Play is the thing

I’ve been Julius Caesar,Brutus and Hamlet. Evidently,these roles have left their residue in me. For,I can be a passionate fighter,” says Salma Ansari,wife of Vice-President Hamid Ansari,reminsicing her student days in Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). In her early 60s now,Salma hasn’t been on the stage for decades,but the ties with theatre are as strong as ever. On May 5,she will present a play,Mohabbat: The Taj,by an Agra troupe called Kalakriti at the Kamani Auditorium. “This is a fundraiser for my NGO Al Noor,which runs three schools in Aligarh,” she says. “The name is derived from the Persian word for light.”

At the vice-president’s residence at Maulana Azad Road on Tuesday,as the morning light inches through the green lawn,Salma says,“Light has always fascinated me. It is present in every religion,it is often the symbol of human evolution. Having lived almost all my life overseas first as the daughter of a UN official and then as a wife of a foreign-service officer,I saw little of rural India till a decade ago. It was when my husband retired and joined AMU as vice-chancellor that I first saw poverty in Indian villages. There was such darkness and pain. How could I bring light into this despair,I wondered,” she says. Education,she thought,could cure all ills. With the resilience that she admired in Caesar,Salma set about her mission. She met poor families in villages around Aligarh and fell back on her old passion — theatre – to break through their prejudices. “I used nukkad to spread the message of educating children,boys and girls,” she says. In 2000,she set up her first school and then another and then a third. The locals broke into and destroyed the third one 12 times and she rebuilt it every time. “Today,we have 2,000 children studying in English medium,” she says.

Funds,however,remain a problem and once again,Salma brings theatre to her rescue. “We presented Aap ki Soniya starring Farooq Sheikh and Sonali Bendre a few months ago. I’m confident that Mohabbat: The Taj will be just as successful,” she says.

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Mohabbat: The Taj,she says,was love at first sight when she watched the play in Agra. “The play lavishly recreates 16 th century Agra where Shahjahan loved,lost and ultimately immortalised his queen Mumtaz Mahal. It’s a saga of love told through dances,ghazals,mujras and a grand set,” she says. She had watched the play after a trip to the monument,the-once-sparkling marble now faded to a pale yellow. “The play,in contrast,shows the Taj in its regal glory,with the Yamuna gurgling in the background,” she says.

In the 80-minute play,the Yamuna emerges as a narrator called Kalindi,who traces the story of Agra and its most famous monument. Yashwant Singh,project coordinator of Kalakriti,adds that the play involves 60 dancers and actors and claims that “it has been staged every day since September 2008 in Agra”. “It also features a huge model of the Taj made from Makrana marble,it is a 12-ft tall,8.5-tonne structure. In Delhi ,though,we will have a smaller model,” he says.

On the walls around Salma,paintings and books on paintings vie for attention. She is also fond of music,especially of Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and Jagjit Singh,but right now she’s enjoying the old thrill of being involved with the stage. “The rest of the world’s wonders are architectural or engineering marvels,but the Taj shows we come from a long tradition of love,” says Salma. “Now,the Taj could do with a little love in return.”

The play will be staged at Kamani Auditorium Delhi on May 5. Entry by invitation only. Contact: 09999984165