A Rare, ‘Shayaraana’ Treat !

By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD

Two days ago, on Friday evening, Mysureans had a rare chance to savour some of the finest pieces of Mirza Ghalib’s poetry and prose, intertwined with a mesmerising Ghazal and Kathak Dance concert, at the Kiru Rangamandira Auditorium, where the musical play titled ‘Zikr-E-Ghalib’ was staged. Being undoubtedly the most well-known of all Urdu poets, even to non-Urdu speaking poetry lovers, this more than life sized man’s lesser-known life, deserves a decent, albeit brief introduction here.

Mirza Ghalib takes the pride of place among his peers because most of his poetry takes its appeal from longing, unrequited love and the soothing relief from a sense of deep pain, bestowed by a goblet of wine. And as all those who have loved and lost know very well, there is nothing like unrequited love to keep the soul strings stirring. While all those who have loved and won, soon begin to forget how tempestuous or soul-stirring their love affairs were, as they go about their daily lives, all those who have loved and lost, never ever forget the pain and pathos and thus live immersed in it for the rest of their lives.

All their other engagements, distractions and even accomplishments, are not enough to banish their pain and sense of loss. And, like vintage wine, which is said to become stronger with age, this sense of loss too becomes all the more profound, as the years roll on!

Incidentally, of all the emotions, it is pain that best fuels and tempers what flows out of any poet’s pen. So, it is rightly said that all poets should necessarily get married because if they get the right kind of spouses, their lives will improve. And, if they don’t find the right matches, their poetry keeps improving, all through their lives. But it is not known if this element of marital unhappiness was the reason for Ghalib’s rise to fame!

Ghalib was the pen name of Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan, who was born in Agra in the year 1797 and who departed from this world in the year 1869 in Delhi, that had actually become his home. His life spanned the years of the pinnacle of Urdu poetry, followed by the twilight of the Mughals, the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and its terrible aftermath, that left once rich and prosperous cities like Delhi and Lucknow in complete disarray and ruins.

In addition to writing poetry in Persian and Urdu, Ghalib was a gifted writer of many letters too; some to his friends and a good many to himself, by way of chronicling the turbulent times that he was living through. He has said; ‘From a thousand miles, talk with the tongue of the pen and enjoy the joy of meeting, even when you are separated.’ And his letters, written in a very informal, narrative style, are as captivating as his poetry itself, making some very compelling reading.

The result is that they have been compiled into books which have been translated into many languages, an outstanding work of this kind being the English translation by Ralph Russell, published by Oxford India. But strangely, popularity came to Ghalib only posthumously and the man thus spent almost his entire live in abject penury, living on the meagre pension that he received from his mentor, Bahadur Shah Zafar the last Mughal emperor, who too was a much-accomplished poet.

Whenever his pension failed to suffice, he had to subsist on the generosity of his friends and admirers. A letter he has addressed to the emperor, describing his sad plight and thus requesting for an enhancement of his pension, is a literary masterpiece by itself because of the subtle humour that is intertwined with its pain.

Now coming back to the present, the play; Zikr-E-Ghalib, was a presentation made by the Karnataka Urdu Academy and the theatre group; Katputhliyan from Bengaluru. Directed by Zafer Mohiuddin, the well-known architect turned playwright and theatre personality, it was a rare gift to our city which unfortunately has not been the locale for activities related to the Urdu language, over recent times.

So, this time, it came as a breath of fresh air, and undoubtedly so for its excellence, both in its content and its execution, thanks to the immense talent of all those who were a part of it.

Zafer, who played the role of the much-anguished and impoverished Ghalib, stole the show with his body language and flawless dialogue delivery, with the nuances in his style telling what was left unsaid and was meant to be felt and sensed, rather than heard. He was Ghalib himself, in flesh and blood, on the stage! 

The other members of his troupe too displayed a matching level of talent which complemented Zafer’s own. While the two singers, Raghupati Jah and Mona Singh, rendered Ghalib’s Ghazals with perfect pronunciation, which is called ‘Tallaffuz’ in Urdu and which is its forte, the three dancers, Smitha Srinivasan, Sohini Ghosh and Jaya Srinivasan, trained under the choreographer, Nandini Mehta, displayed a most charming Kathak dance ensemble that was liberally interspersed all through the show, making it hypnotically enthralling!

The understated and unadorned stage props and the much-subdued lighting by Pradeep Belavadi successfully created the right atmosphere of minimalism, reminiscent of Ghalib’s own austere existence. An added attraction was the exhibition in the foyer, of the nearly thirty, beautifully rendered paintings depicting Ghalib and his times, by the well-known artist of our city, Syed Munaver Hussain, a former student of the prestigious J.J. School of Art, Mumbai.

Overall, it was a show that will be long remembered and cherished by the overflowing audience, that had many people standing in the wings or squatting on the floor, all through the ninety minutes, through which it lasted. This rare treat has undoubtedly left them all asking for more such shows, but now, more frequently and also on a much larger scale!

e-mail: kjnmysore@rediffmail.com