After three years of legal battles and incarceration for an alleged rape, Mahmood Farooqui is returning to theatre, a free man. His first love being the stage, he’s working on a play based on the Mahabharat.
Mahmood’s support system was his wife, filmmaker Anusha Rizvi, who is elated, relieved and exhausted. However, she believes that the fight is not yet over. “We’re slowly getting back to normalcy,” she says. “What really helped us stay afloat during these hard times were our friends. They all supported us, believed in Mahmood’s honestly. We don’t know what we’d have done without them. And of course, Mahmood’s theatre group. They rallied around him and supported him, keeping his dreams alive. It’s a big moment for us.”
Mahmood is returning to theatre with Dastangoi, the modern interpretation of traditional literature. This time, he’s reinterpreted the Maha-bharat as Daastaan-e-Karn, focusing on Karn. The act will be staged in Urdu, Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit for over 90 minutes, and will be performed by Mahmood. “We are more than a little nervous, since this is the first performance of Mahmood’s Dastangoi. Pray for us” says Anusha.
