A spirited production aims at bringing alive the rich heritage of courtesans of a bygone era

Manjari Chaturvedi in moments from the production

What ties together the journeys of Gauhar Jaan, Begum Akhtar, Jaddanbai and a thousand other tawaifs or courtesans? Their soul-stirring ghazals, reverberating over the years, from ancient gramophones to music apps. And the fact remains that this tribe of women shaped performing arts in India, daring to live life on their own terms. Yet, tawaifs have been stigmatised and driven to the margins of art, culture and society. For the past 12 years, The Courtesan Project, a concert series initiated by kathak exponent and choreographer Manjari Chaturvedi, has been striving to erase this taboo by recreating the magic of tawaifs on stage and restoring their lost status as cultural change-makers.

This week, a production in the city, titled Uff Malka Jaan & The Velvet Courtesans!, will bring alive the rich heritage of these courtesans from the 18th to 20th centuries. Led by Chaturvedi, with storytelling by actor Neesha Singh and dastangoi by Nusrat Ansari, the one-of-a-kind show is presented by the Sufi Kathak Centre, Royal Opera House, Mumbai, and Avid Learning. Chaturvedi, who has been rehearsing with Singh and Ansari in Delhi, points out that there are a thousand ghazal singers in Mumbai. Yet, no one will give the tawaifs, who popularised the genre, their due credit. "Similarly, kathak performers don't even acknowledge tawaifs as part of their history. Every connotation associated with tawaifs in kathak has been consciously removed because they were "threatening the society". And why? Because they were earning their own money, and had sexual freedom," the dancer elaborates, adding, "We have distanced the tawaifs from their art and are now performing their creations."

With the 90-minute performance, Chaturvedi hopes to change the popular patriarchal and Bollywood-fed narrative of tawaifs as "bad women". Through music, dance, theatre and storytelling, the trio will weave together stories of courtesans from Benares, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Delhi and Goa. The narratives, Chaturvedi shares, have been painstakingly collected through years of research. "The compositions featured in the show have either been sung by tawaifs or sisters and daughters of tawaifs who were part of Hindi cinema industry," she adds.

Neesha Singh and Nusrat Ansari

While Ansari will set the context for each story in Hindi and Urdu, Chaturvedi will step in to recreate the songs of the tawaifs through dance and music. Singh, meanwhile, will bring alive the tales in English, blending theatre with storytelling. Singh recalls that Chaturvedi, a dear friend, encouraged her to take to the stage to tell these unheard stories. "I will be playing the courtesans - Gauhar Jaan, Chanda Bibi, Zareena Begum, Jaddanbai, among others - and not just telling their stories," the veteran actor shares. Ansari will introduce us to different types of tawaifs and what they were famous for. "I'll be diving into the historical context of that period - when Awadh was becoming popular with nawabs like Wajid Ali Shah encouraging dance and music - and what has led us to see tawaifs in a completely different light today," the dastango reveals.

The artistes hope to not just bring alive the glory of courtesans, but rally for their recognition in the cultural landscape of India. For far too long, history has been written by men, points out Chaturvedi. "Women have never been given equal space. Then, tawaifs were branded as women who had to sleep with the nawabs to earn their place. Now, when women climb the corporate ladder, people turn back and say, ‘Oh, we know how she got there.' But that's not how we speak about men," she explains, urging viewers to come, hear stories of these different women. "The show will empower you to look at women differently," she promises.

On: November 4; 7 pm to 8.30 pm
At: Royal Opera House, Mama Parmanand Marg, Girgaum
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Cost: Rs 499 onwards