Dara Shikoh Review

Kamal Puruthi’s Article on Dara Shikoh

Theatre


Industry has indeed got a new, challenging and a well-crafted script Dara Shikoh written by the playwright Danish Iqbal. Danish’s is well known name for his long association with All India Radio. Dara Shikoh in Urdu is a well-researched masterpiece directed by noted film maker MS Sathyu who won accolades for his critically acclaimed film Garam Hawa way back in 1973. After seeing this presentation of the play staged last month at IHC, one is reminded of the plays like Tughlaq by Girish Karnad and Quai

d-e-Hayat by Surender Verma. In these plays also one gets to hear chaste Urdu. For the first time perhaps, a play has been written on this historical figure.

An evening full of History

Dara, the possessor of glory as it actually means in Persian, was the most beloved son of the Mughal emperor Shahjahan and this love of his father became the reason for him to become the victim of hatred by his 3 brothers. In 1657, Shahjahan became ill and Aurangzeb moved against his brother, the crown prince, Dara Shikoh. Dara Shikoh was interested in Sufi and Hindu wisdom and spirituality. Like his great grandfather, Akbar, Dara Shikoh had been religiously eclectic, an avid reader of books on Hindu mythology and said to be the follower of God Shiva and Aurangzeb, who saw himself as an orthodox Muslim, characterized Dara Shikoh’s views as heretical. Dara devoted much effort towards finding a common mystical language between Islam and Hinduism. Towards this goal he translated the Upanishads from its original Sanskrit into Persian so it could be read by Muslim scholars.

Dara was defeated by Aurangzeb at the battlefield of Samogarh. He attempted to gather support after this defeat and sought refuge under Malik Jiwan, a Baluch chieftain, who had once been saved by the Mughal prince from the wrath of Shah Jahan. However, Malik betrayed Dara and turned him over to his brother Aurangzeb. Marched through the streets of the capital in chains, he was first imprisoned and then murdered by assassins and his head was delivered to Aurangzeb. The actor in the lead role of Dara Shikoh delivered his dialogues with full élan and pristine Urdu.

Scene by scene the history of the Mughal era unfolds beautifully through well-woven dialogues rendered with the required effort. A non-Urdu actor needs to put in deliberate effort to get to the layer of the language. Since some of the spoken dialogues are so hard that even an Urdu speaker will have to refer a dictionary. Speaking about the set design, it is seen that a multi layered Set works better in such plays and is comfortable for actors to move around. It was quite visible that the actors didn’t get enough time to rehearse on the stage with this broad set. The play had a big cast, mainly young and known faces of the Delhi theatre scene.

Deeksha Thakur in her role of Roshanara did an incredible job by showing the multifaceted persona. Manish in his portrayal of Jamali was excellent and lovably acceptable even with his Punjabi accent in his inappropriate Urdu diction at times. Though he was not an exception, if we talk about the Urdu pronunciation, many more were there who didn’t even struggle hard to get their diction right. Going further the critic feels that the young dancing girls could have been directed enough to bring in symmetry and get their best output.

The main credential goes to the costume designers Babli Chhabra & Jotan Arora and makeup artists, who gave the actors a natural and realistic look. If the play was publicized enough through the right medium, it could have gathered more audiences. But it is never too late to put in some administrative effort. In a professional production like this by Impresario Asia, publicity through shoddy colorful rough paper pamphlets is perhaps not a very good idea to go for.

Performance with huge potential

The cast and the crew have a huge potential to be able to make it to the National theatre festival provided the whole team shows a good amount of coordinated teamwork. Such plays cannot stand well in individuality (of the actors with main roles). A scattered picture may not fetch expected results especially the actors in small roles, supposedly fresher on stage must not be taken dispassionately and demand more attention than the seasoned and professional actors. Although this staging was quite lukewarm in spite of the high expectations from the names associated with it, nevertheless the same play is a must watch for every theatre lover for its highs and flaws.

kamalpruthi@gmail.com