Agha Hashar Kashmiri and Mukhtar Begum

By Dr. R.K. Tamiri

70th death anniversary (April 9, 2005) of Agha Hashar Kashmiri, the renowned Urdu drama writer of Kashmiri origin went virtually unnoticed in J&K. Aga Hashar, who for his skills in drama writing, has been even called the Indian Shakespeare, was born as Agha Mohammad Shah Banarsi in Banaras in 1879. Soon after, he found out that his roots were in Kashmir, he opted to be called Agha Hashar Kashmiri.

Agha Hashar was a precocious child, he wrote his first drama at the age of 17. To seek a better future, he moved to Bombay and joined a theatre company. Many of Shakespeare's plays were translated/adapted by him into Urdu. Each play brought new success. Hashar began his career with a monthly salary of Rs 35. His wages with his second play rose to Rs 60 and then to Rs 80, Rs 125 etc. Eventually, he at one time he used to earn Rs 1200 per month-a princely sum.

The credit for revival of theatre in India goes to Mian Amanat of Lucknow. His Indar Sabha, written and produced in 1856 sowed the first seeds of theatre in India after a gap of several centuries. It is said to have been staged first at the court of Wajid Ali Shah in Lucknow. In fact, Amanat's musical play written in poetry was inspired by the Raas Leela enacted regularly at Wajid Ali's court.

Mian Amanat's Indar Sabha was later imitated and re-written by Madari Lal but was never excelled. Some foreign educated Parsis after getting exposure to the European theatre, came back to India, to form theatrical companies. Those were the times when the victorian melodrama was dominating the theatre scene in London. This had its impact on the theatre in the sub-continent as well. Many young playwrights cropped up around Parsi Theatre Companies. The French opera and Bharat Muni's Sanskrit theatre traditions, as laid down in Natya Shastra, also strongly influenced the Parsi Theatre and the playwrights. Big names in performing arts-Raunaque, Betab, Ruswa, Hafiz Abdullah Talib, Hubab, Zareef, Aaram, Khurshid and many others emerged as successful playwrights in early 20th century. They wrote plays based on Puranic tales and the two epics-Ramayana and Mahabharata.

Agha Hashar excelled them all. Habib Tanvir, the great folk theatre artist of our times acknowledges, "the crown of Parsi Theatre playwriting went to Agha Hashar Kashmiri who wrote ceaselessly, masterfully and most successfully". His plays had a wider canvas. At one end he touched Firdausi's Shahnama in his 'Rustam-o-Sohrab' and at the other Hindu religious legends in his Bilwa Mangal, depicting the life of Surdas at the other. He touched every theme in his plays : Secular plays such as Aankh Ka Nasha, a melodrama in which he denounced the vice of drinking, adventure plays such as Silver King, with a hero who has a double. Hashar's other themes included - romances such as Yehudi Ki Ladki, and dramas evoking Muslim nostalgia for the virtues of Arabs as in Mashriqui Hoor. He wrote with fluency in Urdu, Hindi and Sanskrit.

Hashar's plays Rustam-o-Sohrab, Yehudi Ki Ladki, Laila Majnoo, became quite popular among the masses. Some of his stories e.g. Silver King were taken up by the new cinema. New Theatres of Calcutta produced his Bhakt Surdas and Yehudi Ki Ladki. Nawab, a theatrical actor of great power, played the role of the old jew in the latter for which, though in his early thirties, he got all his teeth knocked off.

Anarkali :

Agha Hashar's masterpiece for the stage was Anarkali. There is no unanimity on whether the enchanting story of Anarkali, the dancer who fell in love with Mughal Prince Saleem was a myth or a reality. However, the story continued to capture the imaginations of all the big names in the performing arts for the past 100 years. Numerous films have been made, based on the tragic story of Anarkali, the best being Mughal-i-Azam, starring Prithviraj (Mughal-i-Azam), Dilip Kumar (Prince Saleem, and Madhubala (Anarkali).

Historical sources of the time are also silent on Anarkali. So is Jehangir in his autobiography, even though he mentions his differences with his father on other issues. However, Prof. R. Nath, an authority on Mughals, accepts the legend as true in his recently released book "Private Life Of The Mughals Of India (1526-1803 AD), Rupa & Co., New Delhi, 2005.

Anarkali's name was Nadira Begum or Sharf-un-Nisa Begum. Employed in Emperor Akbar's Court, this excessively beautiful girl was liked by the emperor immensely. It was he who conferred the little of Anarkali on her. As ill luck would have it, Akbar noticed Anarkali returning smile to Prince Saleem, while he was relaxing in his apartment lined with mirrors. This infuriated him. He ordered her to be 'built' alive into a wall. This was obeyed. Soon after his accession to the throne, Prince Saleem (now Jahangir) built a tomb to her memory at Lahore. The inscription (in Persian), inscribed by Jehangir on her marble tombstone reads:

Ah! If I could behold the face of

My beloved (Yar) once more,

I would  give thanks unto my God,

until the Day of Resurrection

 - Majnum Salim Akbar

Prof. R. Nath, referring to it, observes, "this is an expression of passionate love and this testifies that he had really fallen in love with Anarkali." It was 1599, the same year Mihr-un-Nisa (later Noorjehan) was married to Sher Afkun. Jahangir was so much disturbed by the failure of his two romances that he went as far as to rebel against his father, Emperor Akbar.

