In a historic theatre event witnessed by Mumbai, a three-day Prem Utsav performed 22 plays in 22 different languages on a single stage as an ode to Munshi Premchand. This instance, which was hosted from July 31 to August 2, has been sent for the Guinness Book of World Records, and is very likely to receive the recognition due to lack of any such feat performed in any earlier theatre festivals. Prem Utsav is a legacy of 20 years that not only promotes the lesser-read works of Premchand but also promotes social harmony among people by breaking the barrier of language.
Prem Utsav, as the name suggests, is a literary effort to spread love among linguistic communities along with presenting the stories of Premchand through the art of theatre. Premchand, a pioneer of Hindi and Urdu social fiction, is also known as the father of modern Hindustani literature who always pressed on accepting all the languages of the country.
Although the literary giant has contributed 315 short stories, 12 novels and hundreds of letters to the Hindi and Urdu literature, only a few of his works have been widely popularized. To present the unread work of Premchand to the common audience, the theatre group IDEA launched Prem Utsav to present his short stories in the form of plays, and it has been almost 20 years in which group has already converted all the short stories into plays and perform them across the country.
Prem Utsav is the brainchild of Mujeeb Khan, an artist who joined theatre during his teenage and has not left the stage ever since. Getting inspiration from famous writers and artists like Ismat Chugtai, Kader Khan, Shafi Inamdar, Shekhar Purohit among others, Khan never looked behind and continued writing and directing plays.
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In 2005, when the union government announced celebrations for Premchand’s 125th birth anniversary, Khan and his friends decided to perform Premchand’s stories on the stage. With the title ‘Aadaab Main Premchand Hu’, they experimented with three stories at the Kirtan Kendra in Juhu, which was only attended by around four people. Although the audience did not seem to be interested in watching these plays, the group continued their work driven by the love for Premchand’s writings.
Talking to The Free Press Journal, Khan said, “We did not care about the interest of the audience but we were deeply interested in going through all of Premchand’s stories and performing them. We kept on performing new stories and did not realise we had crossed 214 stories until we were felicitated by the Limca Book of Records. It gave us the much needed motivation and by 2014, we completed all the 315 stories.”
Last year, the group took a major step in their literary event as Prem Utsav hosted eight plays based on eight stories of Premchand in eight different languages, which was acknowledged by Worldwide Records. Giving the theatre festival a tagline of ‘Kyunki Main Hindustani Hu’, Prem Utsav 2024 was designed, which hosted 22 plays in 22 different languages, written and directed by one person and performed on a single platform in span of three days.
“In Prem Utsav 2023, we understood the simplicity of Premchand’s stories and the power of emotions in it, that it broke barriers of languages and people could understand the plays being performed in languages they do not speak. We understood that when languages unite, it creates a huge positive impact on people,” Khan said.
In four months of preparations, the group learned different languages, rehearsed every play for around 100 times and finally performed them at the three-days Prem Utsav from July 31 to August 2. Around 1200 people attended the plays in three days and for the first time in two decades, youngsters and children also joined the theatre festival. As the festival successfully concluded with the performance of 22 plays, the theatre group has pitched the festival for the Guinness Book of World Records for the most number of plays performed in different languages on a single stage.
“Nowhere in the world have people even performed Shakespeare’s plays in so many languages on a single stage. The aim is to unite the languages like Premchand said that all the languages in India should be accepted by all the people who call themselves Indians. There are differences among religions but languages have no difference and therefore accepting all the languages is the only way to break the wall of differences among us,” added Mujeeb.
Khan expressed discomfort that most of Premchand’s work has been restricted from the audience and the young generation has been deprived of going close to this literature. He wishes that people who say that Premchand’s stories have sad emotions, should also read his ‘Pundit Moteram Ki Diary’ or ‘Sampadak Moteramji Shastri’ from the comedy genre and his works like ‘Miss Padma’, which talks about live-in relationships and ‘Jwalamukhi’ which brings the concept of zombies in Hindustani literature in the late 19th century.
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