Dinesh Ahlawat is trained by the late Panchanan Pathak, a veteran director and one of the pioneers of Indian theatre music, and worked in his group Vidushak for nearly a decade. Inspired by his guru's artistic credo to unite amateur artists and to produce comedy plays to expose hypocrisy, obscurantisms and gender bias, he formed Manch Aap Sab Ka (MASK) in 2002, staging almost regularly weekend comedies with a view to entertain and make audience conscious about social evils. To perpetuate the aesthetic ideas of Panchanan Pathak who had a long association with Indian Peoples Theatre Association has been organising annual comedy theatre every year solely depending on box office tariff.
As part of his weekend theatre, Ahlawat produced “Do Thug” at LTG auditorium recently.
On the prowl
Written by Jitendra Mittal, the play is a comic exposition of two young men who prowl from one place to another to make unsuspecting women the object of their desire by resorting to conning. As the narrative unfolds, we come across caricatures like credulous husband, a clever Munshi of a conventional businessman, policemen who behave in a farcical manner, utterly lacking in wit and courage. As two unscrupulous young men, boasting to be clever interact with their targets of exploitation, comic situations are created which are on the whole delightful, lively and humorous. True to its comic genre as a mirror to society the play conveys a moral lesson which is at once loud and clear.
The play opens with an off stage commotion and two young men manage to escape out of the crowd attempting to apprehend them. Suddenly, off stage commotion stops and a man enters the centrestage, confronting the young men who confuse him in a jiffy. Occupying the stage and sure that nobody is chasing them, they reveal their identity and their motive to seduce young women resorting to fraud.
As they are ruing over their failed attempt at seduction, they watch a beautiful young woman with flowers on a brass plate towards a temple. They become alert, watch her movements as she leaves after the priest has assisted her to perform pooja with a view to fulfil her innermost wish to give birth to a baby. The swindlers manage to know all about the conjugal life of the young woman . Her husband also accuses her of being good for nothing and is not able to give birth to an heir to huge wealth, knowing fully well that he himself suffers from physical abnormality.
The initial sequences are marred by amateurishness. The movements of the performers tend to be clumsy. However, the production acquired comic vitality with focus on the wealthy trader, the husband of young woman who is routinely performing rituals to become mother.
The swindlers also acquire a little verve and gusto while they are in the costumes of religious men pretending to be endowed with great spiritual power. Despite exposed by the intelligent wife of the businessman, they keep on adopting one guise to another to have the company of the woman.
Full of suspense
In the climax, the businessman threatens his wife that in case she does not receive the disciple of ‘great saint’ in her bedroom, he will commit suicide. The climax is full of suspense and as the truth is revealed it evokes loud laughter, illustrating the wisdom, courage and skill of wife to persuade her conservative, credulous husband to adopt a baby from an orphanage.
The scene between conmen, businessman and police inspector is full of slapstick which at times degenerates into vulgarity. In Moliere's “Le Tartuffe”, the seduction scene is mostly enacted on the centrestage. Dinesh has shown the ‘attempt to rape’ scene offstage, where the idea is conveyed through heated dialogue and violent retaliation by the wife of businessman through sounds and human voices.
Vikas Panchal, as the rich businessman is desperate to have a male heir, gives a highly satisfying performance.
Neetu Lamgaria as the wife of rich businessman creates the portrait of an intelligent and bold woman who exposes the rapist in the cloak of religion. There is a touch of freshness and agility in her portrayal. Almol Sethi and Pradeep Gautam as thugs manage to make their performances impressive in the second half.
