When the poles meet

September 15, 2016 09:18 pm | Updated November 01, 2016 06:41 pm IST

An adaptation of “Happy End”, Jatin Sarna’s “Gangster Samiti” manages to convey Brecht’s humanism.

COMPELLING PERFORMANCE A scene from the play.

COMPELLING PERFORMANCE A scene from the play.

Bertolt Brecht’s Threepenny Opera is widely performed in India. Renowned stage directors like B.M. Shah as well as amateur young theatre practitioners have been producing this play from time to time. Written by Brecht and Kurt Weill, “Happy End”, which was premièred three years after Threepenny Opera, is remarkable for bringing to the fore Brecht’s Marxist ideology. However, “Happy End” was not successful on the stage. In Delhi, it is little known. In the recent years, we have seen its one production by Shri Ram Centre directed by Swaroopa Ghosh. Nearly after half-a-decade, Prism Theatre Society and Harfkaar Foundation presented the play as “Gangster Samiti” this past week at Shri Ram Centre. The tremendous response to the production of a capacity hall at the curtain call when the performers were greeted with applause, illustrates the triumph of the promotion.

“Ganster Samiti” is jointly adapted in Hindi by Jatin Sarna and Swaroopa Ghosh, the music score is by Sandy which tends to be a kind of fusion of Indian and western music. Jatin Sarna and Divendra Ahirwar have written songs based on the original lyrics. The score is lively and imparts drive to the production.

Like Threepenny Opera, “Happy End” focuses on the world of anti-social elements who operate in connivance with the police force. In the Threepenny Opera we find a mordant attack on bourgeois society and its morals. “Happy End” projects the world of gangsters struggling to make both ends meet and charity workers who want to reform the people indulge in crimes and go from one place to another to raise money to serve the cause of humanity but they never get enough money. The gang of criminals and the members of charity in their diabolically opposed style of work interact with each other. Through this interaction, humorous, anxious and tense moments are offered. In the process, the members of both the groups realise that they are the victims of an exploitative system.

The gang is headed by a woman who strikes terror into the hearts of her members. She has to control the dreaded members of her gang and she has o be on tenterhooks to face the rival gang. Being a woman of grit, she continues to lord over a dog eat dog world. She crushes her enemies both in the gang and outside the gang mercilessly. To her gang she is known as Kaali Billi (black cat). In Billa Badshah, she finds her rival posing threat to her supremacy who is more ferocious, dynamic and unscrupulous. The members of the gang admire his daredevil quality and fear him. Meanwhile, he mercilessly kills the head of the rival gang without the permission of Kaali Billi. She becomes furious. In fact, she has a secret deal with the rival gangster. Now, she is determined to finish Billa Badshah and assigns this work to her powerful and trusted member. For both, it is a fight to finish encounter.

The members of the charity with young girls headed by an elderly person once enter the den of these dreaded gangsters. They are appalled to see these degenerated humans. They start preaching them. The gangsters make fun of these girls. Sister Laila is bold and has faith in her capacity to reform criminals. In fear, the group leaves the den but sister Laila remains there. The gangsters try to molest her but she is protected by Billa Badshah. This incident makes Laila’s conviction all the more strong about the possibility of moral regeneration of criminals and she decides to remain in the den. Meanwhile, police are chasing Billa Badshah who is framed in a murder case by his own gang to get rid of him. Laila is expelled from her organisation for her 'misconduct'. She makes frantic efforts to save Billa from the murder charge who is, in fact, innocent.

Director Jatin Sarna has aptly designed his production. The gangsters fight on the streets, roads and deserted areas. He not only set this dreadful action on the stage but uses auditorium including balcony. The action is executed with remarkable adroitness, dramatic force and swift pace which is watched with a sense of awe. A raised platform is erected on the upstage left from where the members of the charity give lectures to the downtrodden, riff raff to uplift them morally. On the centre stage right there is space for bar run by a lady bartender. On the down centre stage vital actions take place.

There are scenes which are full of suspense. One such scene is where a policeman brings an elderly lady in an unconscious state and says, “She was lying on the street and he will be back with a ambulance to take her to the hospital.” As soon as the policeman goes out, the lady gets up and turns out to be Kaali Billi.

In the original there are references to the Manifesto of the Communist Party. In the adapted version these references are obliterated. However, towards the end Brecht’s humanism is implicitly conveyed.

Jatin Sarna in the role of Billa Badshah imparts alacrity, force, internalising the tension, anxiety, street smartness and the instinct for survival when he is chased by gun-totting enemies. The way he slides down from balcony with the help of a rope, he displays the skill of an acrobat. Manisha as Kaali Billi, the dreaded lady head of the gang of criminals, portrays her character with the artistry of a seasoned actress. Radhe Krishan as Chumma, who operates in the guise of a woman, Rahul Batra as the manager deputed to kill Billa Badshah, Rajeev Verma as Bhola Bhai Das who leads female members of the charity and Pawan Diwan Singh as policeman act admirably. Tanya Purohit’s Laila is bold, intelligent, sensitive and convincing about her mission to make hardened criminals conscious about their social responsibility.

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