Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, Feb 13: In an artistic tribute to legendary Begum Akhtar, the Urdu play based on her lifelong devotion to music in spite of tumultuous and tragic personal life, was presented to audience at the Gian Chand Memorial Hall, University of Jammu, here today.
Written by young playwright Rajneesh Gupta, the script of play titled ‘Mallika-e Ghazal’, read by seasoned actors, brought alive on stage how feeling of loneliness, pain, suppression and silence drove Begum Akhtar passionately towards music that provided solace and inner peace.
The play traces the journey from Bibbi to Akhtari Sayyed to Akhtari Bai Faizabadi to Begum Ishtiaq Ahmed Abassi and, finally, to the name we all recognize, Begum Akhtar. She became pregnant at the age of 13, gave birth to a girl, Shamima, which her mother, pretended that the baby was her own.
At the tender age of fifteen she gave her first public performance which gained her instant recognition. She recorded ghazals, thumris, dadras for recording company, and acted in a few Hindi films in which she sang all her songs herself.
She was married to Ishtiaq Ahmed Abassi in 1945 who put a stop on her from singing for five years, but later relented when fell sick. In 1949, Begum Akhtar emerged on the public scene and stayed at its apex as a master singer of ghazal and dadra till her death on 30th October, 1974.
Today’s public reading of Mallika-e-Ghazal, was highly appreciated for the talented rendering of various characters by three actors which included Prof Rita Jatinder as Akhtari, Rajesh Raina as Ishtiaq Ahmed Abassi and Sapna Soni as various characters.
Vijay Bakaya, Ex MLC, was the chief guest of the function that was organized by Department of Urdu in collaboration with Kishtwar Campus, University of Jammu Prominent in the audience were Prof Chain Singh, Prof Shohab Inayat Malik, Director, Kishtwar Campus, faculty members, artistes, writers, poets, students and members of the civil society.
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