Kaifi aur Main

Last night I with my wife went to watch a play "Kaifi aur Main" based on the life of Kaifi Azami. This was organized in Good Shepherd Auditorium, which is one of the good auditoriums in Bangalore. This play was not actually a play but a beautiful way of story telling. Idea of theatrical way to present Kaifi in the mix up of story,  his nazams, gazhals, poetry and songs; was brilliant. Shabana Azami and Javed Akhtar shared the life of Kaifi in a very beautiful way. The play narrated the love between Kaifi and his wife Shaukat in a very romantic way. The social and cultural activism of Kaifi was well shared in this story. Shabana tried to live in her mother's image and Javed tried to create kaifi's portrait. The act of Shabana Azami was fabulous. Javed Akhtar as an actor disappointed me a little bit and that can be undestood as Shabana worked in the theater for a long whereas Javed was always a lyricst first. Jaswinder Singh who sung some of the best ghazals and songs of Kaifi was just fantastic. The songs were well aligned with the rhythm of story. His voice was really melodious and music played was superb. He got the best applauds from the crowd which he rightly deserved. The best part was the narrative style of Shabana, which will be cherished for a long time.