Ghalib, Babur to `travel` to Mumbai

New Delhi: Popular plays "Sons of Babur", written by Union minister Salman Khurshid, and "Ghalib" will be staged in Mumbai for the first time next week.

Mumbaikaars on September 16 and 17 will get an opportunity to watch veteran actor Tom Alter donning the hat of Bahadur Shah Zafar in "Sons of Babur" and Mirza Ghalib in "Ghalib". "`Sons of Babur` connects the present to the past and leads the audience to an introspection of the Mughal era," says its director M Sayeed Alam of the New Delhi-based Pierrot`s Troupe who has also directed "Ghalib". Khurshid`s play revolves around 1857 with Zafar as the central figure and features nearly 20 actors of repute. Zafar, while languishing in exile in faraway Rangoon, pines for his beloved Delhi and takes solace in his poetry. In the present times, he has an ardent admirer in protagonist Rudranshu Mitra, a university student of history who is seeking a grant to visit the former ruler`s grave in Myanmar for his research work. Then the play swings between fantasy and reality, past and present, logic and emotion, fact and fiction as Rudranshu virtually does a supernatural act to meet Zafar in person and is taken on a guided tour through various historic events of the Mughal era. "Ghalib", on the other hand, is a vivacious account of the life and times of the legendary poet. "`Ghalib` is a lively, entertaining and educative account of the intriguing man named Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib - a master yet a rundown poet, privileged yet pitiable elite, extravagant yet poor noble, devout yet self effacing lover, irreverent yet pious husband and self-seeking yet altruistic person," says Alam. PTI