Director Feisal Alkazi’s Noor talks about the fiery woman who fought the world and her caged freedom even as she reigned over one of the biggest empires. By Muskaan Sharma
The Mughal empire flourished for a short while under Mehrunissa, literally meaning “sun among women” as she went on to be the consort, wife and backbone of emperor Jehangir. Reinventing herself as Noor Jahan, she wielded real power and has been referenced in history as a Machiavellian force behind the throne.
The Padshah Begum, as she was called, was a strong-minded, wilful and enigmatic woman who was known to be an impressive manipulator of people. Be that as it may, later proof has uncovered different aspects of this remarkable personality: her virtuoso organisational skills, her stunning style sensibilities and her generosity towards the poor and the disfranchised, particularly women.
Feisal Alkazi’s Noor is a retelling of the rise of an abandoned daughter of political refugees to the empress of Mughal India. “She rose like a phoenix from the ashes of her fate,” says Alkazi. “Although we know of Noor as a historical figure, there are aspects to her life that are never talked about. While reading books about her and even Jahangir’s autobiography, Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri or Jahangirnama, I realised that she emerged as two very different women when talked about in history — One who went after power as a conniving and ruthless empress and the other, who was a connoisseur of art and a struggling soul after the death of her first husband.”
Nonetheless, she remained a dynamic and intelligent empress under whom the arts and culture of the Mughals flourished. Being clever in politics and establishing her control over the empire by integrating her family into the administration, she made sure to leave her everlasting mark. We find such parallels of familial powerplay in all walks of life, even in politics and films.
In his vision of Noor, Alkazi wanted to bring out the gender dimension of her story. “How does a woman in a completely segregated society, where her gender is kept caged and separated from the world, gain the power to rule over the empire if not officially but at least in essenceIJ My idea was to bring out this counter narrative.”
In the play, apart from Noor, two other women define the existence of patriarchy. Taken together, they play out the life of a woman in the Mughal era. Mumtaz Mahal, a young girl born and brought up in the royal harem; Noor Jahan, a middle-aged woman struggling to find her place in her new husband’s family and Ruqayya Begum, the old head of the harem who lived her life in a man’s world. Noor and her niece Mumtaz were documented but never explored as separate characters in a world of men. Both Noor and Mumtaz got dominance through love but one used it to take the royal power away from her husband and the other used it to heal the wounds of a lonely childhood and breathe affection into her husband’s life. love used by both of these women solidified the future of the Mughal empire.
The conditions of harem existed in the society for long and parts of it in essence are still seen today. Glass ceilings, unequal wage gap, unequal gender rights and issues of women safety are modern avatars.
The narrator or the sutradhaar of the play, Nazakat, was a eunuch. His genderlessness provided a unique perspective into the lives of the male and female characters. Apart from Nazakat, Mumtaz Mahal played a free-spirited character who in the walls of the castle that housed death and dismay, blossomed and spread cheer with her innocence and naivete.
Alkazi adds that women embodying roles often assigned to men like Noor are considered to be brute and masculine. This undermines the individuality of a female. Hence his portrayal of Noor was of an elegant and graceful queen who wielded power quietly through her husband’s throne. “Today we see men talk about equality in the outside world but stamping gender roles on the women of their house. Hypocrisy has pierced through the veil of time and has made its place in our world so comfortably that we have accepted it as a part of our life. Hypocrisy exists today as it did in the Mughal era where even a queen’s freedom was a facade that housed the shackles of patriarchy,” he concludes.
Photos: Pankaj Kumar