Hyderabad based theatre person, Vinay Varma succeeded in assembling an impressive audience for his 70-minute monologue MAIN RAHI MASOOM, which was performed at the Prithvi Theatre on 13th March 2009, as part of the ongoing Yatri festival. While the monologue was an effective piece of theatre in itself that attracted a sizeable audience, it was also in large measure because of the popularity of the protagonist- the late Urdu poet-Bollywood lyricist, Dr. Rahi Masoom Reza whose life and philosophy form Vinay Varma's script. Lyricist Javed Akhtar, Dr Reza's daughter-in-law Parvati Khan, television actor Mukesh Khanna of the 'Mahabharat' fame, were all part of the illustrious audience.

MAIN RAHI MASOOM is a collaborative project of Hyderabad's theatre groups Rangdhara Theatre Stream and the Sutradhar school of acting. The script has evolved out of a workshop and it is directed by Professor Bhaskar Shewalkar, a theatre academician who translated Beckett's WAITING FOR GODOT in Marathi, way back in 1971. Varma and Shevalkar have based the monologue on a commemorative Hindi journal that was dedicated to Rahi's literary contribution. ''We are fans of Rahi and that's why the 519-page journal inspired us to craft a script that showed Rahi's greatness. It was not easy. First, because our protagonist had too many facets to his personality. He was an outspoken intellectual, who often dared to be politically incorrect and therefore took on too many forces. Second, Hyderabad does not provide a very conducive environment for theatre research,'' recalls Prof Shevalkar who also said that the product could not have been accomplished without the active help of Dr Reza's family.

The family members helped the group to recreate the accruements (the paan paraphernalia being the most important) in Dr Reza's study room, his daily habits and demeanor. ''To be Dr Reza for 70 minutes was a responsibility. It meant being large-hearted, truly secular, humane and poetic. It meant experiencing greatness. That's why except for a few connecting sentences, which again follow the rhythm of his personality, we have not added any lines of our own. We have just juggled the content in order to accommodate his entire range of work, his choices, his personal reasons for choosing Bollywood as a vocation...'' says Varma. Interestingly, Varma introduced himself to chain smoking and paan-chewing, right from the rehearsals, in order to resurrect Dr Reza's deportment. The actor makes a very genuine bid to come into the character he is portraying, thereby adding another dimension to the solo acts/monologues performed in Indian theatre history.

MAIN RAHI MASOOM introduces the audience to 'Aadha Gaon', 'Topi Shukla' and 'Os Ki Boond', the literary works Dr Reza was known for before he became famous for the screenplay and dialogues in the television serial, 'Mahabharat'. But apart from the inclusion of biographical details, the monologue underlines Dr Reza's love for India. The monologue places him as a secular Indian Muslim whose blunt condemnation of Muslim fundamentalism serves a social purpose even today. It is a voice of reason that one loves to hear - Vatan koi mazhab nahin jo badla ja sake he says to those who do not give precedence to nationality over religion.

Dr Reza passed away in March 1992, a politically volatile juncture in India's communal history. At a time when Hindus and Muslims got violent over positioning of a mosque, Dr Reza repeatedly suggested resolution of the Ramjanambhoomi conflict by building, neither a temple nor a mosque, but a children's park on the controversial site. Today Dr Reza is no more and the public debate over communalism has assumed very complex proportions in India. Zealots from all sides of the political spectrum can see only political naiveté and unworkable idealism in Dr Reza's idea of a children's park. MAIN RAHI MASOOM just reminds us of the healing power of such a park in these cynical times.

*The writer is a Media Assistant with the Public affairs Section of the American Centre, Mumbai. A keen observer of theatre and other Performing Arts, she is a freelance writer and a journalism teacher at the Xavier's Institute of Communications (XIC). She also writes a fortnightly column on Marathi theatre trends for Time Out Mumbai.