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Alkazi Theatre Archives

PRINT & THEATRE

Visiting Agyeya’s ‘Apne Apne Ajnabi’ Through Newspaper Review and Brochure

In a review of the NSD Repertory Company’s 1989 rendition of Agyeya’s (S H Vatsyayan) novel, Apne Apne Ajnabi (1961) in Sunday Mail (Image I), Anand Gupt writes: “Though the essence of the novel has been held intact, the play departs from the conventions of storytelling, giving birth to a one-of-its-kind style of script writing. The five characters bring to life the experience of death, loneliness and alienation from the world in their own unique ways.”
 
Agyeya’s novel is a tale of disillusionment and spiritual inquiry as the primary characters go through the inner turmoil of establishing their relationship with death and it’s inevitability. It is also a metaphor for human existence and it’s understanding in western and eastern philosophy.
 
At the time when the play was produced, India was soon to usher in the era of globalization, with coalition politics and liberalisation creating a chasm of class differences and desperation- the contrast of guiding philosophies up for more crucial cultural debate.
 
 
Images Courtesy: Anand Gupt Collection/ Alkazi Theatre Archives.