The old Parsi style play with contemporary relevance enthralled the theatre-goers of the city. ‘Khubsurat Bala’ a tale of victory of good over evil was presented at Ravindra Bhavan, here on Friday.
Directed by a noted theatre artiste and actress Hema Singh, the play was splendidly performed by the students of Madhya Pradesh School of Drama (MPSD) 2012-13 batch. The play is written by a noted Urdu playwright and dramatist Agha Hashar Kashmiri. This play is originally written in Parsi style in Urdu language.
The story of play surrounds the fight for the succession of the throne between brother and sister. Shamshah (King’s sister) is a cruel woman and want to become the queen of the kingdom at any cost. For doing so, she makes a plan to kill his only nephew, the prince and the future king Sohail. Shamshah tries all the tricks to kill her nephew and her brother (the king) as well, but an honest and a reliable servant to the king Tariq and his wife Tahira save the prince form the evil plan of his aunt.
As the whole story revolve around the fight for succeeding the throne of the kingdom, the play also share the essence of love, tragedy, and comedy and drama genre as well. While talking to The Pioneer, director of the play Hema Singh said, “This play is a combination of Classical style and Victorian style maintaining the essence of Parsi style of theatre.” Elaborating further she said, “This play was written when there were no revelries among people and in many productions characters
would throw a satire over British. So, most of the things are kept the same except it has been manipulated in some places to connect with the contemporary situations.” The use of levels for the performance and no background sets, soothing and modern lighting technique and a sensible use of curtains enhanced the performance of the artists. Further, the comic fillers in between the play added more fanaticism in the performance leaving the audience awestruck.