One play, three stories
PRABALIKA M. BORAH
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All the plays etched well the laughs, love and lives.
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Centre stage Scenes from ‘Bade Bhai Sahab’ and ‘Sankraman’.
First day, first play at the Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Festival started with some shoulder, neck, hand and breathing exercises. One of the Motley Productions members who was demonstrating the exercises for the audience said, “You are our host, so
I cannot ask you to stand up and do the exercises. But the final act is the most tricky one –– raise your hands, shake your wrist, put your right hand in your pocket or bag and quickly woh kambakht mobile ko off karde.” The crowd was in splits, and were happy to be there at the staging of Katha Collage directed by Naseeruddin Shah.
Two things about the play — there is no narrator and the stage set is simple and non-distracting. Katha Collage presents three short stories: Bade Bhai Sahab and Shatranj Ke Khiladi by Munshi Premchand and Sankraman by Kamtanath.
Bade Bhai Sahab
Bade Bhai Sahab is the story of the delicate ties between two brothers. The younger one, is younger to his elder brother by five years and hence bade bhai sahab takes it on him to paramash the younger one on everything. “Itna itrae mat, abhi nichi kaksha mein ho. Andhe ke ankh batair lag gayi isliye pass huwe. Mere kaksha tak pahuncho. Tab daton se pasina chutegi. Angrezi itihaas mein Aantho (8) Henry hain, dozeno James aur Saikron William…
The play is in first person account which interestingly switches the actors from being the narrators and players while the narration forming the part of dialogue between the two brothers. Actors Imaad and Jameel had wonderful on-stage chemistry. The chaste Hindi was soothing for the Hyderabadi-speaking audience as they watched with rapt attention.
The play at times takes a dig on the education system. For instance, exam papers say ‘write an essay in more than 200 words on…’ and the pages given are four. “Iske bade mein 400 lafz, aur woh bhi, 4 sasure full scape paper mein?” laughs bhai Sahab.
Shatranj ke khiladi
The two characters depict the love of all to play chess all day. So much so they derive a conclusion on benefits of playing chess saying it ‘sharpens’ the brain. The play is like a jugal-bandi of thoughts and dialogues, where the two portrays the characters of the begum and laundi (maid).
Actors Om and Manoj Pahwa switched between being the narrator and the character with ease and managing to evoke laughter of the audience where it is meant to. The play is intense in a different way. No nasiyat and nor does it talk of morality, it shows how un-measured addiction to anything can become one’s biggest enemy.
Sankraman
Naseeruddin Shah plays the pivotal role in Sankraman by Kamtanath. Sankraman captures this circle of life, with three points of view — those of a man, his wife and their son, all hailing from a middle class home of Uttar Pradesh.
It is the story of how most people hitting middle age are startled by memory flashes of their own parents and how similar their behaviour seems at that age and how similar we behave as well.
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