Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, Mar 25: Captivating portrayal of Bawa Jit Mal’s saga came as a befitting finale to the eight-play Dogri Theater Festival organized by North Zone Cultural Centre, Patiala and J&K academy of Art, Culture and Languages, at the Abhinav Theatre, here today.
Written by Dr Gian Singh and directed by young and talented Sunil Sharma, the play in verse while narrating main events of life of 16th century Dogra folk hero popularly called as Baba Jitto concluded with a moving depiction of the supreme sacrifice of his own life as a mark of protest against injustice meted out to him by the greedy feudal lord.
Today’s production was noticeable for young director Sunil Sharma’s effort to forge a design that complemented playwright’s poetic narrative structure. With the result there was a kind of formal electicism comprising of elements drawn from Duggar’s folk performing traditions as well as rhythmic movements and groupings from the repertoire of ‘physical theater’.
The live background singing and music by Roheet Verma and the group apart from leading the thread of narrative from one anecdote to another also brought out different shades of emotions through soulful rendition of songs and representative verses from Bawa’s Karaks.
The musical finale at the culmination of the last scene, would have been more effective if the musicians and the ‘chorus’ instead of singing backstage would have sung the sequence on stage.
Sunil Sharma, in the role of Bawa Jit mal was successful in portraying the earthy innocence as well the inner strength of folk hero’s character. Other members of the cast who gave noticeable performances included Anjali as Bua Kodi, Rohan Sharma as Isso, Hempreet Kour as Jojan, Javed Gill as Veer Singh Mehta, Samdish Mehra as Gaggi, Shubham Singh Nag as Malli, Sandeep Thakur as Rullo, Aashima Dutta as Jyuni, and Pardeep Sharma as Sarpanch.
The actors in the ‘chorus’ were Rohan, Samdish, Shubham, Sharib, Aabid, Sandeep, Seeta and Aashima. Aashima Dutta assisted in director. Lyrics were by Pawan Verma & Dimple Sharma, lights by Sunaina Kumari, Ankit Sharma, Pankaj Sharma, rhythm by Jaan Mohammad, sets & prop by Seeta, make up by Shammi Dhamir and costumes by Shubham Singh Nag & Sandish Mehra.
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