Plays steal the show at Himrang Mahotsava

Shriniwas Joshi

The Language and Culture Department holds a festival of dramas every year under the name Himrang Mahotsava. The festival, this year, made the Gaiety hum through nine dramas that had come from various districts. The plays at the level of the districts were selected by District Language Officers who also function as the cultural eyes of the department.

I wonder whether they have competence enough to judge the plays. Let me keep wondering? Quite a few plays were the extension of plays prepared for the University Youth Festival by increasing their duration because ‘Himrang Mahotsava’ has condition that the play should be of, at least, an hour long. How could you increase the duration of a play? Either by slowing its tempo or by stuffing a scene that is irrelevant as far as the content of the play is concerned. Nevertheless, some good plays were there enlightening us that the drama culture has reached the districts in the state.

I would name a Solan play ‘Hesan’ based on the story of the same name written by Devkanya; ‘Mohna’ based on a historical fact from Bilaspur and ‘Godaan’ by Prem Chand from Shimla as good plays which showed promise. The two best, however, were ‘Panjuwana’ (see photo) from Una and ‘Nayan Bhari Talyyan’ (see photo) from Kullu.

‘Panjuwana’ done in Punjabi and Hindi and directed by Arvind Kaushal is based on Rupert Brooke’s one-act play ‘Lithuania’. The story adapted from the actual play depicts the home of a poor family living in Panjuwana, a village somewhere, where the drinker father is ready to bargain her young daughter for petty cash to a moneylender to make both ends plus a bottle meet. A rich stranger then arrives and begs for a night’s shelter. The father was out, the mother and the daughter allow him to stay. The stranger asks about the son in the house. Mother tells him that he ran away from the home when he was just 13.

The father returns and the stranger discloses that he is rich and wears a Rolex watch costing Rs 50,000. The stranger’s wealth provokes uncontrollable greed in the poverty-stricken family. The family decides to kill the stranger and rob of his wealth and persuade their conscience of this killing by a make-belief that the person is a thief. The father fails to kill the stranger and goes out to have another drink which may energise him to kill the stranger. Meanwhile, the daughter picks up the axe and kills him. The ‘bhattiwala’ and his son bring the drunkard father home. The ‘bhattiwala’ reveals that the stranger is the son of the family who had run away from the home long back. The stranger had asked him to keep his identity a secret until the next day and then they would enjoy the days together.

The policemen/women under the banner of the Eklavya Kala Manch, Vangarh, Una, presented this tragedy in gusto and deserved kudos for doing a real good job even after the onerous duty that they perform. The stage setting, make-up and the dresses used were proper and as required. The acting was realistic. All actors did equally well but the actor playing the role of the father presented a cameo.

‘Nayan Bhari Tallyan’ from Kullu and directed by Kehar Singh is based on a story by Noor Zahir who is popular through her novel ‘My God is a Woman’. Kehar Singh, who regularly presents plays in Kullu, carved the story into a worth-watching farce. A farce is a light dramatic composition marked by broadly satirical comedy and improbable plot. The play has the same old content of sacrifice of a royal princess for water in the town.

But here a low-bred woman is made to marry a prince and then sacrificed. A successful farce requires restrain otherwise it could turn into total horseplay. Kehar Singh did apt directorial job in maintaining the tempo of the play while delivering the comic-tragedy. The actress who played the queen in the play was just superb. Her gestures and delivery of dialogues were perfect. Movements of the actors were half the acting.

TAILPIECE

When farce first appeared in English, it had to do with cookery, a savory stuffing. Its comedic sense dates from the 16th century

— The writer is a retired bureaucrat