by John Murrell
Directed by Tom Diamond
Luminato presents Sampradaya Dance Creations
at the Fleck Theatre
June 10-12, 2011

            Despite some ravishing visuals and elegant dances, the 75-minute multi-disciplinary Taj is disappointing. It is certainly John Murrell’s most feeble script. Centering on the last days of aging Shah Jahan, it doesn’t narrate itself enticingly except through Kumudini Lakhia’s simple but eloquent Kathakali choreography exquisitely performed by the ensemble, but particularly by Meghranjani Hirani as beautiful Mumtaz Mahal, Sooraj Subramaniam as young Shah Jahan, and Sid Sawant as Aurangzeb.  Sashar Zarif’s Sufi Mystic adds to the exotic element, and the Urdu vocals of Ustad Faiyaz Khan have a bewitching power. However, the script is dully conceived, with an ailing Shah Jahan, imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb, remembering his history, while his daughter Jahanara, who is weary of his repeated retellings of that history, compels him to reconsider his version of events, including how he won the hand of Mumtaz Mahal, then lost her, and why he built the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum to her imperishable memory.

Murrell’s script is top heavy with monologues in which Shah Jahan is made to sound one lament after another, and what increases the monotony is Indian film star Kabir Bedi’s portentous tone. The dialogue is not much better, with Lisa Ray as Jahanara also falling into a repetitive and inadequately inflected vocal manner. Bedi is a tall, handsome man with an imposing presence, but he sounds less and less interesting as the story proceeds. Murrell’s prosaic earnestness is rarely relieved by any sense of rhapsodic poetry, though there are a couple of passages that have the texture of poetry, but the script’s reluctance to develop a real dramatic dynamic turns it into a disappointing waste of talent. Nevertheless, it is beautiful to watch as a dance-creation, especially as Jacques Collin’s projections and Phillip Silver’s lighting combine to provide magnificently sensuous images that radiate with particular enchantment.

pic 1: Kabir Bedi

pic 2: Lisa Ray as Jahanara in "Taj"




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