Love, lust and betrayal

The story of Noor, a play that will be staged at a Bandra venue this weekend, begins 1,000 years ago in the erstwhile kingdom of Persia. Back then, according to the plot, there lived a person named Banu Noor, who was the Queen of Arbastan. It was a time when women roamed around nude and were often viewed as nothing more than objects of lust by the men around them. And Noor, the queen, felt exactly the same in the eyes of her husband.

But then she met a Sufi mystic. This person had given himself up to the cause of Allah, and had no time for worldly pleasures. As a result, he was one man who didn't view Noor as someone meant only to jump into bed with. And that made the queen fall hopelessly in love with this character, only for her repeated advances to be spurned.

Meanwhile, the King of Persia invaded Arbastan and killed his rival monarch, taking the queen as his prisoner, as was the prevailing custom. What he hadn't bargained for, though, is how hard he would fall for Noor once she was in his court. Simply put, he was besotted with her. Her mind, however, was filled with vengeance. "How dare the mystic not return my love!" she thought. And so she cooked up a sinister plot to get her own back.

This involved leading the king on and making him go almost mad with desire, which she finally achieved with a seductive dance performed for his pleasure. The royal had had it. "Tell me what you want for you to be mine," he asked Noor, to which she replied, "I want you to get me the mystic's head." The king hesitated. This was a saintly man, after all. What would his subjects say if he had him killed?

But Noor pointed out to him that as a royal monarch, he was obligated to be a man of his word. Hence, the king was stuck in a bind. And eventually, although reluctant, he asked for the mystic's head to be chopped off, and had it placed before the object of his affection.

The plot takes a twist thereafter, says Rashmi Sharma, the play's writer and director. She also tells us that she adapted Noor from an opera called Salome, which tells the story of John the Baptist, a Biblical character whose life ended in a manner similar to the Sufi mystic's. "And the message we leave the audience with is that nobody lets you go after you've dented their ego, except for the unforgiving Lord," she adds, meaning that the narrative involves a lesson in humility that the world, nowadays, seems desperately in need of.

ON August 25, 7.30 pm
AT The Cuckoo Club, Bandra West
CALL 9619962969
Entry Rs 350

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