Theatre stages comeback in Jalandhar with Punjabi play

Jalandhar, October 1

As part of its efforts to boost art and culture, Yuvaa Theatre, Jalandhar, has invited a Punjabi play, “Baaghi Albele”, a Mumbai-based production, to the city.

The show was a post-Covid comeback for theatre in the city with the audience filling up the KL Saigal Memorial Hall once again. Deputy Commissioner Vishesh Sarangal and his wife were the chief guests at the show, performed on Saturday to a full house.

An adaptation of the English movie, “To be or not to be”, a farcical comedy, the play is directed by Atul Kumar of The Company Theatre, Mumbai, and has a talented cast of actors like Ayesha Raza, Ujjwal Chopra and others. Johnny and Minnie Makhija, husband and wife, are famous actors from a renowned theatre company in Ludhiana.

During a performance of Hamlet, a young and handsome soldier of an underground rebel organisation (Sukhwinder Singh) leaves just as Johnny begins the soliloquy, ‘to be or not to be’. Johnny is outraged. Johnny would have been even more outraged if he knew that Sukhi visited Minnie Makhija in her dressing room. A short time later, following prohibitory orders from the government, all performances are stopped, theatres closed and artists prosecuted or killed in case of dissent or revolt. Johnny and Minnie’s theatre is ransacked and they are forced to go underground.

The masterpiece pairs comic absurdity with grim reality. Within the dismal setting of Indian bans, censorship and general crackdown on comedians, journalists, writers and artists, the play is a potent take on the status quo and the plight artists usually find themselves in amidst political upheavals.