Still Burning Bright

The play was first staged to mark the birth centenary of Ghalib. It became a huge hit and the group travelled all over India with it.

The last show of Aakhri Shama was held nine years ago as IPTA’s attention shifted to new plays. The producer of the revived play,Ramesh Talwar,says,“The biggest challenge was to manage a huge cast with most of the actors taking up television and other acting assignments.” The new production was presented on Monday evening to culminate the ongoing theatre festival in Mumbai. “I wanted a play that’s iconic to conclude the festival,” says LH Kazi,cultural director of Nehru Centre,Mumbai. The festival also rolled out classic plays like Habib Tanvir’s Gaon Ke Naon Sasural Mor Naon Damad and Usha Ganguly’s Chandalika.

At the heart of Aakhri Shama is a mushaira,whose patron is the last Mughal emperor,Bahadur Shah Zafar. In the year 1857,when chaos rules Delhi,this event is on the verge of being called off till Maulvi Karimuddin goes from pillar to post to make it happen. The play is an adaptation of Dilli Ka Yaadgar Mushaira,which is mainly an account of the event by Farhatualla Baig. This was dramatised by Kaifi Azmi while music was composed by Iqbal Qureshi and Kuldip Singh. “The first half of the play gives glimpses of the changes happening in Delhi while the second is almost a factual record of this big symposium of upcoming Urdu poetry,” says Sathyu.

In the current production of Aakhri Shama,veteran actor Bharat Kapoor plays Ghalib and the cast includes Rakesh Bedi,Aasif Sheikh,Aanjjan Srivastav and Ram Swaroop Mago. Despite the intense rehearsal of the play,Sathyu sounds a bit apprehensive about the result. “We don’t have many Urdu-speaking actors now,” he says.Talwar,however,is optimistic and has a long innings of the play planned. “Now that we have revived it,we will be travelling with it to several Indian cities and festivals,” he says.