Hindi Diwas Literature finding its way in stories

Mumbai, Sep 14 (PTI) Hindi stories and poems have started gaining popularity in mainstream storytelling in Bollywood and streaming shows, believe actors Vijay Varma and Pankaj Tripathi on the occasion of Hindi Diwas on Thursday.
    Hindi poet Badri Narayan’s ‘Prem Patra’    was a scene-stealer of sorts when it played during a crucial moment in the Prime Video series "Dahaad" in which Varma played a Hindi teacher who moonlights as a serial killer.
    In the same show, poem ‘Machli’, by Damyanti Bali, is painted on one of the doors of the van driven by Varma’s character.
    One of his other shows "KaalKoot" featured Tigmanshu Dhulia as Varma's professor-poet father. The actor once again got to recite a Hindi poem.
    "In one year, I’ve had two projects, where my character recites poetry. I believe things are changing. I felt very good that I got to play a Hindi literature teacher in 'Dahaad'. When my character had to recite a Hindi poem, I prepared for it.
    "I felt it is a poem about ‘prem ras’ but in the show, the poetry recitation comes at a time when something horrible is happening. So, I recited it in a different way, and that connected well,” the 37-year-old actor added.
    Tripathi noted that new age screenwriters in the film business have an awareness about Hindi literature and are shrewdly figuring out how to incorporate it into their narratives.
    "The young writers are very well read, be it Amar Kaushik, Sumit Arora and a few others. All the young writers have read literature,” the actor told PTI.
    In fact, Arora was behind the 'Prem Patra' moment in "Dahaad", the series by Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar. He also introduced Wasim Barelvi's lines to promote one of the songs from Shah Rukh Khan-starrer "Jawan".
    In a recent interview with PTI, Arora had cited well-known writers such as Harishankar Parsai, Sharad Joshi, Ravindranatha Tyagi, Shrilal Shukla and Manohar Shyam Joshi as his childhood influences.
    "I studied in a Hindi medium school. I didn’t know how to speak in English. My mother gave me the habit of reading from an early age, I used to read stories from (magazines) ‘Nandan’, then I graduated to literary magazines like ‘Hans’, ‘Gyanodaya’, and others.
    "By the age of 17 and 18, I had columns published in Hindi newspapers. Satire was my forte,” Arora, a Hindi literature graduate, said.
    Tripathi, an ardent lover of rich Indian literature, recently opened a library in his village as a tribute to his late father. The National Award winner believes actors should give importance to literary texts.
    "We benefit from it (Hindi literature) in storytelling. Like, when we read literature, we will be introduced to so many different things from across the world. The aim of literature is to evoke compassion, sympathy, and different human emotions in a reader.
    "As an actor, it is important to read literature for your growth. Writers and directors have to read it, but I believe even for actors, it is important to read and understand poetry and literature. I do it,” he said.
    Varma, who played a cop in the JioCinema series “KaalKoot”, believes poetry is the finest method to generate emotions.
    “In ‘Kaal Koot’, my father was a professor and a poet, so I had the opportunity to read his poems in the show. There’s a poem, which is a love letter from his late father for his mother, it is a very personal thing. I believe there’s a lot of impact in poetry, like you can evoke so many emotions. I believe there should be scope for many more poems (in pop-culture),” he added.
    According to Varma, Hindi literature played a huge role when he was starting out as a theatre artist in Hyderabad.     
    “I started my career with theatre, there our teachers would emphasise more on literature, it was rather believed that ‘If you are not good at literature, then you can’t become a good actor’.”
    In many parts of the country, speaking English is seen as a status symbol and actor Richa Chadha said she finds it strange that people don't like to talk in Hindi.
    “It is important to know English or any language, like French, German, or Spanish, but I don’t understand why people in Mumbai don’t talk much in Hindi. Like, there are people in Mumbai, who often say that, ‘We talk to our maid and driver in Hindi, and with our kids in English’. I feel very angry about it. If you speak in Hindi that doesn’t mean you don’t know English,” the 36-year-old actor told PTI.
    “Jo bhi samaj apni bhasha, apni pehchan ko chodega woh kahi na kahi directionless ho jayega (Any society that abandons its language and identity is bound to be directionless),” she added.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)