Jis Lahore Nai Dekhya O Jamiya Nai 2016 - Pearey Lal Bhawan

DIRECTORAnil Sharma

ARTISTSAnil Sharma, Nitin Bansal, Shobhna Bhardwaj, Daksh Vashisht, Rupal Bidla, O. P. Chauhan, Rishab Parashar, Dubbal Yadav, Sanjeev Rana, Suresh Solanki, Sunita Rawat

The play is set in the city of Lahore around the time of the partition. Families and lives were torn apart overnight and although more than sixty two years have passed, the wounds are still fresh. The play deals with the subject sensitively.

The play focuses on a Muslim family, the Mirzas from Lucknow, who flee to Lahore after the partition. They have been allotted a haveli owned by a Hindu family who were probably killed in the carnage. However, their matriarch 'Mai' (old Hindu lady) still survives, and is living in the haveli when the Mirzas arrive. A clash over the ownership of the haveli ensues, and the entire neighborhood gets involved.

In the end, 'Mai' wins over the Mirza family's affections, and with their poet neighbor and the local priest (who preaches a tolerant Islam), they rally around her and protect her from local thug. There are many serious questions raised by the play; for instance, was all the bloodshed and trauma of the time necessary or even justified?