When wives are exchanged ..!
हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए - यहाँ क्लिक करके क्रम सं. 18 देखिए
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"निछावर कर दें हम सर्वस्व, हमारा प्यारा भारतवर्ष"- जयशंकर प्रसाद *BEJOD INDIA (Main page)* बेजोड़ इंडिया/ بیجوڑ انڈیا - A blog in English, हिन्दी, اردو and other Indian languages/ Devoted to Indian art, culture and literature keeping a distance from political or other disputes./Please don't send your content until requested by our email ID- editorbejodindia@gmail.com /(Our link supported by Twitter & WhatsApp but not by Facebook)
When wives are exchanged ..!
हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए - यहाँ क्लिक करके क्रम सं. 18 देखिए
The ideological turf - a fierce battle
हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए - यहाँ क्लिक करके क्रम सं. 18 देखिए
Whether this is a matter of might or thought is itself a controversial point but the nationalistic sweep on global level cannot be denied since last a few decades. There is a clear gain in a number of countries on ideological turf all over the world. This is not possible without a strong base of ideology. The medium of drama cannot keep itself aloof from it and addressing it symbolically may not be very effective in eliciting it with full ramifications. Elucidation on it needs to be outright wordy and spontaneous. This will allow the electricity of debate to reach viewers without any transmission loss. And the Marathi play "Charcha Tar Honarch" is just a corollary of it.
To put this heavily word-centric ideological battle on stage might not have been easy but the scriptwriter has thought an innovative way to create two intellectual debating characters in their pristine forms with bringing one more character - a judge-like person who has come from an international NGO with a task to choose the winner. For putting some dramatic spice there is a prize of Rs. Eleven Lakh for the winner. The woman debater is supporter of liberal thoughts and the man debater is one who takes pride in the past only. Each of the both is given chance to express his/her views on different controversial issues like Feminism, Traditions, Faviourite books etc.
The whole play was so replete of ideological Marathi words and the actors were so fast in Marathi tongues that it was really difficult for me to see the clear picture of the ideological salvos and the fencings built-in. Nevertheless I am giving below what I could make out of the silhouettes.
Incidentally the woman debater wins the debate and gets the 11 lakh rupees as prize. But she gives Rs. 5.5 lakh out of it to her contender. This symbolic cession of monetary benefit signifies an extremely important reality that an idea can not stand without it's antithesis and a society needs actually a perfect mix of both. None of them is more or less important rather both are valuable and both should survive for the progress of mankind.
Hemant Edlabadkar is the writer and director of the play while Aastad Kale, Kshitij Jharapkar and Aditi Sarangdhar were the actors. The scriptwriter has shown his guts to depict the topics in it's true form without any manipulation which everyone tries to evade. So he must be praised. All the three actors acted well. The man in NGO officer's role impressed with his British accent. The man debater might have been more natural. The set-design was impressive and the walls seemed to be a true replica of that of a JNU hostel. The colour of kurta of man debater should have been more different from the colour of window-screens and window-frames to make his appearance more impactful.
Overall, it was a thought-provoking play which fills a very wide gap pervading in the society nowadays where nobody wants to discuss the most important matters. The dedication of the producer for social theme is praiseworthy and this is obvious that this product from their side is more for social benefit than for a monetary benefit.
The detective of lackluster love
हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए - यहाँ क्लिक करके क्रम सं. 17 देखिए
Here & Now Entertainment presented “What Goes Around”, a comedy by Jeff Baron, directed by Nikhil Kedia, starring Aakash Prabhakar, Aiman Mukhtiar, Farzana Palathingal and Ismeet Kohli. The venue was Dafney Studi, Andheri (Mumbai).
"Who lives with you?"
