Three plays out of four, which featured at “Hriday Manch 2016”, the 5th theatre festival organized by Sparsh Natya Rang at Shri Ram Centre this past week, came from small towns directed by theatre persons little known in the Capital. They exude local flavour, unaffected flow of action and freshness. Most of these productions are comic expositions of social evils conveying a moral lesson. It is heartening to observe that Delhi audiences display keen interest in watching these productions which are staged to a capacity hall.
The four-day festival concluded with “Canada De Nazare (RSVP)” presented by the theatre persons, Amritsar. A comedy, it is aptly crafted, economical and it expresses single comic idea — the craze among young people of Punjab to migrate abroad who are ready to pay any price to achieve their wild dreams. Beneath the comic surface there lies the disturbing psyche of Indian male and his deep-rooted mindset motivated by patriarchal society which has different moral conduct for male and female.
Written by Pali Bhupinder Singh, the play projects the interactions between four characters which offer hilarious moments to the audience. The husband is bitten by a bug about migrating to Canada. He seeks help of an agent. The wife opposes vehemently her husband’s plan going to Canada leaving her alone in India. The agent suggests an indecent proposal to the husband who enthusiastically accepts his proposal and persuades his wife to allow him marry another woman which will facilitate his plan to leave India. After a lot of heated discussions the wife agrees to allow her husband to remarry. At this point the agent clarifies his proposal, turning the tables on the husband which shocks him. The agent tells the husband that it is actually his wife who has to remarry to enable him to go to Canada.
Director Anita Devgan has aptly designed her production. She has used minimal property with emphasis on blocks. Using three huge colourful draperies as backdrop, she creates the right ambience of a small flat of a middle class family. Yudhpreet Cheema as husband, Amanpreet Bal as the wife and Hardip Gill as the agent who contrives comic situations to open the eyes of the husband to his follies are eminently comic.
Written by Harishankar Parsai, “Bholaram Ka Jeev” was presented at the festival by Yuva Natya Manch, Damoh, Madhya Pradesh is a biting satire on redtapism and bureaucracy steeped in corruption. The central character is Bholaram who devoted the best part of his life in a government department and is retired without getting his pension sanctioned. Living in abysmal poverty, he is forced to live in a single room house with his family. Even after going from pillar to post his pension is not paid. A demoralised and sick Bholaram dies.
Ironically, when he was alive nobody took any notice of his presence and miseries but his death caused turmoil in the kingdom of Yama, the Lord of Death, whose messenger failed to bring the soul of Bholaram with him to present him before Yama. A perturbed Yama, seeks the help of Narad to go to the human world and bring Bholaram’s soul. With all the heavenly power in his command, Narad failed to accomplish the duty assigned to him. However, he managed to discover Bholaram’s soul wandering in bureaucratic jungles of piles of files dealing with the subject of the grant of his pension. There is no chance of the redemption of his soul enchained in the red-tape and the only way to get liberation is by paying hefty bribe.
Directed by Rajeev Ayachi, who has used elements of Bundelkhandi folk style, especially the music, he should have tightened loose ends to make his production slick. However, the actors give impressive performances, especially Rajeev Ayachi as Yamraj. Pankaj Chaturvedi as Narad creates towards the end memorable image of the oppressed common man, a victim of heartless system. His is an image which deeply disturbs, severely indicting redtapism.
From Haryana, Ras Kala Manch participated in the festival with its production of “Doosra Aadmi Doosri Aurat” under the direction of Ravi Mohan. Written by Vibha Rani, the production explores the psychological and emotional complexities of those engaged in extra marital relationship with subtleties. Set in a metropolis city, the production is sleek and the presentational style is realistic down-to-earth. Though the action keeps on transferring to different locales, the rhythm of the action remains uninterrupted. Yashu Dass should have designed the office scene suggestive enough to capture the ambience of an office of a big business house. However, the scene set in down stage effectively creates an illusion of flats of two elderly executive working in the same office. The two frames either side of downstage contribute to reflect the inner conflict of lovers. Ravi Mohan as the married man and Madhu Deep Singh as the married woman give riveting performances.
The festival opened with the presentation of “Radhhe Radhe Hum Sab Aadhe” which was presented by Sparsh Natya Rang, Delhi. Directed by Ajit Chowdhury, the comedy is written by Aabid Surti. The comic idea is based on the main character, a young man, Radhe, who is under the impression that he is a girl and tries to dress, talk and walk like a young charming girl. To heighten farcical elements, a girl, who knows the true gender of the young man living in an illusory world, is desperate to marry him. The way these two characters play the game of cat and mouse is a source of comedy. The life of Radhe takes a more complicated turn, with the arrival of Dr. Satish, who wants to cure Radhe but Radhe falls in love with the doctor and wants to marry him. The final encounter evokes laughter.
Despite the plot being far-fetched and use of bawdy remarks by characters, the production exudes sparkling comedy.
Jitin Gaur as Radhe and Gaurav Grover are the main source of laughter.
