Music still directed by Mughal-e-Azam from Feroz Abbas Khan. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The biggest challenge in performance art is to re -connect a classic without separating the audience or any part of the actors who run the story. K by freeing the spirit of Anarkali from the iron grip of Asif Mughal-e-Azam, Director Feroz Abbas Khan has achieved impossible. As the music of India’s first broadway-style has returned to complete a triple century in this Valentine week in Delhi, Khan says that he did not fall for the corporate clich of a film, ” But “” demanded to bring back to the stage to bring the story back. A modern sensitivity.
“For me, Mughal-e-Azam originated in the theater,” said the master storytellor.
Imtiaz Ali inspired by Taj’s drama Anarkali, Mughal-e-Azam The legend of the beautiful ecosysters tells the legend, who falls in love with Rajkumar Salim, only a chain by Emperor-father Akbar. Khan says that Asif chose to see the story from Akbar’s point of view as he had to sell ideas to a big manufacturer who could control his Magnum Ops. “The way to find finance for art can lead to fine creative options. It is said that producer Shapoorji Mistry was a great fan of Emperor and Persian language. Therefore, Asif Saheb told him that he would make a film on Akbar. So the title, but they found ways to give voice to Salim and Anarkali. ,
A view of Mughal-e-Azam directed by Feroz Abbas Khan. Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Khan has shaped it to suit the sensations of a new generation, which he feels, connects to the subject in a different way. “While the film is masculine in its tanner, this play is very feminine in its perspective. It is Anarkali, Jodha, or Bahar, the female voice resonates because they do not catch themselves back. In the film, Jodha is more perfect; It is difficult to forget his part here. She does not request, she talks to Akbar. This is why our female fan base is big. ,
Since the 1960 film Mems has become a fodder, another challenge for Khan was to turn the declaration of his performances into a more intimate form. “I conducted a two-week workshop to ‘D-Mughal-e-Azam-Ise’ actors to prevent them from copying Prithviraj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar.” Written as a Parsi theater, Khan says, it was not easy to remove “over-the-top-inner”, but still maintains the “intensity and power” of the spoken word. He said, “Razmetz cannot do this show for a long time until actors and audiences are associated with the story.”
For Khan, the success of the play confirms his faith that if you give some value and quality, people accept it. “It responds to those who say that the audience has been replaced. Language is not easy and the game is a bit bad for things that do not explode from the beginning. Nevertheless, the audience is capable of appreciating its beauty and aesthetics. ,
Director Feroz Abbas Khan | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Excerpt from an interview:
Have you seen any change in performance in the last eight years?
There was a dramatic change in the show when we staged it after an epidemic because Pathos and loneliness faced a reflection in the performance. While happiness is such a thing for which he aspires, sorrow makes a man. The actors experienced something that had never happened before. Disappointment, loneliness, and sensitivity exiting insecurity opened them emotionally and a quantum leap in expression. I think Covid-19 became a wound for them, and now performance is a healing process.
After Kovid, we also see changes in the engagement of the audience along with entertainment.
After Kovid, you can keep the biggest star in your pocket, but the world is demanding live entertainment on the audience. Human beings cannot live in the virtual world for a long time. After the device came into our pocket, the ritual of going out for live performance at an appointed time was reduced, but it is collecting traction again.
Some find it aristocratically …
I believe that tickets are expensive, but more about taste than art access. When cinema halls are unable to get a ticket for live shows of Indian artists when they are not able to find the audience despite the fall in ticket prices and release old films. This January in Mumbai, Mughal-e-Azam 21 shows moved to Housefull without the same advertisement. The play does not pay great money. It only fixes its high cost. Such a music must have a permanent address, but we keep moving like a nomadic due to lack of performance places for presentations such as Grand Broadway.
Eagerly, at a time, when the Mughals and Nehru are often publicly disliked, Mughal-e-Azam Painting the audience. Is this not a cultural contradiction?
India is more fine than India. When spectators consume art and entertainment, they are not big and large, communal and religious with the mind. The Indian mind is attractive. It can compartmental. I remember the audience was swooped while singing Pakistani artists Padaro Mahre Des During the Asha programs of Aman held after Gujarat riots and 26/11. Today when Amjad Ali Khan performs, there is hardly any Muslim in the audience.
Mughal-e-Azam There is not a hit because Muslims are watching it. I produced another grand, Civilization for nation For NMACC, without any inclination towards a particular type of thinking. People of all political hues saw the show and congratulated us. Some cultures tolerate diversity, we celebrate it. I am not denying what is happening but we should not deny it. If we do, we can extreme our conclusions.
After rising glasses, you have returned to your frugal world of slow communication and chairs. Suresh letter,
I am very uncomfortable with success. You can only do what seems impossible for you. If you remember, first Tumari amritaI performed a music in the biggest Gujarati at that time. Suresh letter The most challenging drama I have done that I have struggled to make a complex idea accessible. I decided with the actors a month’s time whether I would be able to mount it. then there is Hind 1957 A Muslim is concentrated around the family that is struggling with the image of the partition of the community. For me, this is a more intimate place return and I am glad that the audience has absorbed them.
(Mughal-e-Azam will be staged at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi till 23 February)
Kathak dancer of Mughal-e-Azam the Musical | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Published – 14 February, 2025 07:24 PM IST
