Ranjit Kapoor is a veteran theatre and film director known for his successful productions. Some of his immensely popular stage productions are “Begum Ka Takia”, “Mukhya Mantri”, “Ek Ruka Hua Faisla”, “Kauwa Chala Hans Ki Chaal” and “Ek Goda Chhey Sawaar”. Most of these productions are adaptations of major foreign plays. A poet and writer, Kapoor does all the adaptations himself imparting distinct Indian colour and milieu to his scripts. Above all, his language is lively and unpretentious. In the course of his long creative journey, he has received several awards including Shikhar Samman by Madhya Pradesh Government and Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Lifetime Achievement in Direction. In his recent works one finds his preference to direct comedies that offer audience amusing moments in theatre. Watching the revival of his “Ek Ghoda Chhey Sawaar”, which he directed for Rhino Horn Production and presented at Shri Ram Centre this past week, one is impressed with his sparkling comic touch that exudes all through the show.
The play is adapted by Kapoor from Broadway hit comedy “Three Men on a Horse” written by George Abbott and John Holm. “Ek Ghoda Chhey Sawaar” opens on a tense note. Insecure of his job of writing poetic piece for calendar published by Padam Ji, a crazy and demanding boss who is obsessed of remaining ahead of his rivals, poet Arun Bakshi is in awe and fear of his boss. All the time he thinks about composing poetic pieces for the boss who is hard to please. The wife of poet is not happy as she wants some fun in her life. Suddenly she discovers her husband’s diary lying on the floor and reads some names which make her suspicious that her husband is having affair with other women. She raises hue and cry and asks her brother to come to her house and teach a lesson to her unfaithful husband. The brother comes and insults Arun. A humiliated Arun leaves for his office but instead of going to office he goes to a local saloon bar. He meets there a group of men and a woman, who make a living by betting on horses, and are frantically in search of the winning horse.
Initially indifferent to the presence of Arun, they get the idea that he is endowed with the intuition to identify the winning horse. Ready to take risk, they follow his advice. To their utter surprise the horse recommended by Arun turns out to be a winner. The group wildly celebrates and their worry is how to detain him. They force him to drink and physically stop him from contacting his wife and his office.
At home his wife is making frantic efforts to trace him. Her brother instead of making efforts to know about the whereabouts of Arun, starts pointing out his faults, calling him irresponsible and ungrateful man. The situation becomes more complicated when Padam Ji, waiting impatiently for short poetic pieces to be printed on the calendar is possessed with a fit of rage. Meanwhile, the winning sprees of those who have made Arun captive continue. They are having good time. The mistress of Pinto does her best not to allow him to leave the saloon. She even tries to seduce him and perform a titillating dance number.
A stage comes, he is out of ideas to tell his captives the right kind of winning horses. He tells them that the idea comes to him only when he travels on a bus. So he is released with two bodyguards to keep a watch on him.
As the comedy moves at a fast pace, it creates comic situations, exploiting the eccentricity of characters, physical buffoonery and the ridiculous behaviour of characters possessed with morbid desire to become rich by betting on horses. We meet another character, Padam Ji, whose craziness makes him a butt of ridicule. The director has treated the farce of sexual jealousy in the scene where Pinto finds his mistress attempting to seduce Arun as well as the reaction of Arun's wife to read the diary of her husband in the opening sequence. (In fact, Pinto’s mistress is simply pretending to seduce Arun so that he forgets about his wife and his boss Padam Ji.)
One of the comic sources is the aggressive confrontations between Padam Ji and the associates of Pinto –– this action is repeated several times and all the time it evokes laughter, long and loud. The opening scene of marital discord is treated with a light touch. All the complications are resolved amicably with the comment on man whose life is like a long race and in the process some lag behind and some go far ahead and the race continues ceaselessly.
Sunil Upadhyay as Arun Bakshi creates the portrait of a timid poet exploited by his employer and nagged by wife who is in constant fear of losing his job. Gaurav Verma as Arun’s brother-in-law, who is an unsuccessful builder and loser in horse races, delights the audience with his buffoonery. Rajesh Aggarwal as Pinto, who obsessively indulges in betting, is energetic, impulsive, imparts vital comic rhythm to the production. Kailash as Padam Ji evokes laughter with his farcically aggressive encounters. Rachna Sharma as Sheela, the unhappy and worried wife of Arun and Disha Tomar as the mistress of Pinto act admirably.
