Aamir-Sunny Deol and Rajkumar Santoshi’s film ‘Lahore 1947’: The story is based on the thirty-five year old play ‘Jis Lahore Nai Dekhya..’ made during the partition

Aamir Khan’s film ‘Lahore 1947’ based on writer Asghar Wajahat’s famous play ‘Jis Lahore Nai Dekhya O Jamyai Nai’ is ready.

The director of this film is Rajkumar Santoshi. The lead roles in this film are played by Sunny Deol, Shabana Azmi, Preity Zinta, Ali Fazal, Karan Deol and Abhimanyu Shekhar Singh.

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 had been wanting to make the film for over twenty years and had bought the filming rights twice from writer Asghar Wajahat.

This film was announced just a few months after Sunny Deol’s film ‘Gadar 2’ became a hit. Through this, Sunny Deol (left) is working with Rajkumar Santoshi (middle) after a long time and with Aamir Khan (right) for the first time.

Earlier there was a controversy over ‘Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh’ Meanwhile, Santoshi made a film named ‘Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh’ based on another play by Asghar Wajahat ‘Godse @ Gandhi dot com’ and released it last year. This film had created a lot of controversy in both the right wing and left wing camps.

Sunny Deol plays Sikandar Mirza in the film In Lahore 1947, the role of Budhi Mai is played by Shabana Azmi while Sunny Deol plays Sikandar Mirza with Preity Zinta as his wife and Karan Deol as his son.

Now let’s discuss a little about the play on which I edited a book in Hindi and English in 2009 ‘Jis Lahore… ke do dashak’ (Vani Prakashan)

Producer and director received threats Scene 1: A show of the Marathi version of Asghar Wajahat’s play ‘Jis Lahore Nai Dekhya O Jamyai Nai’ was going on at the ‘Rang Sharda’ auditorium in Bandra area of ​​Mumbai. The director was Vaman Kendre and the Marathi adaptation was done by Shafat Khan. The show was housefull.

During the interval, there was a sudden commotion in the backstage. 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.

The staging of this play has been extremely successful at home and abroad.

One person said- ‘This drama should not stop’ After the last performance, a surprising incident happened. That man came backstage. 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. While giving them to the producer, he said – ‘Forgive me. That day I saw only half the play. Today I saw the whole play. This play should not be stopped and if you need money, please call me.’

People in Pakistan climbed trees 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 many housefull shows of the play were held at the German Information Centre ‘Goethe Centre’. When people did not get space below, they watched the play sitting on the branches of trees.

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, directed by Karachi’s Seema Kirmani, would take place or not. The reason for this was that some Hindu fundamentalist organizations had threatened.

Somehow the play was staged in Delhi amidst heavy police security but the Lucknow tour of the drama troupe had to be cancelled. Seema Kirmani returned to Karachi with her troupe in despair.

Australian woman cried so much that the operation was postponed Scene 4 – This play was being shown to a full house in Sydney, Australia. There was a woman sitting in the audience whose eyes had to be operated upon 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 she did not need an operation.

India and Pakistan have same attitude towards this drama What is there in this play that Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists unite against it. The governments of India and Pakistan also adopt the same attitude.

It is important to remember here that this play was prepared at a 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 toxic atmosphere of hatred, distrust and violence, this play speaks of human love and compassion, cautions against the political use of religion and presents a global perspective of peace and co-existence beyond the boundaries of nation, region, religion and race.

Staged in many languages ​​in 35 years ‘Jis Lahore Nai Dekhya O Jamyai Nai’ is perhaps the only Hindi play that has been continuously performed for the last thirty-five years in Hindi as well as in various other Indian languages.

It is also being performed 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 35th anniversary of the writing of this play. The occasion of its completion of two decades (September 2009) has been celebrated in the form of an international festival. This was probably the first international festival of a Hindi play.

The special thing is that all this was done by theatre lovers from all over the world using their own resources. This did not involve 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…’

Writer of the play, Asghar Wajahat.

This play is based on the period of partition Now let us pay attention to the history of this play. Urdu journalist Santosh Kumar first narrated an incident of Lahore to Asghar Wajahat. His younger brother Krishna Kumar Gortu was killed in the riots during the India-Pak partition in 1947. This play is dedicated to him.

In fact, this murder is a symbol of the murders of thousands of innocent people who became victims of communal frenzy and violence. Santosh Kumar went to Lahore much after the partition where his brother was murdered. Then he migrated 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 much story in mind, the play continued to be created 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 came for the reading and the program had to be cancelled. Its first reading took place among the artists of Shriram Centre Rangmandal in Delhi.

Habib Tanvir staged the play for the first time

Asghar Wajahat went to Budapest, Hungary to teach Hindi. Suddenly he got a call from his wife that Habib Tanvir wants to do this play with Shriram Centre Rangmandal. Finally, the first performance of this play was possible on 22 September 1990 under the direction of Habib Saheb. That staging was so powerful that the fame of the play spread all over the world in no time. 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 audience in Pakistan who love 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 the 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 Here it is important to talk about the Kannada version of the play which was started by the famous theatre artist B.V.Karanth. This work was later completed by D.N.Srinivas. It was published under the name ‘Ravi Kinare’. It was directed by Ramesh S.R. This play has been translated and performed in Gujarati as well. It has been translated many times in Punjabi. Kewal Dhaliwal of Amritsar and Trilochan Singh of Ludhiana performed its shows on a large scale. It received an unprecedented welcome in Punjab.

Many other people tried to make the film This play has also continuously attracted many filmmakers. First Govind Nihalani bought the rights to make a film on it. 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’ based on this play at a cost of about Rs 100 crore, which will be released in February next year.

But initially they wanted to cast Sanjay Dutt in the lead role. Meanwhile, Sanjay Dutt went to jail in a case and the film got stalled. After the super hit of the film ‘Gadar 2’ last year, Rajkumar Santoshi and Aamir Khan have now played the lead roles in this film.

Author: Ajit Rai