Act One
Scene 1
INT—The king’s court, Royal palace of Qabula, 15th century
Beneath grand arches and ancient banners, King Adli sits upon an ivory throne. Heer and Ranjha take up one side of the court, while Saida takes the other.
SAIDA
O my king, hear my plea, for I have been wronged.
(Pointing an accusatory finger towards Ranjha)
That man has robbed me of my honor. He claimed to be a man of God, an ascetic, when he entered my house. But he took advantage of my wife’s naivety and seduced her. He took her away from her home, from her husband. I ask that my wife be returned to me.
HEER
(Passionately)
That is untrue, Your Grace. I fled with Ranjha from captivity not from my home, and I did so willingly. My marriage to Saida was a sham.
SAIDA
She does not know what she speaks of, my king. She is only a girl: susceptible and spoilt.
KING ADLI
(Indicating towards Heer)
She seems more resistant than susceptible. Maybe too much so for someone with everything to lose. Your disloyalty toward your husband will cost you.
HEER
My loyalty is not promised to Saida, my king, as I was never truly married to him. I refused him at our wedding ceremony. The nikkah registrar did not honor his religious obligations when he forged my agreement towards this marriage. Why must I?
KING ADLI
(nodding his head, considering Heer’s argument)
Tell me your story, then. And I shall decide if it is worthy of seeing more life yet.
RANJHA (M)
Allow me, Your Majesty.
(Looking into Heer’s eyes dreamily)
Before I had even seen the infamously beautiful Heer of Siyal, I was blessed with her hand in marriage by five saints on the banks of the Chenab River. So when I laid my eyes on her, my soul recognized her. Sought her wherever I went. To close the distance between us, I went to her father in search of a job; I looked after his cattle for him. We met each day, and each day our souls tangled, like the vines of ivy, until we could no longer be pulled apart. She settled in the empty crooks of my spirit, remoulding my entire soul.
But before the sun could rise on our freedom, we were discovered by Qaidu, Heer’s uncle. I was removed from my job, and Heer was sentenced to a marriage she did not choose, a life she did not want. The entire village celebrated that night. They danced like gods of fate, drenched in the rain and liquor, reveling in their cruelty. At least the skies wept for our love, so sweet, so innocent, yet so short-lived. Now, they had tainted us, like ink on crisp white paper.
I had been robbed of my purpose, my will to live. I renounced the material world then and adopted the life of an ascetic. But I should have known better, for Heer is my moon, and I, her tides. We are pulled to one another, through no fault of our own.
So I found her, and here I am, professing my undying affection for her at your mercy. I ask that this world let us be, let our love bloom without these societal constraints.
KING ADLI
(Looking curiously at Heer)
Have you anything to say, my child?
HEER
Only this, sir. I am being punished simply because I took the power of decision. But the people who condemn me do not see me as anything more than a vessel for someone else’s pride, a possession to claim ownership of. They call it dishonor when their authority slips. They have cloaked their control in rituals and baptized oppression as culture. After all, what god demands the death of love to uphold a man’s ego?
KING ADLI
I have heard enough. The verdict for this case has been decided.
(A tense silence ensues as the characters hold their breath.)
Heer shall be released of her ties to Saida.
(Turning to the overjoyed couple)
You two have my blessing to be united in holy matrimony.
Scene 2
Wedding preparations take place at Heer’s house in Jhang. The house is abuzz with anticipation. Yet in a corner, Qaidu and Chuchak whisper darkly.
QAIDU
Brother, the time has come for us to take justice into our own hands. Are you ready?
CHUCHAK
(Staring at the tray of poisoned milk cake hesitantly)
I know it must be done, for the girl has stripped us of our dignity. If we allow Heer to marry by her own choice-for love-tales of our shame shall dance on every man’s tongue from Jhang to Qabula…… And yet, she is my child, brother.
QAIDU
Do not hesitate, Chuchak, for a man’s duty is inescapable.
(Enter Heer)
HEER
Ah, Father, Uncle, I am delighted to see
you both.
QAIDU
There you are, my child.
(Offering her the tray of milk cakes)
Here, sweeten your tongue, for this cake is as sweet as this occasion.
(Heer picks up a piece of cake and brings it to her lips when suddenly, a sign is heard from the audience. Heer lowers the piece of cake in her hand and all characters on stage pause mid-action)
……………
The air turns static, like the prolonged, flat-lined beep of an unbeating heart. Heer whips her head sideways to find an eerie man seated in the middle of an empty auditorium. He looks like the personification of history in his floor-length robe made of parchment-like fabric, faded with prints of folktales and stories untold. His fingers, ink-black are paired with a single tear of black kohl running down from his right eye.
“Who are you?” Heer questioned the man. He shrugged off his shock and answered in an ancient voice, “Every story needs a witness; I am the spectator to yours, I have been for a long time.
“But how am I here? I was just at my home, with my family.”
“You have always been here, my sweet. The stage you stand on is your home. It is where you take your first breath and surrender to your last. At least you were supposed to, before you defied the script.” He waved the papers in his hand and states incredolously. “This was supposed to be the final scene. And you were meant to die in it by eating the poisoned cake.” A dramatic silence falls between the two.
Heer can do nothing but stare at the script in his hand. All her life written on a few pages, invaded and decided without her permission. “How do I get out?” Her voice quivers.
“I’m afraid you can’t. You are destined to relive your story, for as long as it is remembered, just as I am destined to observe it for as long as it plays,” the man explains softly.
Heer looks from the cake in her hand to the stage around her. “No. This isn’t right. It isn’t fair.” Heer pleads helplessly.
“Don’t you understand, my sweet? Duty and destiny are inescapable. You are the hope of a defiant heartbeat beneath centuries of obedience. The vessel of all the voices that fade into the background: the silent scream of a bride who refuses, the fire in the eyes of a daughter who dreamed beyond her dowry. It is your duty, or rather your cruel inheritance to bring those woven into the margins of history to life.
In silencing you, your perpetrators have written their own shame into eternity and unknowingly lit the torch they tried to extinguish. That is your justice.”
“But what of my love. I fought so hard for it, endured so much.” Heer demands.
Indeed, your love is remarkably beautiful, but that is its curse, for doom is the price of beauty. All beautiful things are taken before they decay, so their light may linger unspoiled, mythologized in its perfection. Now, the curtain calls, my sweet, not to end you, but to write your story into eternity and to awaken all the women who will live through you.
Silently, Heer nods to herself and reclaims her position on the stage.
……………
HEER
(Heer picks up a piece of cake and brings it to her lips when suddenly, a sob is heard from the audience. Heer lowers the piece of cake in her hand and all characters on stage pause mid-action)
QAIDU
(He smiles like a Cheshire cat as Heer begins coughing.)
That’s right, choke on the sweet taste of your tragic destiny, child.
(Heer falls to the floor and stops breathing.)
AN ANCIENT VOICE
And so she falls, not into death, but into legend. For stories, like stars, do not perish. They pass through the curtain and settle in the spine of every girl that dares to defy.
CURTAIN
Essay Compass 