UMARO JAAN SPREADS MESSAGE OF LOVE!
Urdu musical ‘Umrao Jaan’, organised by Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Memorial Society and Uttar Pradesh Artist Association, was staged at a city hotel recently. Written by SN Lal, the play was directed by SK Prasad and Wamiq Khan.
The play was inspired from Hadi Ali Ruswa’s Urdu novel of the same name. It highlighted the Hindu-Muslim bonding and gave the message of secularism, brotherhood and peace. One of the touching dialogues from the act was when Umrao says, “Lanat hai tum logon par jis mandir-masjid mein mohabaat dhoondni chahiye uske naam par ek doosre ka khoon baha rahe ho, aur mohabaat talash karte ho mere kothe par? (You all should be ashamed of yourselves; instead of finding love in temples and mosques you’re killing each other in their name. And you come to me in search of love?)”
Ishika Arora mesmerised the audience with her act as Umrao Jaan. Other actors were Om Singh, Mohd Hafiz, Deep Sachar, Sandhya, Kashish, Arshad, Salman, Wamiq, Rehan, Anupama, Udayveer, Idrees, Amit, Salim, Adnan, Anushka, Vartika, Shreya, Anupama and Himanshu.
Women from different walks of life were given Begum Hazrat Mahal Award. The names included Dr Sangeeta Chaubey, Shruti Singh, Kritika Malhotra, Richi Singh, Sultana Rao, Disha Bajpai, Seema Modi, Priyanka Bajpai, Kusum Verma, Garima, Dr Vineta Dwivedi, Sabiha Ahmed, Meenakshi Tripathi, Razia Nawaz, Shweta Bajpai and Shikha Singh.
Sanjay Singh, secretary, Uttar Pradesh Artist Association, proposed a vote of thanks while the event was hosted by Arshad Khan. The artistes and others associated with the play were given the Umrao Jaan Award.