Danish Jawed , the Outstanding Canadian Playwright free essay sample

Man in Canada’ :Danish Jawaid ,the Outstanding Playwright of Indian Origin Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee Photos of Tele Film and Danish Jawaid in many positions https://www. facebook. com/media/set/? set=a. 10151230280374782. 551455. 656559781type=1 www. rangmanch-canada. org/ https://www. facebook. com/media/set/? set=a. 10150189094839782. 373752. 656559781type=3 Danish Jawaid while in Canada, continued to take an interest in Urdu literary activities in and around Toronto by holding literary gatherings at his residence, and attending and participating in events of a similar nature. His very presence in Canada served as a catalytic agent. Even though he devoted most of his time here to academic pursuits, the Urdu-speaking literary world would endearingly refer to him as our man in Canada. The main thrust of South Asian Canadian writers is away from  India  and towards  Canada. In other words, it is an out of  India  or away from  India  experience that is being recorded. His Hijrat Ke Tamashey was adapted for a 13 episode serial produced by Omni 2 TV in Toronto in 2007 with reruns in 2009. 2010. and 2011. Mr. Jawaid bagged The Civic Arts Award –Pickering 2010, South Asian Theatre Festival Award- New Jersey 2008, and the Shiromani Sahitya Award- India 2007. He presented his plays in Delhi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Dhaka, Karachi, Sweden, and Tokyo and also attended many festivals. Jawaid Danish ‘s Bara Shayar , Chhota Aadmi is an out and out a Canadian Production and the Tele film will appeal to Young and Old, South Asian and Immigrants of Other Nationalities. The award winning play was written and directed by Jawaid Danish himself . The eight week shooting project started with MAHURAT of the first Indian Tele Film Bara Shayar Chhota Aadmi Jawaid Danish in Toronto in the presence of the Sahitya Akademy winning playwright and Director of films , Mahesh Dattani. It is a historic day for the artists of Rangmanch –Canada as Mahesh Dattani clapped the first shot for The Mahurat Ceremony of the film on June 16. It is a Barefoot Films Canada Production . Theatre and Movie goers in Canada are well acquainted with the name of Jawaid Danish who addressed in his plays and other write ups the trials and tribulations of immigrant families in Canada . The play was 45 min. with a central issue of a visiting poet, and his love triangle here, resulting to a suicide of one girl, but the film is 90 min. and deals a bigger picture of immigrants and their cultural and psychological problems here, and some comical language flavours of different Indian character here. The storyline is quite funny however. There are great poets but some times because of avarice and lack of moral values, they become very mean and insensitive. The hero of the story is a great poet, but he is not a great man in real terms. Danish is not criticising all great poets or artists, but exception governs the world. He is invited by an old girl friend to Canada, but when he meets a young girl as his fan, he ignores the old flame and becomes busy with the new one. It is a very interesting story. Immigration remains one of the hot button issues throughout Canada. It is a recurring theme in his plays . There are ,however, multiple perspectives in the play of Danish including immiration. The subject of immigration has recently moved to the forefront in Canada. In the past it was for granted that Canada was a welcoming country. But as the Canadian economy became more fragile and the population rose, more people started questioning whether Canada is allowing too many immigrants. And after 9/11, the Canadian government aligned itself with the U. S. in becoming more restrictive. The paranoia toward the Arab world began to grow. Three years earlier Richard Jenkins also received an Oscar nod for his role in  The Visitor, the story of a professor whose life is transformed by his encounter with a Middle Eastern immigrant threatened with deportation. Chris Weitz’s  A Better Life  earned a surprising and well deserved Oscar nomination for its lead actor,Demian Bichir who gave a superb performance as an illegal immigrant from Mexico struggling to keep control of his family. The protagonist of  Monsieur Lazhar, Bachir Lazhar (played by Algerian actor Fellag) is a man seeking political asylum in Canada because of violence against his family in Algeria. In addition to gripping scenes about student-teacher relations, the film incorporates a number of scenes of Lazhar and his lawyer arguing his case before skeptical immigration authorities. In this context Bara Shayar , Chhota Aadmi, the first Indian Tele Film of Danish is indeed a milestone. The seriousness of the theme is transcended in comicality. Danish is a celebrated author of a dozen of books in Urdu. The award winning play was published in M. Hasan edited anthology Intekhab E Urdu Drama which is a collection of urdu plays written over the last fifty years. The play is translated in Hindi, Bengali and Kannadi Danish has transitioned from writing plays to staging live performances and organising ‘One of A Kind,’ Multi Lingual Hindustani Drama Festivals during last ten years in Toronto. This contemporary Film Venture is a natural progression to provide a bigger platform to issues of interest to immigrants. Bara Shayar , Chhota Aadmi has Shazina Manzoor as Co-Producer, with Nitin Sawant in photography , and Kazim Ali, Playback Singer Aliya Sharafi, background Music Ustad Akhter Showket, and with a galaxy local  Canadian   talents starring Azfar Tahir , Vishnu Sharma, Shazina Manzoor, Rafia Iqbal, Naimesh nanavaty, Aneri nanavaty, Afroz Khan, Farrukh Abbas, Kamran Rizvi, Chaudhury Suhail Mansoor, Mirza Mohsin Alam, Jasmine Sawant , Shobna Sharma, Adeel Danish and Dr. Khalid Sohail. Well