Poetry :

Agha Hashar loved poetry and many of the dialogues in his numerous dramas were punctuated with couplets, making the dialogues more powerful. According to Prof. Sahar Ansari Aga Hashar gave different style to drama writing and "his dialogues were delivered by artists in a specific manner, which, with the passage of time, was becoming extinct".

Agha Hashar was a great teacher as well. One of his students, Maharaj Ghulam Hussain Khattak, the great Kathak dancer of Pakistan, continues to perform even today at the age of 90. Mahraj Khattak had remained a student of Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore in painting and Rabindra Sangeet, before taking classes in acting from Agha Hashar.

Mukhtar Begum :

A ravishing beauty Mukhtar Begum was a famous stage dancer in 1930s. She came in contact with Agha Hashar during a theatre performance. His patronage took her fame to almost celestial heights. Subsequently, the two decided to marry.

Mukhtar Begum was born in Amritsar. Trained initially by Mian Mehrban Khan in Music, Mukhtar then underwent a long apprenticeship under Ustad Ashiq Ali Khan of Patiala gharana. Her intense training equipped her well to practise different genres  of classical music - Thumri, Dadra and Ghazal. Soon her fame as a melody queen spread far and wide in undivided Punjab. The elite sections of the society invited her to perform mujras at their havelis and mansions. Her melodic skills were also witnessed in the courts of Nawabs and Maharajas in different regions of India.

After some time, Mukhtar Begum shifted to Calcutta, which was then the hub of theatre and films. It was there that she played a lead role in many stage plays, scripted by Agha Hashar. During her stay in Calcutta, Madam Noor Jehan (then Allah Wasai) met her ideal singer Mukhtar Begum. The latter encouraged her and recommended Allah Wasai to her husband's Maidan Theatre and here she got the name of "Baby Noorjehan".

Mukhtar Begum also acted in a couple of films. Some of her roles in films were unintentionally amusing. Habib Tanvir recalls," In one film, Mukhtar Begum sat with all her bulk, face front, in a mid-shot, static, and sang a classical song as long as perhaps 20 minutes that appeared to be an infinity, and yet it was an edifying experience".

She also broadcast her music from All India Radio. Mukhtar Begum participated in a number of music conferences organised in pre-partition India. Towards the fag end of her illustrious career, she recorded several ghazals, including many ghazals of Agha Hashar. Her thumri-accented ghazals of classical Urdu poets recorded for the gramophone companies and radio became her identity and also a hallmark of her personality. According to M Sayeed Malik, a music connoisseur, "There was a certain uniqueness and vivacity in her vocals, which distinguished her from her contemporaries". Mukhtar Begum always chose Punjabi ang style of thumri, though she was not averse to Poorbi style.

After partition she decided to leave India and settled in Lahore. She continued to sing as long as her health permitted. Her illustrious students, to whom she imparted training in music and performing skills included her sister Farida Khanum, Playback singer Naseem Begum and film star Rani. In her last years she lived in Karachi, where she passed away on February 25, 1982.

Film Star Rani:

Mukhtar Begum had a servant, whose wife gave birth to a baby girl, Nasira in 1942. Mukhtar Begum decided to adopt Nasira, soon after the death of her mother. Mukhtar Begum arranged dancing classes for Nasira, the latter became an expert dancer. When Nasira turned 19, Mukhtar Begum recommended the gorgeous girl to film director, Anwar Kamal Pasha. It was he who changed Nasira's name to Rani Mukhtar, since Mukhtar Begum always addressed her as Rani beti. Rani played a minor role of a dancer in Pasha's film 'Mehboob' (1961). Though the film was a flop, yet it helped Nasira to find her name in the film world.

In her arrogance, Rani decided to drop 'Mukhtar' from her name, claiming that she attained name, fame and stardom solely due to her own talents and hardwork. Rani's first film was "Saaz Aur Aawaaz". Her most of the films were failures. Critics labeled her 'as an average actress at best'. "Dewar Bhabi (1967) and "Anjuman" (1970) salvaged her reputation as an artist to some extent. In "Umrao Jan Ada", Rani played the role of a professional dancer. Her forte was quick adaptability to vastly different roles. In one of the films she played the role of a simpleton, who later transforms herself into a fashionable girl. Her dialogues had her trademark-wit and rhyme. Rani acted in two drama serials also on Television.

Rani' personal life was disturbed by frequent marriage break-ups and disease. Her first marriage was to director Hasan Tariq, to whom she owed her few successess. After divorce she married another film producer Mian Javed Qamar. This marriage also failed. She was struck by cancer. Pakistani cricketer Sarfraz Nawaz who came to her rescue in London, became her third husband. Rani passed away at young age of 51, on May 27, 1993 at Karachi, leaving behind a daughter Rabia by her first husband Hasan Tariq.

Source: Kashmir Sentinel