Shakuntala is counted among the world best literary classics, which was penned by the second century Sanskrit poet Kalidas. His plays have already been translated in several world languages and played in different parts of the globe but the kind of appreciation and praises received by Shakuntala still remain unmatched.
Its story goes like this! Ravishingly beautiful Shakuntala gets pregnant following a romance with king Dushyanta, but is rejected when she arrives in the royal court. Abandoned, she bears a son Bharata in the forest. When a repentant king Dushyanta comes to take her back she refuses, using the same language with which she had earlier been evicted from the court. However, the two are eventually reconciled.
The play has been staged and filmed on several past occasions but the most appreciated and admired was the movie made with the same title by director V. Shantaram in the 1943. Writing about his film, he wrote that the venture was a major gamble, made during World War II and in a changed film-industry context. Both the futures of his new studios as well as his reputation as a perceptive director depended on that daring movie's success. To his pleasant surprise and those of his associates the film became a super hit at the box office, It ran for 104 consecutive weeks.
Shantaram intended the birth of Bharata (son of Shakuntala in the play) to symbolise the emerging independent India. The film remains one of the best known adaptations of the literary classic, and has a quaint period flavour as an early instance of the director's highly decorative use of neo-classical design, which later degenerated into garish calendar art.
Poet Kalidas is counted among the best literati of the world. Translated into several major languages of the world his plays were extraordinarily well-received winning ebullient praises for the author and his skill at playwriting.
Several persons have rendered Urdu translations of this well-known play but the one done by Qudsia Zaidi has been appreciated the most. In the estimation of some critics, this is the best among the many translations of Shakuntala. Qudsia Zaidi seems to have consulted and benefited from the original Sanskrit script and its authentic English translations.
In the foreword of the book, Qudsia Zaidi says that several translations of the play done in Urdu, Hindi and English did not fully corroborate with each other as a number of dialogues found in one version were missing in others.
However, she completed the difficult task through painstaking research and comparisons made of different scripts and also with the help of his brother, who is an expert in linguistics.
Publishers Messrs Book Home deserve a pat on the back for putting out a well produced superb Urdu translation of Shakuntala, which will help students of literature, especially those interested in drama, in learning about the evolution of this important genre of literature during the course of centuries.
Name of the book: Shakuntala
Name of the author: Kalidas
Urdu translation: Qudsia Zaidi
Publisher: Book Home, 46 Mozang Road, Lahore
Pages: 120
Prices: (Hardbound) Rs 110