While realising his dream nurtured for several years, the renowned theatre and film actor Tom Alter, who hails from landour in Mussoorie, has expressed his love for landour and for Urdu poetry in a 13-episode television serial which went on air on DD Urdu on Monday night.
Titled “Ik Fursat –e-Gunaah” ( the title is taken from a ghazal of Faiz), the serial was shot by Alter in landour, his home town, in the summer of 2013. Faiz and Ghalib have been Alter’s all-time favourite poets .He is a fine Urdu scholar himself and he is known for his love of Urdu language and literature.
So no surprise that the serial he has made is also based on his love for poetry. “In my dream project –Ik Fursat-e-Gunaah, I have abundantly used the poetry of Faiz ,Ghalib and also Kabir”, Alter told The Pioneer. He said the serial was his fond tribute to the scenic beauty of landour where he grew up and to the eternal beauty and music of Urdu verse. “I could synthesise the two in this story,” he said.
The story is based in the year of the partition-1947- and shows three friends who gather in landour in May 1947.The title has been taken from one of the best known and oft-sung ghazals of Faiz Ahmed Faiz….. “Dono jahaan teri mohabbat mein haar ke woh ja raha hai koi shab e gam guzaar ke weeran hai mae-kada khum-o-sagar udaas hai tum kya gaye ke rooth gaye din bahaar ke Ik fursat- e- gunah mili woh bhi chaar din dekhe hain hum ne haunsle parwardigaar ke duniya ne teri yaad se begaana ker diya tujh se bhi dil-fareb hain gham rozgaar,”Uday Chandra has composed and rendered ghazals of Faiz for the serial. The serial links the feelings of love and friendship to poetry.
“The theme of friendship extended beyond the story of the serial to the shooting of the serial,” said Alter with his infectious smile, while giving credit to his friends, including Uday Chandra, Chandar Khanna, Gita Khanna, Benjamin Gilani (who plays Idrak Ansari , a poet who used to live in landour and was Alter’s friend) and Mohammed Rafique. Alter said landour, with its unique splendour, provided an ideal backdrop to the poetic story.
“People of landour, my old friends and neighbours were of great help,” he said. The serial, being aired by DD Urdu at 8 p.m. on week days, will go a long way to highlight the scenic beauty of landour (old Mussoorie) and also in inculcating a love for poetry among audiences.
Alter, who has a home in landour, is a regular visitor to Dehradun and Mussoorie and contributes greatly to the cultural and literary fabric of the region by organising plays, readings, recitations of poetry and ballets. His efforts to enrich the cultural environment are highly appreciated by people of Doon as well as Mussoorie. This serial is a major step in his contribution to the artistic and literary world.