PESHAWAR, Feb 5: The first-ever stage play on the life and works of warrior poet Khushal Khan Khattak attracted a large number of theatre lovers.

The play was staged here at Nishtar Hall under the auspices of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Cultural Directorate on Monday and Tuesday nights. It would be staged on Wednesday exclusively for families.

The play encompassed the multidimensional personality of Khushal Khan Khattak, who during his early life was a loyal mansabdar (local viceroy) of Mughal Empire and chieftain of Khattak tribe.

However, later he turned into an adversary of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir and struggled for the unification of different Pakhtun tribes.

Being the most important aspect of the life of Khushal Khan Khattak, his poetry was also properly highlighted in the play by including several of his famous couplets that awed the audience.

This was the second play of the series organised by the cultural directorate as the first one was staged in Dec last year on the life of prominent Sufi poet Rehman Baba.

“It was very challenging role for me to perform. I was so overwhelmed that I couldn’t sleep for seven nights when the director asked me to platy this role,” said Kaleem Khan, a rising artist, who also performed as Rehman Baba in the other play staged last year.

He said that keeping in view the towering and imposing personality of Khushal Khattak, it was a difficult role and looking at the response of the audience it appeared that he had done justice with the role.

Prominent Pashto writer Dr Mohammad Azam Azam had started writing the play but after his death another famous playwright Noorul Bashar Naveed completed the task.

The play is directed by former PTV director Masood Ahmad Shah, who believed that theatre plays could draw audience in Peshawar.

The play was started by showing the appointment of Khushal Khan Khattak as mansabdar after the death of his father during the reign of Mughal emperor Shahjehan in the year 1641 AD.

He was shown a loyal official of the Mughal Empire as he fought several important battles for it. He was appreciated and duly rewarded by the emperor.

In the second stage of his life, Khushal Khattak was arrested when Aurangzeb Alamgir assumed the throne. In few scenes Khushal was shown in captivity at Rathambore where he realised that he had killed his Pakhtun brothers for the sake of the Mughal rule. He also remained busy in literary work during the about a decade imprisonment.

He was freed because of the efforts of the then governor of Kabul, Mohammad Amin. After the release, Khushal was a changed man, who decided to strive for the unity of Pakhtuns tribes.

Promoting Afghan nationalism through his poetry became mission of his life. The drama also displayed his association with two other famous Pakhtun warriors, Darya Khan Afridi and Aimal Khan Mohmand, and provided details about the famous battle of Khyber wherein they jointly defeated the army of Mughals.

The Pakhtun warrior poet was shown deeply disturbed when one his sons, Behram Khan, sided with the Mughals because he was annoyed with the nomination of his brother Ashraf Khan as successor of Khushal.

The play ended with the death scene in which Khushal was shown telling his two sons that he should be buried at a place where “the dust of Mughal horses’ hoofs may not fall on his grave.”

“It is our endeavour to highlight the services and struggle of different Pakhtun heroes and this stage play is part of our efforts,” said Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain after watching the play.

He said that they would try to stage the play in Karachi, Quetta and even in Kabul and later on to dub it in Urdu and stage it in other cities of Pakistan.