New Delhi, August 14, 2025 : The NSD is looking forward you to watching the show. The tickets will be available at www.bookmyshow.com.The ticket denomination will be Rs.100 only The National School of Drama Repertory Company presents its new production Vibhajan Vibhishika Tamas, based on the Sahitya Akedemy awarded novel by Bhisham Sahni, portraying the tragedies of the Partition of a larger India, where countless innocent lives were lost in riots.
The play will be staged at the Abhimanch Auditorium, NSD Campus, on 14 August 2025 at 7:00 PM, and from 15 to 17 August 2025 with two shows daily at 3:30 PM and 7:00 PM.
Shri Tripathy said on Vibhajan Vibhishika is the remembrance of a wound that carved two nations out of one. It’s the depiction of the endless pain. It’s the expression of the darkest part of the socio-political history of India. The Partition of 1947 was not merely a redrawing of borders — it was the tearing apart of Bharat’s soul. It was not just freedom gained, but freedom soaked in pain. Behind the celebrations of Independence Day a colossal human tragedy: crores displaced, lakhs slaughtered, countless women violated, and entire communities erased from their ancestral lands.
For decades, these horrors were softened, censored, or buried under the rhetoric of “secular harmony.” In school books, Partition became a paragraph; for millions of families, it remained a life sentence of loss.
Bhisham Sahni’s original novel “Tamas” stares unflinchingly into that darkness. It is not a tale of simple heroes and villains — it is the anatomy of a civilizational collapse, engineered by the British policy of divide and rule and cemented by appeasement politics at home. It reveals how propaganda, lies, and political ambition can turn friend into foe, neighbor into murderer.
Vibhajan Vibhishika Tamas is not just a play. It is a memorial of conscience. It is dedicated to the countless victims of Partition, especially those whose suffering was erased in the name of “not hurting sentiments.” It is also a warning: the same weapons that once tore us apart — religious confusion, cultural deracination, and political appeasement — are still wielded today, only in subtler forms. To be truthful to the novel the play uses 90 percent of the text from the novel as dialogue.
As Bharat rises toward global leadership, we must remember: strength is built on truth and unity.
Never again shall Bharat bleed for political gain.
Never again shall appeasement outweigh justice.
Never again shall we forget our dead.
In addition, the play also thoughtfully incorporates lyrics from Saint Kabir Das’ couplets, former Prime Minister late Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Shri Swanand Kirkire, and Shri Faiz Ahmed Faiz, which further accentuate the play’s message.
Shri Asif Ali and Shri Chittaranjan Tripathy have dramatically adapted the novel into the play. Shri Rajesh Singh (also the NSD Repertory Chief) is the scenic designer of the play, Shri Souti Chakraborty is the lighting designer, and Smt. Kriti V. Sharma is the costume designer. Shri Santosh Nayyar has choreographed the play, while sound design is by Shri Santosh Kumar Singh. Shri Sundar Lal Chhabra and Shri Rajesh Reddy serve as the associate directors of the play.
The author of the novel, Shri Sahni, himself a witness to the Partition, shared his harrowing experiences of India’s division and the creation of Pakistan, exploring the many layers of human relationships while also highlighting the cold, calculated role of the British in the episode.
The play Tamas is not all about darkness; it also reveals rays of hope amidst the chaotic milieu of hatred, through the enduring human values of sharing and caring.
The NSD is looking forward you to watching the show. The tickets will be available at www.bookmyshow.com.The ticket denomination will be Rs.100 only.
