Of global glory and art

British Council organised a talk session titled ‘Celebrating the Glory of Global Arena’ at British Council, Jubilee Hills over the weekend. Theatre personality Mohammad Ali Baig was in conversation with IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan in the session and shared his experiences.

Baig and his Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Foundation repertory just returned from month-long performances at the world’s largest theatre festival, ‘The Edinburgh Festival Fringe’. He shared his experiences and anecdotes from the performances in Europe and his earlier performances at other global venues in the US, Canada, France, Turkey and Pakistan.

An interesting question that IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan asked Baig was about the secret of Baig’s original theatre being such a hit internationally, Baig’s reply was inspiring, “I work on the premise that my theatre is for audience and that’s why it touches a chord with them, moves them to tears and touches their hearts.

My theatre is not to fulfil an urge for creative satiation”. Jayesh also quizzed Baig about ‘Quli: Dilon ka Shahzaada’, ‘Savaan-e-Hayat’, ‘Spaces’ and ‘1857: Turrebaz Khan’, and how ‘Raat Phoolon ki’ was accepted in Pakistan, which saw a triple bomb blast at the venue. Baig responded, “Theatre and art unite people and the theatre I learnt from my father, late Qadir Ali Baig saheb was that it should transcend boundaries and barriers of region, religion, class or culture.

It was overwhelming to see queues of the audience from the box office to the entrance of the venue at the mammoth Qaddafi Stadium to watch our play. The Chief Minister of Punjab (Pakistan) and the DGP personally monitored our return till the tarmac of the airport in armed vehicles after the bomb blast for our safe return, saying that as long as you’re in Pakistan, you are our honoured guest. That’s an example of how theatre unites people.”

After the session, a few people asked him about his ability to communicate and performing in English on one evening and Urdu on another. And another question while the whole country has seen Baig in his celebrated role of sensitive poet-prince Quli Qutub Shah, when would they see him as the fiery Turrebaz Khan which just premiered in Edinburgh and London, not yet in India?

To which Baig called his co-actor Vijay Prasad onstage and played out a brief two-minute act. Baig in his style had the audience both in raptures and splits. Noor Baig presented visuals of the world premiere of ‘1857: Turrebaz Khan’ and the celebrated ‘Quli: Dilon Ka Shahzaada’ which garnered rave reviews of British press and audience responses. “We are also premiering ‘1857: Turrebaz Khan’ in Delhi on September 25 and after that finally we will premiere it in Hyderabad in November at Qadir Ali Baig theatre Festival,” he shared.