You be your spouse to know him
हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए - यहाँ क्लिक कीजिए और क्र. सं. 15 पर जाइये
Wife minus marriage
"Dispose of the marriage for happy conjugal life with your wife" - howsoever absurd and obnoxious the statement goes you will agree to it after watching the play 'Gharwali' - a theatrical presentation of Ismat Chugtai's story. The context in which this story is set takes you to a point where you begin to sympathise with the most fallen and loose kind of woman, Lajo. The whole story puts man-woman relationship vis-a-vis marriage and analyses it with an unprecedented finesse! The hypocrisy of male-dominance on character front is being peeled off ruthlessly by the storywriter to such a level that you will think hundred times before saying anything demeaning to a woman in general. A glaringly visible and declared lecherous woman's stature stands much much bigger than a so-called socially acceptable civilised man.
The normalised seductive coquetry and loose behaviour with every Tom, Dick and Harry are what you can expect from a girl who could never know what is virginity since she grew. Lajo is such an orphan young woman who is handed over to the shopkeeper bachelor Mirza by his friend. After some hesitations, Mirza allows her to stay at his house as a maid servant. Lajo is young, beautiful and bold and in no time is the cynosure of every male in the surroundings. The glare of her deep black eyes is intoxicating and lips are like hot embers. Her sensual moves can leave everyone hearts quivering. Mirza's air is undoubtedly like a gentleman of the time and how can he like such cheap manners of her housemaid? So he is highly upset.
Before the time Mirza take a firm decision on removing Lajo from his house he is actually himself trapped by her flirtations. Lajo is experiencing like being the owner of the house of Mirza so she is enjoying her stay and in no mood to leave. After the passage of some time, Mirza becomes more possessive about Lajo and is strictly against her companionship with others. So with an aim to claim complete ownership on Lajo he plans to marry her even though Lajo is indifferent on marriage issue. Here one thing is noticeable that Mirza uses to go also to a prostitute Kanjari everyday for his regular gratification. The day he marries Lajo his attaction for her diminishes and he begins to avoid giving time to her though she was expected to stay in full celibacy like a wife. Lajo somehow bears her destiny and obeys the social custom of restrain. So, it is seen that she lost both her flirting entertainment and also the contiguity of her husband and now is being treated like a woman who has no desires of her own and as if she is proud of just getting confined like a wife. One day when Mirza comes to his house untimely he finds his wife is in love talks to the neighbour Mithua. He beats up Lajo badly but even after sustaining injuries Lajo is still loving Mirza. The remarkable aspect in her mind is that whenever other men used her they passed her on to some other man after the use, this nice man Mirza treated her like his own and never allowed to go to others. She is now unused by her husband but his full claim on her is itself enough for Lajo to let the love crop up for Mirza. But on the other side, Mirza is also concerned about his social prestige and he divorces Lajo after giving the 'mehr' of Rs.32.
Lajo was already not enthusiastic about marriage and so is somewhat happy on getting divorce. She hires a room in the neighbourhood and begins again to live her flirtatious life full of enjoyment. Now Mirza is disturbed as she is her ex-wife and has been raising her stake of love with each and every man in the vicinity. One day, a cleric suggest him that his earlier marriage with Lajo was invalid because her birth is unknown and any marriage or divorce with a person with unknown birth is invalid. People also come to know that Mirza's marriage with Lajo was invalid and so is divorce. Both Mirza and Lajo are happy on this news and reunite to live together again without marrying each other.
Krishna Upadhyay performed the whole story in solo with an incredible finesse. While watching his show one is fully immersed in the story and I can say that cent-percent virulence of social hypocrisy was delivered by Krishna as might have been intended by Ismat Chugtai. His female dance sequence was not just a starter but a true prelude of the events going to happen in the show. The nimble feminine steps and moves combined with waist rolling, finger postures etc. were charming was his whole body as if turned into that of a young dancing belle. When the story proceeded, his facial expressions both as Lajo and Mirza were perfectly matching with the respective character's dialogue-delivery. The toggle between man and woman was so seamless in his acting!
The show performed with least stage properties and settings will be remembered for long for the actor and director Krishna Upadhyay's equal proficiency in expressing male and female sentiments.
चलो ढूंढते हैं मुहब्बत की दुनिया / Let's find the Love World
ग़ज़ल -1 / Poem-1