Batalvi’s ‘Loona’ brought to life

SD Sharma

Chandigarh, January 6

The crowd of city’s art lovers relished enlivened legend of ‘Loona’ , Shiv Kumar Batalvi magnum opus, which was presented by the Ajnabi Rangkarmi drama ensemble at Tagore Theatre here today.

Adapted by Karan Gulzar for dramatisation, the verse play flourished to perfection under the superb direction of Kuldip Sharma and musical score by acclaimed music director Atul Sharma.

The play opened with royal splendor of festivities at the palace of Raja Varman of Chamba (Amit Talwar) in the gracious presence of Raja Salwan of Sialkot (Kuldip Sharma). The latter falls for a low-caste beauty, Loona (Mridula Mahajan) and marries her, much to the annoyance of his elder Rani Ichhran (Vimmi Bhullar)

During this same period, Icchran’s only son Puran (Varun Sharma), is cursed to live in dungeon for 18 years for the wellbeing of his father as forewarned by pundits. As Puran visits her young step-mother Loona, she falls in love with him, notwithstanding the piety of relationship. As Puran never succumbed to her advances, Loona concocts a false story and Raja orders to maim the limbs of Puran and he to be thrown in a dead dry well and the play ends here. The choreography was by Sameera Koser.