(This article was originally published on 13 April 2016 and is being republished from The Quint’s archives to mark the death anniversary of Safdar Hashmi.)
"We didn’t imagine that the human body could be that expressive, especially off stage."
Some time back, a family friend from Pakistan began talking about Safdar Hashmi’s visit to his country in the 80s. Jan Natya Manch (JANAM), the street theatre group which Safdar was a key member of, was in Pakistan to perform and hold workshops. They performed Machine, a street play conceived in the backdrop of the Emergency and my friend was awed by the way just six people created a world, a factory and the workers that suffered in it.
Street theatre was the perfect medium to use drama as a tool not just of personal creativity, but also a political education.
And given that Safdar’s theatre was an extension of his politics, it is likely that he would have been censored, if not labelled ‘anti-national’.