In this debut play, Khurshid captures the intricate problems that beset the Mughal dynasty and expressed by the protagonist, Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal emperor, both a product and a victim of those very problems. It is also an attempt to understand the concept of India we cherish, but often take for granted.
As the plot progresses, the reader realises that India would not have been what it is but for the Great Mughals. The young historian in the play, Rudranshu Mitra, is obsessed with Zafar. To him, the last emperor is a symbolic link of India’s troubled past with its promising future. The play moves back and forth in time. Through his many excursions into Mughal and early British Indian history, Rudranshu helps us see this land as an assimilation of cultures.
