Khanchand Daryani Khanchand Daryani Another prolific playwright
with about two dozen plays to his credit, who might be styled the
father of modern realistic drama, was Khanchand Daryani who mainly
wrote original plays on domestic and social problems. He avoided
melodrama as far as possible, adopting a simple, straightforward
technique with great economy of scenes and characters, and employing a
simple and natural diction in his dialogues. His two earliest plays
Gulab-jo-Gul (Rose Flower) and Motie-ji-Mukhri (Jessamine Bud) were
written against the evils of dowry system about 1920. In 1922 he wrote
Moomal-Mendhro, the earliest dramatization of a Sindhi folk-tale.
Daryani was the principal founder of "Rabindranath Literary and Dramatic Club" inaugurated by the poet himself in 1923, which was a land-mark in the growth of Sindhi drama. The first play he performed under its banner was Mulk-jo-Mudabar, adapted from Ibsen's "Pillars of Society", a play which created a revolution in stage history by introducing the new realistic technique. The above play, and Desh Sadke (For Country's Sake) adapted from Maeter-link's "Monna Vanna", were Daryani's most literary plays, besides possessing dramatic qualities. His Insan-keen Shaitan was adapted from Marie Corelli's Sorrows of Satan, and Ghalat Fahmi (Misunderstanding) from Mrs. Henry Wood's East Lynne. Some of his original plays were Ratna, Zamindari Zulum (1929), Mayajo-Andh (Blindness of Riches), Zamane-ji-Lahar (Tide of the Times) and Bukha-jo-Shikar (Victim of Hunger) 1932, all depicting social, economic and agrarian evils and suggesting the respective reforms indicated by their titles. |