Tale Of The Taj October 21, 2011

PIERROT’S TROUPE Premiers– Dilip Hiro’s TALE of the TAJ – (English- 1:30 Hrs)
October 21, 22 23 & Nov 12,13,19 & 20, 7 pm, Shri Ram Centre
4 Safdar Hashmi Marg, New Delhi
Direction:Ashok Purang & Dr M. Sayeed Alam: Duration- 1:30 hrs.
Featuring Niti Phool, Hareesh Chhabra, Anju Chhabra,Yashpal Malik, Ram N Diwakar, Manohar Pandey, Ekant Kaul, Punkaj Mata, Mohammad, Puneet Sikka, Pulkit Sharma, Rahul Sharma, Dawood etC.
Pierrot’s Troupe is never shy and short of springing Comedies, Historicals & Surprises. So this time around, it introduces; an English Play - “TALE of the TAJ”; the Protagonist - Mumtaz Mahal -; and the Playwright - Dilip Hiro.

First the Play: It is not the usual stuff --- the story of Shahjahan’s love and affection for his favorite wife whose sad end paved the way for a good beginning --- the making of the Taj Mahal. It rather questions the very motive and motif of the The TAJ –What is it; a symbol of someone’s love or grief or guilt?

Now the Protagonist: A beautiful and dutiful wife: Or a better chess player, a far-sighted thinker, an astute strategist and schemer and the woman behind as well as ahead of her man?

Last, the Playwright: A London-based renowned expert on International Affairs, but no less a brilliant “Fictionalist” – all set to charm the Indian audience; for the first time.

Love, power, intrigue. These three words sum up the essence of Tale of the Taj. The drama starts during the reign of Emperor Jahangir, with princes Shah Jahan and Parwez competing for the throne.

The scheming wife of Jahangir, Nur Jahan, succeeds in removing Shah Jahan from the Palace. Shah Jahan notices his chances of inheriting the throne diminishing. Yet he secures it, claiming that he did so by virtue of his courage and imagination, denying the pivotal role played by his wife Mumtaz Mahal. What then Mumtaz Mahal is left with? For the answer, attend the performance of Tale of the Taj

About the Playwright: Dilip Hiro - Think of an Indian author who is a historian, journalist and broadcaster as well as a writer of scripts for cinema, TV drama and stage plays. To this rare category belongs Dilip Hiro, currently based in London.

A Private Enterprise, a British feature film about a young Indian in the Midlands, co-scripted by him won a silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival of 1975. Moving Portraits (1987), his TV play for Channel 4, about a struggling Indian painter in Britain won plaudits for its realism. Ten years earlier, he scripted half of the 20 episodes of BBC TV’s serial Neighbours, a story of two South Asian families in Britain.

His adaptation of Bertolt Brecht and Lion Feuchtwanger's Calcutta, 4th May as Calcutta, 4th May: Seven Scenes of Europe in Asia, had its staged reading at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, London, in 1991. And Ravi Shankar Hall in London was the venue of the staging of his one-act play, Apply, Apply, No Reply in 1978.