Raj Narain Dixit is one of the few stage directors in Delhi who are pursuing theatre with passion. Most of his plays deal with a gradual disintegration of family life in urban milieu and the bitterness it causes to the estranged couples. His latest production of “Isi Din Isi Waqt” is another attempt to explore the same theme in depth. Though the production needs fine tuning, the brilliant acting and the down to earth realistic portrayal of the theme, make it engrossing bringing to the fore various layers of the middle class life, its feverish ambition to rise in social ladder that leads them to a situation which is spiritually crippled, socially alienated and devoid of human warmth.
The play is written by Abhiram Bhadkamkar, a graduate from National School of Drama who is a multi- faceted artist. An award winning writer, actor and playwright, he writes both in Marathi and Hindi with equal felicity. “Isi Din Isi Waqt” is originally written in Marathi and he himself has translated it into Hindi. This writer has seen for the first time one of his plays, “Isi Din…”, on the stage which shows his keen observation of the finer nuances of man-woman relationship and the morbid impact on television viewers of soap-operas on their lives, especially on the psyche of urban working women. The play also shows his grasp over his craft as a playwright. Through the easy and natural dialogue his characters employ, he captures the rhythm of the troubled lives of a family consisting of husband, wife and teenage son. The couple is working people and the son is drop out.
Set in the drawing room of the couple, telephone and television set occupy a special place in their lives and in the growth of the characters. In a way they become catalysts to carry forward the narrative to the climax. The conversations between the family members reveal mutual mistrust, often leading to aggressive confrontations. They indulge in the blame game. The couple wanted to make their son an engineer but he failed to fulfil their desire. In frustration, he stopped going to college. The father blames mother for the failure of the son and mother blames the father and son blames both father and mother for his plight.
On telephone the father remains in touch with his boss, informing him about the progress in business deals and his persistent endeavours to bribe clients to accept the deals on the terms of his company. Through his conversation on phone his home is metamorphosed into a business office. His conversation with his wife is minimal and business like.
On her part, as soon as she comes back from her office she remains glued to television, watching her favourite soap-opera depicting the trial and turbulence of women. The tearjerker scenes make her emotionally disturbed. Once the television set becomes out of order, she frantically telephones her friend to know what happened to the characters in conflict with one another. The idiot-box becomes as opium for her.
Having failed to make to the engineering college, the defiant son madly falls in love with a teenaged girl who boasts to him about her lover and her wish to marry a person working in the U.S. so that she could settle in the foreign country. She disdainfully rejects his offer of marriage and pooh-poohs the idea of love. Unable to reconcile with the humiliation and pain of unrequited love, he leaves home.
The bored mother confesses to her close friend her flirtation with her boss who has just divorced his wife. She says she experiences warmth while talking to her boss over a cup of coffee. Her female friend herself is obsessed with maintaining her youth and beauty lest her husband should develop cold feelings towards her. Her husband posted in another city, chases her movements through talking to her on mobile at regular intervals. In a state of paranoia, he has lost his faith in the fidelity of his wife.
These estranged characters gradually move further away from one another. The original play is pruned by the director to reduce its playing time from more than two hours to one hour and forty minutes. There are loose ends here and there. The climactic scene ends abruptly. The placing of properties on the stage needs precision to offer enough space for the performers for action. The lighting does not adequately illuminate the dramatically tense sequences. However, his cast acts admirably.
The most aptly cast performer is Mukesh Bhati as Surender, the sales executive in a private firm. His Surender reminisces about his early peaceful life in a small town spent with his father in moments of inner crisis. His ambition to rise in life led him to leave for a city and join the mad race of career advancement. In the process, he estranges himself with his family. The more he rises in his career, the more he is struck by the fear of losing his job, the harder he works completely exhausting him physically and mentally. Upadhi Singh as Angha, the wife of Surender and mother of the deviant son, and Radha as Vishakha, the close friend of Angha, and the wife of the person posted outside the city, bring to life the void, the alienation and the bitterness of their characters effectively, establishing rapport with the audience.
