Kunal’s Bihzad is an artist making sense of forms, filling empty spaces with his genius. He is illiterate like the lesser-born, his dad holds him a genius, as does others in Akbar’s empire. The shapes – naqsh – invite his presences as he is considered the ‘blessed one’. He is tireless in his efforts to make his pen speak, the ink comprehend the colour. He dreams from imagination … imaginé. Zuleikha reads out The Tale of the Parrot, Hafiz et al as Nikisa smiles on. The languages of dream and fiction acquire a life of their own, even as they pursue their own domains … she the emperor’s harem, he the kitabkhana and the slave girl her chore of lending them a hand.
She has the perfumes of Arabia, of the desert land: ones which are known to possess strange powers. They are unlike the Haji’s daughter, ruthlessly banishing failure from her kingdom. She is somehow tolerant of this kid who inspires, as well as is inspired. They often complement each other, indeed spouses to each other. For a long time they accompany one another until the day Bihzad, like the warrior in Hazari’s serai, sees what he shouldn’t have seen. In a sweep of divine intercession, the desert is taken by calamity, something that turns the artist into a saint.
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A new chapter is introduced into the artist’s world – who chooses blindness over vision, silence over speech. The digression of non-seeing is a rite of passage for our Bihzad who finds solace in the birdwomen upstream. Factual discourse ceases to appeal to our creator who would rather revel in the fragmentary nature of non-entities. The children, Jamaal and Jamil, who befriend their ‘Tana’ are the first to notice the gift of sight when he no longer needs their help to scramble down the slopes or search for eggs in the birds’ nests. Across the mountains, the aviators are known by different names and Bihzad identifies them with his bird calls.
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The Great One is on his last days, preparing for the final journey home and he turns to the evicted Bihzad as his agent to Allah’s kingdom.
Bihzad, a study of compulsive exclusion and solitude … He lies in each one of us, realized if our environs permit us the liberty of transgression. Often, we are tempted by the quiet boulevard that lies beyond. Bihzad chose remoteness, as opposed to privileged royal company, which is why he is bestowed with Kunal’s beatitude!
