubai etc. Hundreds of stories are associated with this play, some of which have been mentioned above. This year marks the completion of thirty-five years of writing this play. The occasion of its completion of two decades (September 2009) has been celebrated as an international festival. This was probably the first international festival of a Hindi play. The special thing is that all this was done by the theatre lovers of the world on the basis of their personal resources. This did not include any government grant from India or any other country. On the twenty-year global journey of this play, Vani Prakashan has already published a special illustrated book under the editorship of this author – 'Do Dashak Jis Lahore Nai Dekhya…' This play is based on the period of partition. Now pay attention to the history of this play. Urdu journalist Santosh Kumar had first narrated an incident of Lahore to Asghar Wajahat. His younger brother Krishna Kumar Gortu was killed in the riots during the Indo-Pak partition of 1947. This play is dedicated to him. Actually this murder is a symbol of the murders of thousands of innocent people who were victims of communal frenzy and violence. Santosh Kumar went to Lahore much after the partition where his brother was killed. Then he got displaced from there and settled in Delhi. After returning from there he wrote a long travel memoir which was published in Urdu under the title 'Lahore Nama'. In this he has mentioned an old Hindu woman who was left alone in Lahore after the partition. The son of that Punjabi woman and her entire family were missing. The old woman was sure that one day they would definitely return. With this plot thread, the play kept getting made while imagining other things. The program of the first reading of the play had to be cancelled. When Asghar Wajahat wrote this play in 1989, some theatre directors were invited for its reading. No director reached the reading and the program had to be cancelled. Its first reading was done among the artists of Shri Ram Centre Rangmandal, Delhi. Habib Tanvir staged the play for the first time. Asghar Wajahat went to Budapest, Hungary to teach Hindi. Suddenly, his wife called and said that Habib Tanvir wanted to stage this play with Shri Ram Centre Rangmandal. Finally, the first performance of this play was possible on 22 September 1990 under the direction of Habib Saheb. That performance was so powerful that the fame of the play spread all over the world. Later, Habib Tanvir prepared it with his Chhattisgarhi artists for his organization 'Naya Theatre', many performances of which have been happening till recently. There is a large group of audience in Pakistan who likes this play immensely. All the shows there have been housefull. US-based expatriate Hindi writer and Voice of America programmer Umesh Agnihotri performed this play in Washington DC in 1994. Expatriate artists from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh worked in it. Many successful performances of this play were also held in other cities there. In India, after Habib Tanvir, senior theatre artist Dinesh Thakur staged this play in Hindi in 1998 in Mumbai with the artists of his organization 'Ank'. He has included poems of Nida Fazli and scenes of Gujarat riots in it instead of Nasir Kazmi. Dinesh Thakur himself used to play the role of Nasir Kazmi. After his death, his wife Preeta Mathur has been continuously doing shows of this play. Staged in many other languages It is important to talk about the Kannada version of the play here, which was started by the famous theatre artist B.V.Karanth. This work was later completed by D.N.Srinak. It was published under the name of 'Ravi Kinare'. It was directed by Ramesh S.R. This play has also been translated and performed in Gujarati. It has been translated many times in Punjabi. Kewal Dhaliwal of Amritsar and Trilochan Singh of Ludhiana did its shows on a large scale. It received an unprecedented welcome in Punjab. Many other people tried to make a film on this play. This play has continuously attracted many filmmakers. First of all Govind Nihalani bought the rights to make a film on this play. When he could not make the film for five years, Asghar Wajahat sent him a legal notice. Now Rajkumar Santoshi along with Aamir Khan has completed his film named 'Lahore 1947' on this play at a cost of about 100 crores rupees, which will be released in February next year. But he first wanted to cast Sanjay Dutt in the lead role. During that time Sanjay Dutt went to jail in a case and the film was stopped. After the super hit of the film 'Gadar 2' last year, now Rajkumar Santoshi and Aamir Khan have played the lead roles in this film. Writer Ajit Rai
Aamir-Sunny Deol and Rajkumar Santoshi's film 'Lahore 1947': Based on the thirty-five year old Hindi play 'Jis Lahore Nai Dekhya O Jamyai Nai'
