Five-day Urdu theatre festival opens in Mumbai

Mumbai: The Maharashtra State Urdu Sahitya Academy has organised a five-day drama festival in Mumbai from October 23-27, 2017.
Twenty-seven productions from Solapur, Malegaon, Pune and Mumbai will take part, said organiser Iqbal Niyazi. The venue is Mysore Auditorium in Matunga. Entry is free.
Monday's inauguration was attended by IPTA veteran Sagar Sarhadi, Rakesh Bedi, Om Katare and Kuldeep Singh.
The drama festival is dedicated to the memory of Farooque Shaikh and Tom Alter. Both were proficient at Urdu and both were excellent theatre artistes who did not allow their work in cinema to thwart their passion for stage.
Shaikh's 45-year-career in theatre blossomed with Khalid Ki Khala during the late 1960s-early 1970s. He went on to achieve new milestones with Tumhari Amrita opposite Shabana Azmi which ran for 21 years from 1992 to 2013. Aapki Soniya, its sequel with Sonali Bendre, also fared well.
Alter's enactment of Mirza Ghalib and Sahir Ludhianvi is memorable.