Despite being of American and Scottish descent, Indian actor Tom Alter is a familiar face in Hindi films and Indian theatre with his impeccable Hindi and Urdu.
Alter will be in Dubai this Thursday with a play based on Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, a senior member of the Indian Independence Movement who became the first Minister of Education in independent India.
Written and directed by Dr Sayeed Alam — who has written, directed and acted in more than 25 critically acclaimed plays such as, Ghalib in New Delhi, K L Saigal, 1947, Big B, Cut..Cut..Cut…, etc – the play Maulana Azad is a two-hour monologue where Azad is drafting his autobiography India Wins Freedom with his friend and secretary Humayun Kabir. The agreement between Kabir and Azad binds Azad to speak only in Urdu. Azad’s narrative includes entertaining anecdotes from his life and personal relations with Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel and Jinnah.
Alter’s long-standing theatre career has seen him in several classic and modern plays including, Maulana Azad, Ghalib, Sons Of Babur, Larins Saheb, Raja Nahar Singh, Tughlaq, Arms and the Man, Waiting for Godot, to name a few. He is a gold medalist from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and has acted in over 150 films including Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Junoon, Kranti and Ram Teri Ganga Maili.
Maulana Azad will be held at Shaikh Rashid Auditorium, The Indian High School Dubai, on Thursday, October 23. Entry is free. For VIP passes call Vertex Conference Organisers on 055-9256308.
