Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, Mar 17: Organized by Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, the Annual Drama Festival, opened with a play based on Saddat Hassan Manto’s story ‘Hattak’, at the auditorium of Government College for Women, Gandhi Nagar, here today.
The play presented by Pancham Theatre Group, written by Rajneesh Gupta and directed/actor by Tapeshwar Dutta, though ostensibly is based upon yet another story about the degradation of women, Sugandhi, who is selling her body to make a living. But Manto as a master fiction writer, instead of many other writers who would make a point in exposing society’s ills which brought her to this situation in life, presents her as an individual. When on a particular night when she was spurned and rejected out of hand by a potbellied seth who pointed the beam of his flashlight at her, and sounded his disapproval with a cryptic ‘Oh no!. How she dealt with this heart-wrenching denial of her being, this denial of who she was, and how she struggles to articulate her selfhood, he individuality, marks the climax of the play.
Rohni Jamwal as Rohni was successful in enacting the difficult role of Sugandhi, especially the unabashed mannerism of women who sells her charms and body to eke out a living. Tapeshwar Dutta as ‘Madho’, the police havaldar who exploits her and Rahul Verma as the ‘middle man’ were impressive. Especially the comic sequences, though bordering on being a farce, highly entertained the audience.
Others who also acted included Ankita Kotwal, Pawan Sharma, Sunil Raja, Neeraj Magotra, Inder Pal, Suresh Sharma, Anu Jamwal, Ashu Thakur and Sonia Khajuria also did justice to their characters.
The music of the play was composed by Surinder Manhas where as Gurmeet Jamwal was the associate director. Others who supported the production were Manoj Dhamir, make-up, Ravinder Sharma, lights, Pawan Sharma, Inder, sets and Lokesh Chandra, sound.
Vijay Bakaya, MLC was the Chief Guest on the occasion, who appreciated the actors for the impressive presentation of such lesson giving play. Tomorrow, ‘Uss Nu Kahin’, a Punjabi play would be presented by Manoranjan Kala Kendra, as the second presentation of the theater festival.
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