Little Black Book: Events

Serenaded by the Stars of Mughal-E-Azam – the Musical

Just a few weeks back I was part of the hundreds-strong anonymous audience sitting at the Lincoln Center performance of ‘Mughal-E-Azam, listening to the beautiful courtesan Anarkali sing of love and loss.

Feroz Abbas Khan – the Man Who Brought Mughal-e-Azam to America

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Mughal-e-Azam – dance extravaganza

Last night I had a really surreal experience, sitting next to Emperor Akbar, the beautiful Anarkali and her handsome Prince Salim, feasting on mutton biryani, gobi aloo, daal and gulab jamuns, while both the courtesans Anarkali and Bahar sang for our pleasure. Sounds unbelievable? Well it did happen – right in New York, on the Upper East Side.

The venue was the Shivdasani brownstone and its beautiful back patio and the occasion was a small intimate celebration for Mughal-E-Azam’s director Feroz Abbas Khan, his dynamic wife Sonya and the whole cast and crew of the musical which has caused such a stir in America. Other guests included noted playwright Rajiv Joseph whose play ‘King James’ was seen recently on Broadway.  The sculptor  Raj Shahani was there too as well as Rohi and Gitesh Pandya of Box Office Guru and playwright Rehana Mirza.

The superb hosts were New Yorkers Aroon and Indur Shivdasani who are close friends of the Khans for many years. It was a novel experience seeing the cast without stage makeup and period costumes, away from the stage. Clad in casual clothes, very much a part of the modern era – and away from mighty matters of state, love and intrigue – they were happy to talk of real life and real things.

It was fascinating – and surreal – to see Akbar, the Mighty Mughal-E-Azam in the kitchen talking so gently with the staff and taking pictures with them. And yes, we had the pleasure of hearing Prince Salim sing a Punjabi love song – which of course he does not ever do on the stage. These were all talented actors on their leisure time and were relaxed and friendly. I tried not to ask them too many work questions but all of them did emphasize that performing in Mughal-E-Azam has been an honor of a lifetime and a great adventure, meeting fans and performing in the most wonderful theaters.

The evening also turned out to be Aroon and Indur’s 54^th wedding anniversary – so we had the added pleasure of  having these world-class singers serenading us all with the evergreen romantic songs from Mughal-E-Azam as well as from films of the Bollywood films of the  60’s and 70’s.

Love was absolutely in the air! Anarkali and Prince Salim at the same table, red wine – and golden gulab jamuns too. Getting back to real life will be hard.