Mohammad Ali BaigOne morning, when I was living in Bangalore, I got a call from a theatre director who wanted to stage a Hindustani play written by my father, the late Qadir Ali Baig in his book, a compilation titled Resham Ki Dor. He wanted the book that has five scripts of Resham Ki Dor, Nizam Saqqa, Hoon, Aadmi Ki Kheemat and Vaapsi. Five plays in five different genres. I couldn't reach it to him. On my return, I found several messages from this gentleman which made me wonder why he couldn't have picked up any other compilation.Though I wanted to read it myself all through my teens, I couldn't really sit down to doing it primarily because it was in Urdu, my mother tongue, yet a language I wasn't proficient in!But finally when I sat down to read it, I realised what made theatre thespian Habib Tanvir comment that the playwright's natural flair for dialogue writing is evident in this work or moved another veteran Ram Gopal Bajaj to tears when he read it on board his flight to Bhopal.Resham ki Dor, though written two decades ago, moves people even today as it did all of us in more ways than one: Firstly, it brings centrestage the essence of our country's secular fabric, the very basis of India's constitution, and its inherent value system that has bound us together for centuries.Secondly, it showcases the rare versatility of a theatre great's ease of writing historical, humorous, romantic, social as well as satirical work essays.In adfilm industry, we are conveniently branded and categorised. I too followed this rule in a copy-book manner until I read Baba's Resham ki Dor and experienced that it is possible for a creative artist or craftsman to be equally comfortable with differing styles and genres.So, from a branded stylised "lifestyle filmmaker", I found myself "handling" children and emotions as well.Resham ki Dor also made me reiterate my own belief in the power of the word. It made me begin to read Urdu with the required proficiency too!. In the first story, the play of the cover title, Mughal emperor Humayun saves the honour of Rajput queen Karmavati on a battlefield risking his own life. The narrative, in almost every scene has the backdrop of battlefields, political and civilian unrest that comes alive through the dialogue. In this case, I found the word, the dialogue, telling you more than the proverbial thousand pictures.Hoon, the other play, in a humorous yet extremely meaningful manner demonstrates the use of a single syllable throughout a play. It is such works that inspire and compel producers and directors like me to be responsibly meaningful and purposeful even when mounting productions with glitz and glamour whether in adfilms or in theatre.Resham ki Dor was Baba's compilation that I started reading out of curiosity to learn his style of writing but ended up going through an entire school of learning. And what better way to learn a trade for a son than from his own dad!Mohammad Ali Baig is a theatre revivalist, an ad filmmaker and the president of Qadir Ali BaigTheatre Foundation