Shikhandi for our times

Gurnaaz Kaur

It’s not a new story. The message too is pretty old. After all, the lead character is from the Hindu scripture Mahabharata. It’s the storyteller doing the trick here, and relentlessly. So, what’s really the story, we ask this well-known theatre actor-director? “Shikhandi: The Story of In Betweens revolves around this woman who was meant to be born male to avenge an insult in her past life. But the bigger karmic game unfolds when she is reborn female, but is raised as male, has a sex change on her wedding night, when she runs away into the forest and that’s where she fulfils her destiny¬ — to be the cause of Bhishma’s death,” says Faezeh Jalali, who recently won the META award for supporting role in Rajat Kapoor’s I Don’t Like It As You Like It.

Faezeh is convinced that Shikhandi’s life is a story of many people around. She is like any other person, has the same problems. “And like your and my story, hers should be heard and told too,” explains Faezeh. Our next obvious question was how did she choose Shikhandi? “I’ve read and re-read Mahabharata, so I’d say I got to know about this character from there, but Devdutt Pattanaik’s The Pregnant King did help let Shikhandi stay with me.”

While there are many versions about who she is, to Faezeh, it brings on stage the aspect of gender and sexuality. “I wouldn’t want to say it’s only about a transgender. No, there are issues that you and I face as women. There are issues that men face too. Through her story, Shikhandi sheds light on the fact that these issues date back ages. There were fights around them even in our epics, there are fights around them even in this digital age,” she reasons.

Faezeh reminds that, “The problem is not in gender. The problem is in our heads. We can’t accept transgenders. We see nothing beyond there physicality. And I feel strongly for transgenders and that’s why there is Shikhandi.”

Agreed. There are these problems, but where does she think the solution lies, we ask? “Through my work, I try and show how we are all inter-connected. There are men and there are women, and transgenders are born from them. There is a cause and there is an effect. It’s all a big circle. Everything is much bigger than what we perceive. We need to discover it ourselves. While my characters in the play wear black and white attire, the story is completely grey. That’s where the answers lie: in between,” she quips.

The depth in her thoughts left us inquisitive to know how did this journey of sketching Shikhandi’s life through stagecraft begin? “It was in 2010. I was in Berlin doing this course where we had to do a final production. This project was about creating something that interests us. So I devised this 20-minute one-woman show on Shikhandi,” smiles Faezeh.

And it’s 2017 now. Seven year into one production not only explain the inclination with which it all began, perhaps it also tells about this director’s closeness to the subject. “Yes, I revisited the performance again in 2014. I watched the video several times, read about the character from different sources. Around this time, I even heard about other characters who were like Shikhandi, but, somehow, maybe Shikhandi picked me. This time it was a full-fledged production. There was a script, there were actors and rehearsals,” details Faezeh.

Do we get to see more narrations like this one or 07/07/07, another acclaimed play by her? “All I plan to do is write more, direct more, perform more, create more and question more. And each time, anyone who associates with me through plays or your writings about my work- I want to tell them to just live! Breathe! And stand up for yourself and those who can’t,” she affirms.