Feel honoured to play Sahir: Suman

Gurvinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 15

Actor and theatre artiste Shekhar Suman says he feels it is an honour for him to play Sahir Ludhianvi. He was in the city for playing the role of Sahir Ludhianvi in the play, “Ek Mulaqaat”. The play, being organised by Ludhiana Sanskritik Samagam, will be staged at Guru Nanak Bhawan on Friday evening.

Suman says the play captures the essence of love between poets Sahir Ludhianvi and Amrita Pritam.

Because Sahir belonged to Ludhiana, he was ecstatic to come and perform the play here. This is going to be the 75th show of the play. He had read Sahir Ludhianvi’s poetry as a child and as he grew up, he started understanding the profundity of the poetry all the more, even while he always listened to Sahir’s songs in films also, said Suman.

While the team was looking to cast Sahir, Deepti Naval, who had already been selected to play the character of Amrita Pritam, recommended Shekhar for Sahir’s role. The team initially expressed doubts. But when Shekhar apprised them of beginning his career as a theatre artiste and his versatility as an actor, he was given the role. “As I adored Sahir and his poetry so much while growing up, I got to play his role,” he said.

Suman said he even visited SCD Government College where Sahir once studied and visited the auditorium that is named after Sahir last year. “I got a sense of Sahir’s presence in the college. I felt that Sahir was still around,” he said. He had come to Ludhiana earlier also in 2003 for performing in another play, he said.

Speaking about the play, he said while the love between the poets remained unrequited, perhaps, they wanted it to remain like that. “Because unrequited love lives on, they perhaps didn’t want to come very close and live together,” he says. “It is a beautiful marriage of words when poets meet. A lot was said in silence and poetry,” he said.