Hyderabad: Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) celebrates its silver jubilee with a play, ‘Savaan-e-Hayat’, on October 3 at the amphitheatre of the university campus.
Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Foundation’s globally feted play ‘Savaan-e-Hayat’ is a biography of Queen Hayat Bakshi Begum, who ruled the 17th-century kingdom of Golconda.
She was the daughter of Hyderabad’s founder King Quli Qutb Shah. She was married to his successor King Muhammad Qutub Shah and was regent and then queen mother to King Abdullah Qutb Shah. Her powerful vision and stratagems helped thwart the Mughal invasion of the Deccan, besides being a ruler who contributed to the well-being of her subjects and the architecture of the city.
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The play that was invited to Turkey and USA is written by Noor Baig and Mohammad Ali Baig and translated to Urdu by the late Kadir Zaman. It is directed by Padma Shri recipient Mohammad Ali Baig who also brings to life the three important men in the queen’s life playing the three roles of successive rulers of the Deccan.
Baig is celebrated for presenting Hyderabadi history’s heroes in his father’s grand ‘Spectacle Theatre’ form at various forts and palaces around the world.
Veteran actress Rashmi Seth plays the titular role, supported by Noor Baig, Vijay Prasad, S.A. Majeed and Sara Hussain.
The play brings the story of an unsung hero to light and takes the audience into a chapter of history that altered the fate of the Deccan.
“The Maulana Azad National Urdu University is celebrating its silver Jubilee this year. One of the best ways of creating a landmark of this special year is holding Padmasri Mohammad Ali Baig’s historical theatrical production ‘Savaan e Hayat’, which beautifully depicts the grandeur of Hyderabad’s glorious past,” said Prof Salma Ahmed Farooqui, Director, H. K. Sherwani Centre for Deccan Studies, MANUU.
