Agra Bazaar is a play penned by Late Habib Tanvir, a masterclass Indian Theatre Practitioner who has contributed modern Indian theatre with its deeply rooted Indianness' with an awakened global human being act, advocating the best human resources available to work and create a meaningful dramatic experience for stage. Agra Bazaar is a biographic sketch of a poet Nazeer Akbarabadi who wrote not only the classic pieces of literature in Hindustani in the form of poetry in diverse style but also contributed a big number of poems on the subjects which were commonly existed in normal life but were ignored as subjects of poetry. He wrote on the lower working people business with full interest and sweetness. The monkey man, the cucumber man, the watermelon man, the pickle man ... and so many characters and also the lifestyles and celebration of common Indian society fabricated with multiple religious and community practices.
Ref : https://www.rekhta.org/poets/nazeer-akbarabadi/profile
Nazeer born in 16 Aug 1830 at Agra, Uttar pradesh.
Syed Wali Mohammad, known as Nazeer Akbarabadi, is the only poet of his kind in Urdu for a variety of reasons. He was born in 1735 in Delhi. There was huge celebration at his birth as he was the only male child of his parents born after twelve daughters. He was brought up with great care and his mother took him to Agra when Delhi fell into bad days.
Nazeer received his early education in Agra. He belonged to a prosperous family and led his childhood and early life in comfort. Following the usual practice of the day, he trained himself as a soldier. He was deeply interested in sports also. When it was the time to pick on a profession for earning a livelihood, he chose to be teacher and started teaching children at Mathura. It is said that he was a teacher to six children of Raja Vilas Rao. Later, the raja of Bharatpur and the nawab of Lucknow, Wajid Ali Shah, wanted to enrol him in their courts but Nazeer did not agree to leave his place.
Nazeer was a contemporary of Meer, Sauda, Jurat, Insha, and Mushafi who stood as the vanguards of classical Urdu poetry with ghazal being nourished as the most prestigious form of poetical expression. Nazeer opened up entirely new avenues for Urdu poetry as he chose his material from life brilliantly spread all around. There is hardly any aspect of secular life that did not engage his attention. His wrote poems on all religious festivals, communal events, carnivals, sports, hobbies, and scenes and scenarios of common life which none had done before him. He evolved a diction that too entirely new for the kind of poems he wrote. There is a general misconception that Nazeer wrote only on the folk life and its various manifestations, but he also wrote highly sophisticated, Persianized, and creatively rich ghazals which find him a place among the elitist poets of Urdu.
The performance of Agra Bazaar has maintained its dramatic structure, character and the text lived by 3-4 generations of actors in last 70 years of its journey. The company ''Naya Theatre'' (literally mean New Theatre) has a mixed actors from folk and urban societies. They weave a particular color and tone to the performance which is unique and entertaining.
Agra Bazaar and other productions of Naya Theatre like ''Charandas Chor'' (The Thief named Charandas) and Kaamdev Ka Apna Vasant Ritu Ka Sapna'' (The Midsummer Night Dream of Shakespear) is an Indian Dramatic Arts Living Heritage and needs to be supported by the government and the corporate sector. But it is a crude fact that we are ignoring the master practice existing. We are not showing a responsible gesture towards these heritages for the coming generation. Hope it will be understood to act and support these heritage productions with Habib Tanvir, H Kanhailal, Ratan Thiyam, Anupam Kumar and the Sangit traditions before we lose many such living stage experiences to die or corrupt with popular commercial mindset.
Suman Kumar I 23 April 2024, Delhi All Photographs by Suman Kumar
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