Taher Ali Baig's Miya Biwi Ke Mantakha is not a love story

After more than 15 shows in peninsular India, director Taher Ali Baig will bring back his first two-hander. One can expect a beautiful return of Miya Biwi Ke Mantakha towards the weekend. Having founded Hyderabad Theatre Weekend, Taher aims to revive the awe-inspiring and happily bewildering response his play received in December — a public expression of praise, a gleeful demonstration of enthusiasm, all of which resulted in the actors stopping midway and starting the performance again.

“This time, however, I seek to tour with the play across India,” Taher tells us, while also being in the middle of writing his biography and working on a web series. Taking a shift from his erstwhile plays like Ali Baba 40 Chor and Matilda, Miya Biwi Ke Mantakha absorbed him since he wanted to direct an existing work in his style. Originally a Marathi play by playwright Yogesh Soman, and translated by Saurabh Gharipurikar, Taher added that he already had a vision. Usually, he is someone known for harbouring an ensemble cast in his plays including Ali Baba 40 Chor which presented 18 actors.

With this one, however, he chose to render it into a two-actor piece. “A simpler play compared to what I do or have done in the past in terms of production. I wanted to try out something different and the reception kept me motivated to bring it to fore again this time,” he shares.

Based on conversations between a husband and wife in Hyderabadi vernacular, the play manifests a way of addressing serious concerns in a comical and caustic style. The wife is a worrying mother of two daughters with a husband who would take life as it comes. She thinks starting a business on their own is the only way to move forward in life. He readies her by presenting her hypothetical, silly systems, she is likely to come across during the course of running the business. But does that stop her?

Unlike other artistes, Taher belongs to the school of thought that says, if there is no audience, there is no art. Taher wants to do as much as he can to make theatre as prominent as it is in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. “We need smaller auditoriums around Banjara and Jubilee Hills because most of the crowd lives there. We do have Shilpakala Vedika and Ravindra Bharati but there’s still a lot more that needs to be done,” he says.

A fourth-generation writer in his family, he would flock to have tea and Osmania biscuits as a young adult with his group of art-enthused people. But then, most of his love for literature and theatre was amplified by his grandfather, a much-admired poet and lyricist. By 10th grade, Taher had already known Manto and Faiz Ahmed Faiz. Having ventured into the film industry too with his short film, Fitrat, he is now looking forward to his author’s journey.

The play is produced by Tab Productions and Octopus Studios.

`999. March 10. 7.30 pm. At district150, Hitech City