Ajay Mathur

When Ek Mulaqaat, a play based on the unredeemed love story of legendary poets Amrita Pritam and Sahir Ludhianvi featuring Bollywood actors Shekhar Suman and Deepti Naval and produced and directed by Saif Hyder Hasan was staged in Mumbai, the hall was jampacked.

Over 400 people from the audience rushed to the stage at the curtain call and Saif was unable to control his emotion and was found sobbing at such a stupendous response. Saif had used original compositions of both Amrita Pritam and Sahir Ludhianvi with the fragrance of Urdu and Punjabi poetry blending beautifully. He insisted to play with reverb and echo while narrating the authentic nazm of ‘Kabhi Kabhi Mere Dil Main Khayal Aata Hai’ penned by Sahir Ludhianvi. No wonder it secured a standing ovation across 94 shows staged all across India and worldwide.

Saif Hyder Hasan,a globally acclaimed theatre writer, director, and producer is bold and boisterous who believes in blending his experiments with technology and live stage performances.

Today, Saif may be a successful name in the Indian theatre, yet he cannot get over the fact that he flunked in his 10th grade and fudged his mark sheet just to impress his parents. He lost his focus on mundane things sooner than it happens to many other creative persons. Though he went on to pursue a Master’s Degree in English Literature and just about did not do a Ph.D., he always knew he’s born to do something else.

As early as in 1996, Saif took a plunge in theatre under legendary Dr.Sayeed Alam, acclaimed for his plays on Ghalib and other Urdu poets. He has spearheaded the famous theatre group Pierrot’s Troupe has brought to the fore several of India’s longest-running comedies.

Saif began by studying various dimensions of theatre by digging into history, mythology, satire, humor, romance in Hindi, English, Urdu, Marathi, Punjabi and Greek forms of theatre.

Saif has an intense passion for good music and has worked with renowned singers like Suresh Wadekar, Amit Kumar, Shaan, and Alka Yagnik to name a few. Finally,  Saif moved to Mumbai.

He adapted a play based on Gulzar’s short story Adhdha, in English by rewriting the screenplay. The play in English was called Neither Ful  Nor Three Quarter ; it was the story of a dwarf man's struggle.

Speaking to Awaz-the Voice, Saif spoke excitedly about his another blockbuster play Gardish Mein Tare featuring Arif Zakaria and Sonali Kulkarni.

“I have always been driven like a magnet towards unconventional subjects like infidelity and loneliness in one’s life. Gardish Mein Taare actually portrays the turbulent married life of renowned film director Guru Dutt and his wife Geeta Dutt. The play had the flair of showcasing an insatiable quest for achieving matrimonial bliss between the two but as fate would have it. The couple went through tormenting moments.I have used musical compositions with original lyrics and have sat with music directors and composers till the wee hours  for months together to make the theatre production wholesomely enthralling and engaging.”

Saif rode the high tides of stardom by scripting, directing, and producing  Dearest Bapu, Love Kasturba that dwelt on the least talked about the married life of Mahatma Gandhi and Kasturba. Bapu was played by Arif Zakaria and Kasturba by Zeenat Aman. Saif said he has selected  Zeenat Aman for a  simple reason: the name of a glamorous actor alongside Arif Zakaria would be a major attraction to the audience; the people would hardly be able to relate Kasturba’s image with Zeenat Aman and hence this will evoke their curiosity.

Saif says he has touched upon yet another sensitive issue having topical seedbeds in the Indian social-cultural milieu by staging Mr & Mrs Murarilal with Satish Kaushik and Meghna Malik in the lead roles. This is a story of the love life of an elderly couple who are mocked at by the moral guardians of society. “Similarly my English theatre production Mirror on the wall starring Minissha Lamba was a huge success," he said.

Saif has written two books, scripted three major TV soaps and produced 14 theatre shows out of which 8 were self-directed. Saif believes that online theatre during the pandemic is like a shooting star that has a transitory life span. He also says due to inflationary megatrends sweeping the theatre, it’s not viable to have a multi-camera setup for recording stage shows.

He signs off with this quote: Good theatre is a gift of pluralistic society, where you can take your neck out of the window to shake hands with the multi-linguistic, multicultural audience all at a single point of time.