'Gandh' - a Hindi play staged in Patna on 27.3.2025

 The superior smell

( हिंदी में समीक्षा के लिए -   यहाँ क्लिक करके क्रम सं. 62 देखिए )

There seemed to be a poem conveyed through the play. The writers, director and actors must have been poet or at least connoisseur of poetry.

The whole life moves on smell. Smell means your emotional connection with some person or circumstances. 

The two classmates feel good when they come to school since there is a good smell there. Though one is boy and another is a girl but there adhesion is just a manifestation of comradery. The students of Class Three hardly know the difference between genders still still there is an adhesion. This adhesion is puerile and free from all foul plays. The moment the girl says that she has to drop out of school because now her parents are not able  to bear the expenses the boy feels like someone had snatched the good smell of school from him.

Both of them come across each other suddenly after 10 years. Here is also a good smell between them but this smell is now mature and both the girl and boy (who are now woman and man) know the limitations of smell they can take.

There is a rich old woman relishing the delicacies prepared by her obedient servant. Here the playwright has expressed 'gandh' (smell) in terms of the odors of some recipes but no strong emotional connection could be established. Still it is conveyed that her appreciation for the food odor goes beyond caste and religion of the person who prepares it,.

A woman is going to commit suicide. But the moment a stranger reintroduces good smell of life into her perspective her longing for life continues. And the way the man introduces some goog smell vitally needed by the frustrated woman is worthy to see in the theatre.

The last piece of the script is really riveting and takes the audience to an unexpected turn. Here is a spoilt rich woman who is dropped at her house by the taxi driver. When the driver asks for his taxy fare then the woman starts to show a lot of tantrums and ultimately lures him to her charm and youthfulness. Though the taxy driver is very sincere to his works and tries his best to avoid sort of participating  in an ugly game of with her. Still his dilemma is that he can not return without his fare and so ultimately succumbs to the seduction trap. The woman forcibly takes his shirt out of his body and keeps smelling it. She is enamoured by the smell of labour. Now the taxy driver too thinks that it is prudent to take advantage of the situation  and goes to take a bath in her lavish bathroom. When he returns from there wearing the jacket of her husband she finds the woman enjoying the smell of sweat in his driving uniform. Her fancy for the smell of labour was so high that she completely disapproves the smell of taxy driver after he takes bath and uses costly perfumes. The script reaches its culmination in a very impressive way and the audience is dumb-founded over it.

As I have already mentioned that the play was like a poem and was actually so intense in it's theme. Though the method of script writing used was improvisation method and so all parts of the script were almost disconnected. But we know that a good poem need not convey a common story from start to end and so was the play. The commitment to the theme was very strong and the delivery continues to stick to the theme just ruthlessly. One who has a heart in one's body is bound to appreciate it.

The director Manish Shirke has taken good works from the actors and handled the theme with adequate delicacy.For young actors, It must have been a tough task to deliver such an emotive play through her acting skill but they did it successfully. We felt like a poem is recited by the poet himself. Ram Gangwar and Vrinda Singh are those who are mentioned as actaors but there were other actors too who worked equally well. Perhaps they are mentioned in the poster as writers. Anyway the writers as mentioned are Samta Sagar, Harshal Alpe and Jayant Gadekar. Their contributions to the play are vital.

At the end the audenence was left with an experience of new genre of the play which tried to define 'smell' and it's effect on the life of human beings.

The ward counciller Mr.Indrajit Vishwakarma was present among the audience who also delivered a short speech after the play. The play was staged on the occassion of "World Theatre Day". Mr. Indrajit appreciated the play and recalled his own experiences as a thespian in the past.

Also present among the audience were Subhro Bhattacharya the secretary of Image Art Society  and his friend Ward Councillor Mr. Indrajit Vishwakarma who also gave a brief speech after the play. The play was staged on the occasion of "World Theatre Day". Mr. Indrajit appreciated the play and recalled his experiences as an actor in his past.

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

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