PRESS RELEASE:
Theatre in Motion
festival enters its 2nd weekend in Mumbai
with
AURANGZEB, a Hindi play!
The festival saw a stupendous success in its first weekend
where theatre lovers were treated to Anjantobas and Anto Adi
Anto, two fabulous Bengali plays.
![]( "AURANGZEB")
The 2nd weekend of the festival in Mumbai presents
AURANGZEB, a Hindi play that sheds light on Emperor
Shahjahan and his 4 sons while attempting to capture an
interesting period of History through their ideologies.
Theatre-in-Motion is a theatre festival presented by Utkal
Rangmanch Trust in association with Sanket. Steered by Anant
Mahapatra, a legendary figure in theatre, Theatre-in-Motion
revolves around his idea of making the best of theatre
available for viewing to connoisseurs across the country.
Directed By: K S Rajendran
Cast:
Imran Raza, Ashima Khanna, Neelesh Deepak,
Asif Qamar, Priyanka Sharma, Kumar Vaibhav,
Mahendra Mewati, Sushil Kumar, and more.
Synopsis:
When Emperor Shahjahan fell ill in
1657, a war of succession broke out among his four sons,
Dara, Shuja, Aurangzeb and Murad. The main contenders were
Dara and Aurangzeb while Shahjahan's two daughters Jahanara
and Roshanara, supported Dara and Aurangzeb respectively.
The 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 Taj Mahal.
The play begins with the conversation between two of
Aurangzeb's spies in Agra Fort, who tell us of others spying
on them, indicating Aurangzeb's suspicious nature as well as
his attempt to be in control. 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 symbolizes a decadent,
self-indulgent, romantic aestheticism; Aurangzeb articulates
and fiercely fights to establish an Islamic fundamentalist
state; and Dara projects himself as a philosopher-statesman
striving to preserve a pluralist society and nation.
Shahjahan dreams about a black-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 beside 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 judgments of history.
Venue and Time:
Mumbai - Veer Savarkar Auditorium, Shivaji Park at 7:45 PM
Price:
Rs.200 to Rs.500
Tickets are available at the venue and on bookmyshow.com.
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