WATCHING RAMESH Manchanda and to a lesser extent Anurag Arora was to see actors snatch a performance out of thin air. For the play Aath Ghante or Eight Hours describes nothing more than the grind of a nine to five office shift where two typists day aftermonotonous day toil at the office filling in names from a telephone directory on to small cards advertising an ayurvedic digestive powder. Staged during the seventh Natsamrat Theatre Festival the play was designed and directed by NSD staff member Suresh Bharadwaj for the AKS theatre group, Delhi.
Written by Surjit Saraf as inspired by Murray Schisgal’s Typists, the play implies more than what it seems to say. The two protagonists are failures in life. Batra (Ramesh Manchanda) has been working longer than Varma (Anurag Arora). He brings his seniority to bear upon Varma who is petrified of losing his job and plays along Batra’s idiosyncratic banter. Varma has a family of wife and two children to support whilst Batra has a demanding old mother upon whose death he brings his mother’s old sister as replacement.
When not standing by the window making conjectures about the people they spot they play a devised version of the Mahabharata, or satirically take off on an imagined client who rings their telephone by mistake. The two actors were superb in playing out the client’s life as they took on the roles of the imagined members of the client’s family. Suresh Bharadwaj’s direction was marked by sure ouches and an eye for detail. The passage of time was shown by the change of clothes from summer to winter to summer and the gradual graying of hair and change in body language of the actors.
Visually though the production was drab. The poster of Connaught Place could have been more professionally done, and less ramshackle tables and chairs could have added to the production. The boards of the LTG stage need some paint and polish was evident and made conspicuous in the second play Gadhe Ki Baraat, presented by the Saptak Cultural Society, Rohtak in Vishwa Deepak Trikha’s direction. Though he sang all right and had a sort of nagara as accompaniment, the sutradhar singer Kirandeep’s averment that the play was cast in the Nautanki mould was not borne out. Neither the enactment nor the story had much to say or commend.
Actor Harish Khera playing the main character Kallu Kumhar who gives shelter to the Gandharva cursed by Lord Indra and sent down to earth as a donkey, was way over the top. Woven into action is the tale of Andher Nagri’s Chowpat Raja, whose daughter is the key to the Gandharva’s redemption. The daughter demands that she will marry any one who will construct a bridge from the poor locality directly to he palace, a feat easily accomplished by the donkey/Gandharva’s. How can the palace accept a direct link with the poor? The bridge is bombed out after the marriage, thus providing a moral to the tale. The rich will remain rich and the poor, poor.
The Natsamrat theatre group in its 13 years of existence has staged 26 plays and given almost a thousand shows. Its popular repertoire contains an arsenal of comedies some excellent adaptations of Moldier, Chekhov and other western satirists. In this festival they staged three of their all time hits — Chandu Ki Chachi an adaptation of Brandon Thomas’ evergreen farce Charley’s Aunt directed by Farid Ahmed, Kallu Nai MBBS based on Moliere’s play Mock Doctor, and Kambakht Ishk an original play written and directed by Shyam Kumar the artistic director of the group. This year the group spread it net wide to include works like Asmita’s renowned play Court Martial written by Swadesh Deepak and directed by Arvind Gaur, the NSD staff play Chainpur Ki Dastan based on Gogol’s Inspector General directed by Amitabh Shrivastava, Pagalkhane Mein conceived and directed by Satya Prakash and Surendra Sharma ‘Sarthak’, Patriyan directed by Devendra Raj Ankur for Sambhav and Dharohar’s (Yamuna Nagar) Bobby Baker directed by Gita Agarwal Sharma.
The seven days festival also featured Platform theatre before the main programme. Young groups, college theatre societies and drama clubs participated in this 20 minute event every evening. This is the third year that Natsamrat has an annual awards list compiled by an eminent jury. The award for the best director was given to Arvind Gaur who has a large following amongst young theatre workers. The best actor was awarded to NSD repertory actor Suman Vaidya who has several memorable roles to his credit like Arun Bakshi in Short Cut and as a Rishi in Anamdas ka Potha. For the best actress the jury was spot on in its choice of Bharti Sharma whose work as actor in several plays including the recent Masterpiece and Garbo and as director of play like Begum Zainabadi and Nepathya Raag has placed her group Kshitij amongst the top companies in Delhi. Kusum Kumar, who burst on the theatre scene with the play Suno Shefali and went on to write the political satire Dilli Ooncha sunti hai, was awarded the best playwright honour. Best back stage artiste award was given to Ramesh Manchanda the actor. Diwan Singh Bajeli who contributes reviews to The Hindu was selected for the best critic’s award. The most heartening award, the prestigious Lifetime Achievement recognition was given to the deserving playwright, actor and theatre worker who almost single handedly placed Punjabi Theatre on the Indian stage, Dr C.D. Sidhu. More about this redoubtable man next week.