Short stories by Premchand and Harishankar Parsai to be staged at theatre festival

Two short stories by iconic Hindi authors Premchand and Harishankar Parsai will be staged at a comedy theatre festival here on Saturday.

Organised by Merry Go Round Entertainment, "Funnyvaar - a Comedy Theatre Festival" will witness adaptation of Premchand's "Do Behnein" and Harishankar Parsai's "Anshan" at LTG Auditorium.

The theatre festival will also stage a Punjabi adaptation of Russian writer-playwright Anton Chekov's "A Marriage Proposal".

Talking about the plays, the director, Saurav Padhi, told PTI that these stories needed to be retold because of their current day relevance.

"When I read the short story "Do Behnien" by Munshi Premchand, I thought the human psyche and the societal truth that the writer has written holds true even today. "We have adapted it into a play with a twist by keeping an eternal question as the centre point "Sukh Khana Hai" (where is happiness)," Padhi said.

"Do Behnein" is a story of two sisters pursuing their separate lives while continuously clashing with each other.

"Anshan" is another satire by Sahitya Akademi awardee Harishankar Parsai, who is known for his works like "Bholaram Ka Jeev" and "Bus ki Yatra".

"At first I found the story quite absurd. But when I started comparing it with strange stories in actual life that we witness and how they get their viral quotient, it got me thinking.

"Though we adapted it to a great deal by adding a few more lines and characters (including a Sheikh), the core message that the writer had written is delivered," Padhi said.

He added that when he thought of adapting Chekhov's "A Marriage Proposal", he could only think of a similar situation taking place in Punjab.

"Since then I and my team adapted this story from a farce to a comedy. I also wanted to highlight some cultural elements of Punjab so we added the characters of the traditional stand-up comedy acts of 'Phands Or Bhands'," he said.

(With inputs from agencies.)