Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, Mar 25: Eminent playwright and director Nadira Babar’s play in Hindi, Salaam 1950’s Ke Naam, an artistic recreation of the era of Black & White cinema stretching from the late 40s to 50s, while coming out as a walk down the memory lane for those who’ve grown up watching films of that era, was also a unique experience for the new generations who having missed the magic of Golden Era of Indian Cinema at times remain oblivious of its history.
Staged by Ekjute Theatre Group, Mumbai, on fourth day of ongoing Jammu Chapter of 8th Theatre Olympiad, organized by National School of Drama, in collaboration with J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, at the Abhinav Theatre, here today, the play, a new tribute to the golden era of 1950’s revolves around a plot full of conventional formulaic ingredients of old Hindi films which every cinebuffs of yonder years could predict and yet enjoyed it.
The play plot’s twisty journey beggining from ill-fated lovers and revengeful Thakurs and Kabeelawalas, love triangles, family ties, sacrifice, shrewd and villains/vamps, friends with hearts of gold, loyal munims, comedian’s love tracks, long-lost over dues and lovers separated by fate, dramatic reversals in love and convenient coincidences ends up with a happy ending.
Designed as a musical play, some choicest and lilting songs, mixed, scrambled and amalgamated into a story, bestowed a lyrical continuation to the play which was immensely enjoyed by the audience.
All actors of the play showed a remarkable facility and skill in speech patterns and accents typical of the cinematic language of 1950’s. They also exhibited expertise in Indian classical, folk and tribal dances and popular dance styles of the 50s like Cabaret and Waltz.
The play had technical support of choreographer like Raj Yadav, Bhanu Athaiya, Oscar award winning Costume Designer and background music by Amod Bhatt. Today’s performance owed its success to the wonderful work by the cast which included Juhi Babbar Soni , Hanif Patni, Ankur Parekh, Santosh Tiwari, Rajoshi Vidyarthi, Mithilesh Maihar, Manav Pande, Rajiv Singh, Sangam Shukla, Riya Deepsi, Hari Om, Shahnawaz, Neha, Manali, Nabila, Shraddha, Akanksha, Khushboo, Sandeep, Rajat, Jagrut, Saurab.
At the conclusion of the play, an interaction with Nadira Babbar was held by son of the soil and well -known theatre director Mushtaq Kak.
Tomorrow, Nepal’s One World Theatre, will present ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ in English, under the direction of Deborah Frank.
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