Maranoparant - Hindi play staged in Patna on 23.02.2025 by Rangam

A game of no winner

( हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए -   यहाँ क्लिक करके क्रम सं. 60 देखिए )

Notwithstanding the deep love-bond enjoyed so far, the uneasiness takes no time in sneaking into the mind once betrayal of love is exposed. As the ladylove is no more there is no point in involving oneself in a wrangle. But the bitterness is conspicuous which deepens on each revelations of disloyalty.

One is the husband and another is the lover of the lady who died just a few days ago. The knot is both were running concurrent relation with the same lady. Of course, the husband was ignorant about the other man and the other man was aware of the husband. The husband thinks that the lover man has enjoyed the love and he himself was betrayed but surprisingly the same is the case with the lover. He thinks that the husband was the person to whom his lady loved truly because she could never detach her mind from him. 

The play addresses a very tricky question as who won in this love-triangle. The pangs of betrayal is suffered not only by the husband but also by the lover who thinks his beloved never gave her hundred percent to him and always kept some space of her heart reserved for her husband. A philosophical question arises in the mind of the husband what was wrong if he would have lived with the feeling of purity of his love. The feeling was spoilt only because of the revelations of betrayal when he got a missive of her wife written to her lover after her death. Had the love showered by his wife in his marital life has undergone any change after the revelations? No, still the whole experience is spoilt for ever. But what can be done to the earlier happy experiences with the wife? Can the history of true love experience be changed with retrospective effect? Never.

In essence, what we are experiencing today may be proved wrong tomorrow. But that will be a matter of tomorrow We cannot and perhaps should not spoil our pleasant experience of today in bad anticipation of tomorrow.

The playwright Surendra Verma touches the sentimental chord of the viewers and takes the audience to the terrains of a metaphysical world. The process of this journey has no jitters and is perfectly seamless. The director Raas Raaz is the thespian exponent of knotty love stories. And a play like 'Maranoparant' sets him in his true grooves. He himself is one of the best-suited actors for a role which requires a lot of facial expression and a youthful masculine physique. He succeeded not only putting the dilemma of the male character fully on the stage through his acting skills. His directorial prowess was evident in adding the female character in the play which is nowhere in the original script. This female character (played by Puja) is of the ladylove who has no dialogue but has enough to do with her grace, smile, laughter, coquets and emotionally charged facial expression. She spoke a lot through her eyes and face without speaking a word. Vishnu Dev played the betrayed husband. The embarrassment of the husband was visible though his dialogue delivery and he too maintained the required tempo and impulse of the character.

The show left a long-standing impact on the viewers who found themselves deeply engrossed in the intriguing story of the play after the end of it.

---
Review by - Hemant Das 'HIm'
Send your feedback to - hemantdas2001@gmail.com

See the reviews of other plays- Click here

'panchlight' - Hindi play staged by Dastak in Patna on 8.2.2025

A trade-off between group-dignity and internal crime

( हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए -   यहाँ क्लिक करके क्रम सं. 59 देखिए )

The illiterate villagers are more knowledgeable than the so-called learned class since they at least know that taking help from even a pariah of their class is worth more than beseeching the exploiting groups.  

The Mahto group in the village has bought a panchlight (petromax light i.e. a special quality of lantern) to match the status of the dominating groups. Now the problem here is, who can light it up as nobody in their group know to operate this newly commissioned magical implement. After a lot of deliberations it is found that only one person who can do this is one who has been banished from the group. Though there are options to take help of skilled persons belonging to the different dominating classes in the village. But the humble members of this group are conscious of their self-dignity and prefer forgive the minor crime of his member and take his help instead.

The playwright and director Punj Prakash (an NSD alumnus)  has taken full care to create a sound justification for the class rivalry.  And it is in this light that the member of the exploiter class is shown to be involved in sexual exploitation of a member of the subdued class. The scene of this exploitation is symbolic and shown just for the token purpose to make the message clear. From some of the dialogues it appears that the original script of the legendary writer Phanishwar Nath Renu has perhaps gone necessary minor changes to suit more accurately to the Indian society in the modern era and the playwright has succeeded in doing so skillfully.

The success lies not merely in putting the text of story but to recreate the ambience conceived by Renu. The Head of the villagers is shown to be good by heart but having neither power to understand the situation nor the ability to take decisions in tough situation. So he goes by the advices of others. The director has presented the coyness of the indecisive Headman taking the natural comedy to a new level.

The play was replete of histrionics and the actors lived up that fully. In this show, comedy also emerged from the overacting of the mother of Munari and others. The guileless romance of Godhan and Munari enchanted the audience. The scene of the procession in which the panchlight was brought to the village established the importance of not only the Headman and the Sarpanch but also the person who carried the panchlight on his head. The Headman shows his sagacity how he determined the quality of the panchlight to be purchased that specially suited the needs of the villagers, The Sarpanch himself adds a feather to his cap by stating how he bargained with the salesman for getting the panchlight packed up in a high quality cartoon. Not far behind is the labourer who carried the panchlight when he declared as how difficult it was to taking his steps in shimmering light of the panchlight he carried. 

One thing was clear that the the Mahto community was the epitome of inclusiveness where the voice of even the last person was heard in the group. Even an ordinary member like feeble, old or poor ones can raise questions about the ability of the Headman and that too in his face. The Headman has indecisiveness on soft issues like love but has enough awakening as not to waste the hard-earned villager's money in buying a costlier panchlihgt of a little higher quality than required.

There is a character who is always carrying a big 'bora' (sachet) in which he claims there are large number of bombs and he is always ready to make a bomb blast to find a solution. The audience enjoyed his boasts when in the end it was found that there were nothing but stones in the bag.

The old filmi songs have been used profusely and are part and parcel of this play. There were some twenty or so actors out of eight or nine had dialogues. All the actors acted well. (Names are not available to us).

A zestful show maintaining the essence of Renu.

--
Reviews by- Hemant Das 'Him'
Send your feedback to - hemantdas2001@gmail.com

See the reviews of other plays- Click here