Colourblind presented "Dayashankar Ki Dairy" at Versowa (Mumbai) on 12.1.2020

A Lunatic Fringe

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At first glance you may misperceive this as a stroy of a street boy Dayashankar who is deeply indulged in reveries. But while you reach the midway of the story you come to know that Dayashankar is just a means to convey the message on burning contemporary issues boggling the whole nation. 

A young man Dayashankar has big dreams before his arrival in Mumbai. His self-appraisal about  capabilities is very high which does not match any way to the hard realities of life. One of his relatives manages to get him a job of clerk in the office of a local MLA.  Dayashankar treats himself as a big film-star-in-making and think that his present job is just a launching pad of his flying career in future.

One day the daughter of the MLA comes to the office for some work and Dayashankar is smitten. He now think day and night only about Sonia, that girl. Nevertheless he is rudely treated by the Head Clerk there and unable to cope with the snub he absents from the office the next day and goes to a Park where he talks with the statue of Gandhi ji. He feels that Gandhiji has told him that he is the new King of Nepal as the old King had just died. And he is now in an air of Kingship wherever he moves. People think him a lunatic and send him to an asylum where he is badly beaten by the other lunatic people. Ultimately he comes to senses. 

The whole play is replete with slang commonly used among the ordinary people. In a dialogue Dayashankar says when a mad person can hold the important post of a nation why not another mad person can be designated as the same. The whole system is perverted and nobody talks in sense and Dayashankar is just representing the derailed system 

This  solo play is written by the renowned theater artist Nadira Zahir Babbar and was directed and acted by Alok Gagdekar at Veda Factory, Versova (Mumbai)  on 12.1.2020. On backstage were Arif (Light), Anup (Music) and Ankit, Aditya, Vijay provided the necessary support.

Alok proved that for a brilliant actor like him the rhythm of body movement is itself a statement and the air created by it is the whole message. Words are just confirmatory.

A marvelous show like it will stay for years in the memory of the viewers.

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Review  by - Hemant Das 'Him'

Photographs by - Bejod India blog

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Note- This is the first draft of the review written in a hurry. Mistakes will be corrected later.