Blackbox Productions, Mumbai’s ‘Kaun Salim Kiski Anarkali’ an adaptation of Dario Fo’s Hilarious ‘The Virtuous Burglar’, is a comedy-drama written by Hasan Zaidi and directed by META Award- nominated director, Faraz Khan. It’s being brought to Hyderabad, in association with Rangbhoomi Spaces and Events on the 27th, 28th and 29th of October, 2023.
‘The Virtuous Burglar’ was written by Dario Fo as a satire on society, relationships and institutions like marriage, bringing the widening gap between the rich and the poor to the fore. We took Fo’s original text and based it in the times when the nawabs of Awadh still ruled under the watchful and deceitful eyes of the British, who by this time had made strategic inroads into the governance and controlled all the leading princely states of the Indian subcontinent. Kaun Salim Kiski Anarkali is set in 1920s Awadh where the rich and the so-called sophisticated elites collude and conspire in their lust for power but do this in beautifully composed Urdu.
This farce that is this adaptation, centres around Joseph and Mary, a working-class couple who find themselves entangled in the wicked webs of the rich and the elite. Much of the humour is the contrast between what is said, how it’s said and what the privileged class actually mean by it.
‘Kaun Salim Kiski Anarkali’ is the makers’ attempt to reflect together, with the audience on the tricky subject of morality in the post-modern world and the question of Ethics as a philosophical problem in the 21st Century. Although the story is set in the 1920s colonial Awadh, the conundrums are still relevant today.
The cast includes scintillating names of the industry with a tantamount crew.
NSD Alumni and renowned thespian Vibha Chibber (Chak De India), Hasan Zaidi (Zindagi Mere Ghar Aana), Pooja Bhamrrah (The Zoya Factor), Priyasha Bhardwaj (Saas Bahu aur Flamingo), Piyush Kumar (Paachuvum Albhuthavilakkum), budding thespian Prateek Kumar and dramatist Faraz Khan (Patiala House) have together brought the script from page to stage.
This production is enhanced by Sidhant Mathur’s original soundtrack, Somanwita Bhattacharya’s production design and Gaiti Siddiqui’s graceful choreography.
