Katha Kathan: Inspired dramatic evening courtesy Classic Short Stories
By Faridoon Shahryar
When you get bored of the lies of life around you and when you really must raise the bar for intellectual stimulation, you must opt for something that's absolutely unadulterated. #KathaKathan is a noble and much needed initiative of #JameelGulrays sahab and his articulate wife Rekha Rao G. They organised a gathering of select literature enthusiasts at #Eros theatre at #Churchgate in #Mumbai today evening. The moment I came to know about this event a few days back I knew I must attend it. I am so glad that I was part of this wonderful initiative today and I came back inspired and intellectually richer.
#Manto's #ThandaGosht and #Tasveer, #Premchand's #Kafan and #IsmatChughtai's #Libaas were narrated in a dramatised manner by a talented bunch of artistes namely #JameelGulrays #MridulPrabha, #MadhviGanphule, #PriyankaSharma, #RajeshJha and #SumantoBhattacharya. Jameel sahab has always had mastery in #Urdu but all the others have made extra efforts to learn the language and their talaffuz and understanding of Urdu words was spot on. The sexual content of Libaas and Thanda Gosht required guts to narrate with such grace and confidence. Moreover Libaas is about lesbianism and Abhishek Chaubey's #Ishqiya2 is based on the same with #MadhuriDixit and #HumaQureshi essaying the main leads along with #NaseeruddinShah and #ArshadWarsi.
Jameel sahab has a powerful voice as an artist and he also made a pertinent point when he said that none of his artistes was a Muslim. He emphasized upon the fact that Urdu doesn't belong to any particular religion. "Urdu is for everyone, it belongs to whoever loves it," he said amidst claps.
Nothing can beat reading a good story, novel or a poem but the way the classic stories were narrated at Katha Kathan today, there's a whole new perspective that is being explored. It was a confluence of story reading as well as passionate drama on stage. Congratulations to Jameel sahab and here's hoping that he shall hold many such sessions. He has promised sessions with a Kashmiri playwright, classic Marathi literature and other Indian languages. More power to him!
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