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
"The real turban of a man is his woman who is still with you. Then, why are you weeping?" - Bhola Master tells this to the bitterly weeping Radhakant who is just to join the procession for his own second marriage. He was now crying relentlessly like a boy of Std Three. He could not bear the realisation of the extreme internal pain of his first wife who has been seemingly enthusiastic to the extent that she gave the sanctimoniously preserved headgear (paag) of him so that he could proceed for his second marriage.
"Lalka Paag" is the masterpiece of the iconic Maithili storyteller Rajkamal Chaudhary.
Maithili feature film “Lalka Paag” was shown in the Seminar Room, Near Gate No.1, University of Mumbai. The director Prashant Nagendra was present in the University premises on this occasion. Most of the viewers were non-Maihil but they said to this reporter that they were able to understand the storyline of the movie. Subtitles were also provided for their convenience.
There were many distinguished persons present on this occasion which included Bhaskar Jha (renowned Maithili/Enlgish litterateur and an expert on Maihili Movies), renowned TV actress Asmita Sharma, veteran Bhojpuri actor Gopal ji, TV actors Rajiv , Prof. Prasad Thakur, Researcher Vibha Jha, Mithila Media person Mala Jha and blogger Hemant Das ‘Him’ etc. A large number of students from Department of Communication and Journalism, Mumbai University watched the whole movie with full concentration which tells about the success of it's artistic quality.
After the show, this reporter asked the viewers about their quick response on the movie. Prof. Prasade Thakur said that notwithstanding the fact that the film has less dialogues, the director has succeeded in communicating his messages through the visual language. This movie is full of the fragrance of Maithili culture. Student Atharva Aloni said that the movie is woman-centric and does not allow the language to come as a barrier in communication. He said that he liked the work of the lead actress a lot even though she was not a professional actor. Student Vinay Yadav and Nilesh Sauthane also praised the movie for the portrayal of pristine Mithila culture. One of the distinguished person said that this is one of the movies which has been shot in the natural ambience of the characters just like in Malyali movies.
The film was directed by Prashant Nagenrda and was acted by Meena Gautam, Roshan Raj, Shweta Verma and others.
While talking to this reporter the director of the movie Prashant Nagendra said that the even though the movie was completed with a lot of perseverance in terms of music, acting and cinematography it could not get a commercial release because of some legal hurdles. One can watch the videos of songs, best scenes and promos which are easily available on google and can get mesmerised by extremely poignant story supported by heart-wrenching acting and touching songs and other ingredients of a successful movie. Prashant seems to be somewhat depressed the way people stood between it's commercial release time-to-time with wrong reasons as he calls it.
Let us now talk something more about the organiser and some of the guests of the event. Vibha Jha is the person who took initiative for organising it with the help of Mass Communication Deptt of Mumbai Univ. She told us that the veteran actor Mr. Gopal is the first generation actor in Maithili, Magahi and Bhojpuri movie world. Rahul Sinha is the lead actor in Muralidhar's "Sajana ke angana me solah shringar". Rajeev Singh is the main villain in the movie "Sasta jingi mahag sindur". Mona Ray is the lead actress in the same film. Her husband Rakesh Tripathi is a well-known actor and director of Bhojpuri and Maithili cinema.
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A scene from the feature film "Lalka Paag" |
You need to be mad to win your fad. Theatre is an obsession and can hardly be called a profession. There are innumerable thorny crosses you need to negotiate before you establish yourself on theatrical stage. And even after you become a well-known actor, the struggles continue. The play "Baaswaada Comapany" gives a nonchalant view of what and how about the life of drama artists. The instance shown is of a drama team working in a far-flung area of Rajasthan and the director who is also the author of the play has successfully preserved the sanctity of regional language and accent.
The script does not proceed with hardbound storyline and allows the director to show different instances of internal happenings in a drama team. These unstructured events covers perhaps a span of a number of years.
There is an excellent senior artist in the team but on even smallest unagreeable statement by other, he leaves the precincts. He is unmarried at 43 of age and a tippler. Her mother is concerned how shall she arrange food after two days but this artist is only concerned about his drama. There is a sponsor man who only thinks about his money-back and so he stresses on keeping original female artists. During the show of Ramleela the artist given the role of 'deer' puts up the mask of 'horse' and spoils the scene. Ram asks him to go and bring his friend 'deer' so that he can kill him with his arch as wished by Sita. On this the director somehow convinces Ram to get satisfied with killing a horse only as it is he who is available at this time. After Ramleela, the entry of an attractive foreigner female artist the internal optics of the team is on topsy-turvy. Though she raises the charm and value of the team manifold but ultimately cheats the sponsor and flees away.
And many a fact emerge from that. Some of them are - 1.The master of a drama company has always to tread on a tight rope dealing along with all his senior-junior artists also the sponsors of the shows, 2. The most talented and devoted actor is also the moodiest one, 3. The social dynamic has a direct reflection on the drama team viz. caste and religious conflicts, 4. The drama company generally believes in many kinds of superstitions, 5. The talented female artists are also vital for the success of the show. Without them your show is incomplete, 6. Some member may ditch the company at certain point of time. But the last and most important takeaway is the art of drama costs an artist his whole of life. He gives all he has to his muse but gets nothing more than an internal satisfaction. And that is why a drama artist must be respected in the society. The dramas that are shown are not only pieces of entertainment but are very condense media of thought transmission, the main plinth of the progress of human society.
The play is made up of the scenes of the rehearsals and shows of two different poles of dramatic art - One is Ramleela and other is Shakespeare's Othelo. Comedy emerged from the dereliction and mis-performance by the artists which were somehow stringed together instantaneously in a conducive manner. These scenes were deliberate and parts of the script.
Artists who acted well were Amrit Arora, Jaswinder Singh, Prakash Parida, Akash Bhanushali, Aditi Charak, Akshat Jain, Anuj Khurana, Varun Pawar, Elakshi Moray Gupta, Mohan Sagar, Nikhil Modi, Sachin Bhatt, Ranjana Sharma, Himanshu Aneja, Ishan Pehal. Director Niresh Kumar who is also an author is from NSD has shown his mettle in converting the common life happenings of drama artists in a presentable play. This was their maiden show.
One thing I have to say is that the play has declared duration of 1 hour 10 minutes but it ran for more that 2 hours, I think.
The main motive of the play was perhaps to make it a comedy but it turns out to be a balanced mix of comedy and thought-provocation. A good play worthy to watch.