NATWA’s highly acclaimed play’AURANGZEB�™ April 18 & 19 at Shri Ram Centre, New Delhi, at 7.00 pm(pt)
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Please let your family, friends & colleagues know that NATWA's
AURANGZEB is on show on the coming weekend. This is a not-to-be-missed
play!
NATWA
NATWA’s highly acclaimed play’AURANGZEB’
a Hindustani translation of Indira Parthasarathy’s Tamil play
‘AURANGZEB’
Directed by K. S. Rajendran
April 18 & 19 at Shri Ram Centre, New Delhi, at 7.00 pm
NATWA
A Delhi Theatre Company
Presents
Indira Parthasarathy’s
AURANGZEB
– Hindustani translation by Shahid Anwar
Design & Direction
K. S. Rajendran
=0
AExecutive Producer
Sanjiv Chopra
On 18th & 19th April, 2007 at 7.00 pm
at Shri Ram Centre, Safdar Hashmi Marg, Mandi House, New Delhi
Play Duration: 2 hours
Ticket Rate Rs. 300, 200, 100 & 50
Telebooking: 9871138382, 9810977174
Tickets available at SRC Box Office on Show days from 11.00 am
Children below 10 years not allowed
Website: www.natwattheatre.com; email:
natwat...@gmail.com
Cast & Crew of AURANGZEB
ON STAGE (Main Cast)
Aurangzeb A
0
Mahendra Mewati (NSD Batch 1995)
Dara Shukoh
Shrivardhan Trivedi (NSD Batch 1994)
Shahajahan A
0 Danish
Iqbal (NSD Batch 2002)
Roshanara Laxmi
Rawat (NSD Batch 2006)
Jahanara
Harvinder Kaur (NSD Batch 1993)
OFF STAGE
Hindustani TranslationA
0 Shahid Anwar
Lights
Ram Ji Bali (NSD Batch 2001)
Production Controller Renu S.
Chopra
Executive Producer =C
2 Sanjiv
Chopra
Design & Direction K. S.
Rajendran (NSD Batch 1984)
INTRODUCTION
NATWA- a Delhi Theatre Company which made a mark on the Delhi Theatre
scene in 2005 through its innovative first production of OTHELLO, is
having two special performances of its highly acclaimed play AURANGZEB,
a unique contemporary interpretation of the histori
cal. The current
shows of the play have been sponsored by Indraprastha Gas Ltd. and
supported by Usha Shriram-Lexus and Nucleus Software.
Previous shows of ‘Aurangzeb’ have received a very high acclaim. The
discerning theatre lovers while awestruck fully appreciated the
contemporary relevance of this ‘piece of forgotten History’. Originally
performed by NATWA in April 2007, AURANGZEB has since been selected by
NSD, Sahitya Kala Parishad and several other theatre festivals
countrywide. Details of the play, the media coverage and photos are
available on our website: www.natwatheatre.com.
Indira Parthasarathy’s AURANGZEB was originally written in Tamil=2
0in
1974 and performed between 1975 & 1989. It was translated into English
by T. Sriraman and Shahid Anwar further translated the English version
into Hindi/Urdu. K. S. Rajendran, a faculty at the NSD, whose mother
tongue is Tamil, chose to perform this play in Hindustani as he wanted
the characters to come alive and create the period, in the language of
the mughals.
THE PLAY: AURANGZEB
When Emperor Shahjahan fell ill in 1657, a war of succession broke out
among his four sons, Dara Shukoh, Shuja, Aurangzeb and Murad. The main
contenders were Dara and Aurangzeb while Shahjahan’s two daughters
Jahanara and Roshanara, supported Dara and Aurangzeb respectively. 20The
Emperor himself lent his support to his eldest son Dara, who alone of
the four brothers, was present at Agra and sympathetic to Shahjahan’s
dream plan of building a black-marble-mahal for himself on the other
side of Yamuna facing Mumtaz’s Tajmahal.
The play selects, telescopes and fuses events to capture the fissures
as well as the peaks of a period of history. The war of succession to
throne and issues and ideologies that the major players in the drama
represent: Shahjahan symbolises a decadent, self-indulgent, romantic
astheticism; Aurangzeb articulates and fiercely fights to establish an
Islamic fundamentalist state; and Dara projects himself as a
philosopher-statesman stri
ving to preserve a pluralist society and
nation. Shahjahan dreams about a balck-marble-mahal for himself,
Aurangzeb dreams of ‘one nation, one language, one religion’, while
Dara fears that Aurangzeb will destroy the precious heritage of Akbar.
The play has as its theme the struggles of mutually contradictory
dispositions of the various characters: Shahjahan and Aurangzeb; Dara
and Aurangzeb; Jahanara and Roshanara; and finally Aurangzeb versus
Aurangzeb. Shahjahan lives in the past, Dara in the future, and
Aurangzeb in the present. Aurangzeb’s success is the triumph of
pragmatism but he has to pay dearly as we find him in the last scene
sitting not on his Peacock throne but be
side it on the floor. His
loneliness becomes his tragedy. The play ends with him asking himself
he question: ‘Am I a devout Muslim or a fanatic?’ He is left awaiting
the judgement of history.
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