An
episode from Mahabharata 'Nal-Damyanti' was dramatised
by master Jethanand Khilandas Bhiryani and the same
was staged by an amateur group- D.J. Sindh College
Dramatic Society, Karachi, in the year 1894. Sindhi
drama writing had taken birth, In the year 1880, a
great scholar and learned son of Sindh, Mirza Qalich
Beg had written a play in Sindhi, based on the immortal
love story of 'Laila Majnoo' in the form of Hindi
'Dohas' which never reached the stage. It was again
Qalich Beg, who wrote another drama 'Kurshed', adapted
from an Urdu play, which he had witnessed in Bombay
during his college days. He is rightly called the
pioneer of Sindhi Drama. In the years to Come, he
adapted in Sindhi over a dozen of master pieces from
English, Sanskrit, Hindi and Urdu among which many
plays were of the great William Shakespeare. He not
only changed the names of the characters, but even
the atmosphere and the situations were changed to
suit the local audience and mood.
The
stage was set for the take off of the Sindhi drama
and stage. Many educated and enlightened gentlemen
were attracted to this field and dramatic activity
began in full swing. Amateur dramatic groups sprang
up in big cities like Karachi, Hyderabad, Shikarpur,
Larkana, Nawabshah and many more.
The
earlier plays were religious in content, drawn from
the rich Hindu mythology and great epics of 'Ramayana'
and 'Mahabharata'. Some of the titles are Nal-Damyani,
Ratnawali, Harishchandra, Ramayana, Ram Banvas,
Drupadi etc. The next phase was of the historical
source. Plays like Noorjahan Jahangir, Nadir Shah,
Gul Bakavali and Shakuntala were written and performed;
the last mentioned met a great success, which was
adapted by Qalich Beg but conditioned in the local
milieu.
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