Was Mumtaz Mahal just a beautiful woman with whom Shah Jahan was besotted? Was she merely a wife, happy to bear children, to provide an heir for the Mughal dynasty? According to playwright Dilip Hiro, Mumtaz was an extraordinary woman. An astute strategist, a savvy politician, a woman who was ruthless in her ambition, she was responsible for the poisoning of Shah Jahan’s elder brother, and his arch rival Prince Parvez, who was the son in law of Noor Jahan, the powerful wife of Jahangir, the ruling monarch of the Mughal empire.
When Shah Jahan becomes the emperor, another facet of Mumtaz is revealed. Her ambitions are not confined to the emperor, she has ambitions of her own. In a dramatic sequence after Shah Jahan is secure in power and emperorship, Mumtaz invites him to a game of chess. Starting off on a light hearted tone, things become serious when they play for the throne.
The innocent game takes a violent turn when the arrogant, agitated Shah Jahan, unable to take the taunts of Mumtaz as she climbs up and sits on the throne claiming it rightfully belongs to her, tries to force her from it by playing a trick.
As she stretches out towards her husband, she trips and falls. Ekant Kaul is very credible in his speech and enactment as Shah Jahan in the play Tale of the Taj. However, the end is a sore spot. He raves and rants about his sorrow over the death of his beloved who is pregnant. Ekant whips himself into an unrealistic frenzy in which he repeats himself. No more was required at this point than the intent to build a white marble memorial for his wife and why it will be known as the Taj Mahal.
The play was jointly directed in English by the resident director of the Pierrot company, M. Sayeed Alam and visiting director Ashok Purang and presented at the Shri Ram Centre. The production is as ever elegantly mounted, with authentic costumes headgear et al. The performances are patchy. Ntti Phool in the role of Mumtaz was much more effective when it came to the games played by the royals in the bloody war of succession, than as the young bride. The internal relationships between the royals is almost incestuous. Mumtaz is the daughter of Asaf Khan, who is the brother of Noor Jahan.
Asaf Khan is the most powerful person in Jahangir’s court. So the brother and the sister run a parallel government. But when it comes to the successor to the throne, they are at loggerheads.
Ram Naresh Diwakar played the eunuch with good timing. Fortunately, he did not have any lines to deliver. Many among the cast do not appear to be comfortable with English, thus unable to display their proven talent.
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Lushin Dubey has done it again. She has taken a burning topic of concern and transformed it into good theatre. Written and directed by Arvind Gaur, the play, I Will Not Cry, was presented by Save the Child, under a scheme No Child Born to Die, at the Shri Ram Centre on Wednesday. Taking the help of the multimedia, Lushin played a TV anchor presenting a show with four participants, a socialite, a journalist, a social worker and the only male member, Dipankar, representative of the government. Lushin plays all the four parts besides the anchor. This she does by a symbolic alteration in her appearance. For instance the NGO wears a dupatta, the society woman talks nonsense and ends with ‘this’ and the society journalist speaks with an accent and wears a big flower in her hair. Dipankar has a Bengali accent and wears a scarf and a warm cap.
This is done with the help of the TV screen. Some of the anchor’s talk was projected on the curtain at the back of the discussion table. It was remarkable how well Lushin synchronised the gestures and voice with the picture on the screen without looking at it. Besides the five at the table, there are three more characters in the play. The first is a woman who belongs to the kumhara or the potter community. While her husband works in Benaras, she lives in the village with her two daughters, aged three and six, and her mother-in-law. She is expecting a baby and is very ill. She speaks about the pain in her stomach and blood, yet she continues working. On the advise of her village, she walks to the town for treatment.
The description she gives of the experience in an even tone, is truly moving. There is no doctor and no bed. She is put on the cold floor. Finally, when she gets to the doctor, he tells her to go to the compounder. He gives her some tablets which she eats. Her husband returns. She delivers a dead child.
It is only then that Lushin breaks down and cries.
There are two doctors, one a guest on the panel who speaks about the fact that there is better healthcare in Tamil Nadu and Kerela. Lushin is sympathetic with the doctors in their frustration with a deficient government.
The last person Lushin enacts in the play is a fourteen-year old boy who tells the story of life living under a flyover in Delhi with his parents and a three-year-old sister. His sister starts vomiting. After vomiting three days, she does notwake up in the morning. The entire description is diplayed in a matter of fact tone. He does not break down when he announces the death. Then he describes the effect it has on his mother. These two characters speak as fluent Hindi as the rest of the characters in English.
The message is powerfully delivered with an appeal “we shall make the difference, I shall make the difference, you shall make the difference.” This laudable work is an addition to Lushin’s plays on social issues which include Bitter chocolate and Muskan, a play on HIV.
From kavita nagpal