Being Mirza Ghalib

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Being-Mirza-Ghalib/articleshow/10000037.cms

MumBAI: Post-1857, Delhi is in ruins, its streets still looking haunted, its landmarks pockmarked with the depredations of anti-Mutiny British forces. The revolutionaries or mutineers, as the British call them, have either been killed or captured, while several suspects face trial. One of the 'suspects' is popular poet Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, once patronized by the last Mughal, Bahadur Shah Zafar, now helpless and aggrieved at the turn of events.

The military governor, Colonel Burn, checking Ghalib's antecedents, humiliatingly inquires: "Tu Musalman? (You Muslim?)"

"Adha Musalman. Sharab peeta hoon, suar nahin khata (I am half-Muslim. I drink wine but don't eat pork)," replies Ghalib. Disarmed, the governor lets Ghalib go.

This is a scene from Delhi-based theatre director M Sayeed Alam's new play Ghalib to be staged at the Y B Chavan Centre on September 17. With Tom Alter playing the protagonist, the play presents the immensely popular poet as a man who was self-deprecating as well as a strong critic of the times he lived in. "We have neither eulogized Ghalib nor tried to belittle him. Our Ghalib is a poet who has a rocking romance, who enjoys his drinks, but never barters away his self-respect," explains Alam, whose earlier successful biographical plays include Maulana Azad and K L Saigal.

Alam claims it is perhaps the first time Ghalib has been shown without a beard. "In the popular imagination, Ghalib is bearded, wearing a loose kurta and a topi. But my research has shown that he grew a beard only after he reached middle age. So my Ghalib is clean-shaven till he reaches his 50s," says Alam, who adds that his musical features several ghazals of the poet, many of them not recorded or heard earlier.

A significant aspect of the play deals with the controversy about Ghalib's role in the post-1857 phase. Many historians have accused Ghalib of either keeping quiet over the mayhem he witnessed or blaming Indians for inviting the British wrath. "We have tried to put things in perspective. He was neutral during the 1857 revolt. Why do we expect Ghalib to be a nationalist when he was neutral?" asks the director, who claims he laboured for months before he wrote the script.

Y B Chavan Centre, September 17, 7 pm. Tickets available at venue