wishers, friends, journalists both print and T. V. and Radio were present to cover this event and congratulate the cast and crew of Bara Shayar Chhota Aadmi. Danish addresses wide ranging topics from AIDS , Cancer, and Mercy Killing to satires on Arranged Marriage . But in this telefilm the fun of the story consist in the satirical presentation of some of the brand name Artists, who when visiting North America, misuse the opportunity, and exploit the situation, they will talk highly about the culture and language and they are all appreciation when they are abroad, the same person criticises and ridicule after coming back to India. As South Asian or any immigrants are very sensitive, and go through a lot of cultural shocks, they are more prone to mental health problems, depression and sucide is common, the children of immigrants are also facing two life styles, they are Indian at home and White ouside. In all this they have to maintain their culture and language which is a big task for them. All these are beautifully focused in the storyline which contains a love triangle plus he Mumbai masala and flavours of different Indian language character, there are Gujarati manager, Bihari assistant, Gay U. P. wala and offcourse, a very strong Hindu Urdu poet. Danish very pertinently uses this poet as an icon of communal harmony , the national unity of Hindu- Muslim diversity. His play is unique in the sense that only Danish with his in-depth study and unconventional if not iconoclastic approach in an era of sweeping changes, could have penned such a masterpiece in which the soul of Canadian immigrants has been captured. It is the story of generations of people living in Canada during a turbulent period . The comedy of an individual turns out to be a mirror image of an entire culture. Such affirmations serve to camouflage the central impulse of many of the novels of the South Asian Diaspora. Theatre is a great source of comfort and healing. The mission of Rangmanch -Canada is not merely to nurture the creative talents of their members but also to represent theatre for peace , purpose and passion. The Rangmanch-Canada has the goal of providing quality theatre while entertaining and educating diverse community in an atmosphere that promotes personal development , peace and multicultural vision of the community and also for improving the responsiveness of mainstream arts and cultural organizations to the needs of New Canadians. Diasporic writings are invariably concerned with the individuals or communitys attachment to the centrifugal homeland. But this attachment is countered by a yearning for a sense of belonging to the current place of abode . This makes diasporic narratives both transitional and liminal. The texts themselves are journeys between source cultures and target cultures, between homelands and diasporas, until the two overlap, change places, or merge. Jawaid is a playwright and poet, more the playwright . His radio play Prometheus created a sensation. Aawargi (Safarnama-Europe aur America) ,Mazeed Aawrgi(Safarnama Japan) Kale Jismon Ki Riyazat (Tarjuma Afriqi Adab, Hamrah Khalid Sohail), Aik Aur Awargi (Safarnama Hindi),are travelogues. Hijrat ke Tamashey is his drama collection and . Bhopa is the Bengali translation of Hijrat keTamashey drama. Inqalab e Zanj is a revolutionary play in translation and Aik Baap ki Aulaad (Tarjuma-Falastini aur Israili Aadab, Hamrah Khalid Sohail) . But in the tele film Bara Shayar , Chhota Aadmi Danish’s own resolution of the crisis of being diasporic is eloquently expressed in his affirmation of the blessings of double vision. A nation needs a diaspora to reaffirm its own sense of rootedness . The way in which Danish deals with the theme of immigration in his tele film relates to their homelands will help one understand how diasporas regard themselves. The theme of belonging opposes rootedness to uprootedness, establishment to marginality. The theme of longing harps on the desire for change and movement, but relates this to the enigma of arrival, which brings a similar desire to return to what one has left. All these are comically seen in Jawaid’s Bara Shayar , Chhota Aadmi . In the tele film the visual renders the theme of immigration more appealingly. There are four distinct layers or groups within the South Asian diaspora. It seems to me that three of these four groups may be clubbed together by the setting of most of their writings. For instance, the second group consisting of Indo-Caribbean and Indo-African writers depict what we could call an â€Å"in-Canada† experience. West Indian Writing in Canada is largely  immigrant writing, preoccupied with the complexities, contradictions, and ambivalences associated with leaving one society and adjusting to another. In the Canadian context, this usually the experience of the hostility and racism encountered by the immigrant and of the transition from the older diasporic homeland to the new, Northern home in  Canada. These writers may take either a traditionalist . The fourth group, too, writes mostly about the Canadian experience; in fact, their stance is not only  towards  Canada, but  within  Canada. There is not other homeland for them to compare their present location with;  Canada  is the only homeland they know. Yet, their heritage distinguishes them from â€Å"unmarked† or default Canadians. Their texts attempt to explore the special challenges and problems of their Canadian, albeit hyphenated identities. Danish’s plays and other write ups are important milestones in the Canadian immigration context. Being born in India , he knows the differences between the two cultures and his uprootedness is never a crisis for him. He welcomes it in the motif of assimilation which many immigrants cannot do easily. The tele film that is all over Indian is done all by the Canadian actors and actresses. This is where Danish excels as a writer.