Jammu March 19: Recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for 2015 for his contribution to Indian theatre as director, Mushtaq Kak’s nationally and internationally acclaimed and appreciated Sufi Musical presentation ‘Ishq Malangi’ will be featured in Mumbai Theatre Festival on April 14, 2019.
The play “Ishq Malangi” portrays the tale of true and unconditional love during the era of 1940s when Jammu City was a small town with a red light area called as Urdu Bazar having few houses which were known as Kothas and frequented by the affluent sections of society for their entertainment through music and dance. Ifra Kak and Surinder Manhas’s music gives the soul to the theme of play.
The staging of ‘Ishq Malangi’ in Theatre Olympics is being considered as grand triumph of State’s art and culture. The production is a dramatization of short story by Khalid Husain and Pritam Katoch’s stage version unfolds in a straightforward manner, establishing direct rapport with the audience. It is a play about self-abnegation of lovers for the quest of fulfillment of true love that transcends physical love between man and woman. Is such love possible to attain in the world afflicted with malice and vulgar materialism? The production seeks to answer this most intriguing question. Director conveys this noble feeling using the device of Sufi music that touches the innermost recess of the soul. In a way, music is the soul of this production. Though, the play deals with two different short stories, both deal with the theme of true love which enables the narrative to shed light on multiple shades of love in different spaces and times.
Mushtaq Kak whi has worked as director in Shri Ram Centre for performing arts for 10 years. He is the only Theatre personality of Jammu and Kashmir who is invited to teach design, direction and act as faculty member several repertory companies across the globe. In addition to this, Mr. Kak is also a significant member of scores of committees. He has directed enormous plays in Dogri, Hindi, English and even in Sanskrit at various parts of the country and abroad has attended Global Culture Summit 2017 at Abu Dhabi earlier this year in April 2017, a high-level international summit hosted by Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority and presented in conjunction with publishers of Foreign Policy Magazine The FP Group, Washington and TCP Ventures, New York which was attended by world’s top creative minds from over 80 countries.
The play “Ishq Malangi” has been featured at numerous National and International Theatre Festivals and has won accolades all over. Mushtaq Kak’s work as a stage director is marked by precision in design and his plays unfold in a realistic style, avoiding superfluous elements to concentrate on the sense of the scene.
