During summer, Delhi’s theatrical landscape comes to life with the excitement of children who stage their plays produced in the course of theatre workshops. Various cultural bodies and academies vie with each other to attract children to join workshops organised by them. These ventures, which open a whole new creative world to children, deserve support on a greater scale. More often than not the majority of directors conducting workshops prefer to evolve the scripts during the course of the workshop. These tend to be superfluous, contrived and pretentious. In contrast, the approach of the Hindi Akademi, Delhi, is to encourage children to develop the habit of reading short stories by great writers through the magical medium of the theatre. Last year, the Akademi enacted short stories by Munshi Prem Chand. This year it introduced 450 children to short stories by Rabindranath Tagore. It opened 10 centres in different parts of the Capital. One director and one assistant director were deputed to conduct a one-month long workshop. In some of these centres more than 40 children participated. Different stories by Tagore were read and re-read. The characters were discussed and stage adaptation of the stories conceived. In this process the participants developed interest not only in acting out various characters but in reading the stories. This is a novel method to introduce children to literature while playing theatrical games.
To showcase the productions, the Akademi organised a festival at Kamani recently. The venue was beautifully decorated to capture the spirit of celebration of children’s creativity. Before the show opened, elegantly dressed dancers and drummers moved from the foyer in a procession towards the auditorium. Most of the shows were staged to a capacity of the hall. One of the highlights was the presence of parents in large numbers who enjoyed themselves thoroughly.
The festival was aptly called “Is Grishm Tagore Hain Bachchon Ke Sang” (This summer Tagore is in the company of children). Indeed, the participants aged eight to 16 must have acquired some idea about the great universe created in his stories by one of the greatest creative geniuses of India and his universal humanistic vision. For the adults, watching the shows was a joyous experience. It would be churlish to point out technical flaws in plays produced with so much love and enthusiasm. The 10 stories staged were selected from Tagore’s stories for children. It is a tribute to Tagore’s genius that he captures through them the complexities of life. These stories are free from any patronising tone.
The five-day festival opened with “Ichchha Pooran” directed by Rajesh Bakshi. It recreates the life of a father and his son and their conflicting outlook. The naughty and intelligent son wants enough time to play and the father wants his son to study all the time. The father wishes to relive his childhood so that he could restart reading seriously. The boy wants to be in the commanding position of his father. Miraculously, the wishes of both come true, but can the metamorphosis satisfy them? The play captures surface humour but also exposes the serious drawbacks of our educational system beneath the surface.
“Chhutti” depicts the carefree life of a rural child and his sense of humour. It moves on to show the tragedy of the same boy when uprooted and condemned to live with his maternal uncle in a city, in the hope that he will have a bright future. The play is directed by Asif Qamar.
Tagore’s most loved story by children, “Kabuliwala” came alive under the direction of Nilesh Kumar Deepak. Its pathos deeply moved the audience. The production brings to the fore the humility, affection, the longing of a father to see his daughter whom he has not seen for years.
Among the productions that captivated the audience was “Taash Ka Desh” directed by Anumita Dutta Chaudhury. Featuring about 40 children, it was remarkable for simple and lovely stage compositions and eye-catching costumes. The director has aptly projected two worlds — the world inhabited by men and women disciplined by a ruler, and the other inhabited by people with a free will. The members of the first group behave like robots. But soon a transformation takes place in their stagnant and disciplined society as they start interacting with those who have a will of their own. The movements of such a large cast were remarkable for precision and lyricism.
“Doctor Babu and Mukut” was presented under the direction of Charu Gupta, featuring more than 50 children. She tried to present two stories as one script but the experiment was not encouraging. The production tended to be disjointed.
“Tota Kahani”, directed by Rajesh Kumar, was admirably staged, communicating the message for humanity to be free from all kinds of shackles.
Vipur Pachori’s “Subha” depicts the world of a beautiful, intelligent and dumb girl. Vipur captures the backdrop of Bengali villages, pulsating with life. His attempt to give a happy ending to the story of a dumb girl disowned by her bridegroom evoked thunderous applause from the audience.
Directed by Deepanshu Sharma, “Bhikarin” elevated the character of a beggar woman, who is treated as scum by society, to the stature of a tragic hero.
Mohammad Ashraf Ali's “Dhup Aur Chhaya” thrilled the audience with its stylised lighting and sophistication.
