Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, Jan 24: Theatre Festival-2013, organized by Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, concluded with presentation of Dogri play X-Reflection by Natraj Natya Kunj, at Government College for Women auditorium, here today.
Directed by Abhishek Bharti and adapted in Dogri by Kumar A Bharti, the play originally in Kannada, titled ‘Siri Sampige’ by Chandrashekhara Kambara, is based on a Kannada folk tale about a prince who has a human and a serpent form.
In the play the prince, who in search of the perfect woman makes his relatives to cut his body into pieces and put him into pots. When pots are finally opened a Nagraj appears out of one of the pots and disappears while from the other the prince who becomes himself again, comes out.
Unable to find his perfect mate, Prince marries Siri Sampige (Shampa in Dogri). But refuses to be with her and continues his search instead. The Nagraj after seeing Shampa is being rejected by her husband takes the form of the Prince and is with Shampa who becomes pregnant. Upon refusal by Prince to accept the child, Shampa undergoes a ‘priksha’ and the prince has to accept the pregnancy. The unhappy Prince comes to know about the snake. When Shampa reveals that it was the Nagraj who took form of the prince, while being with her, the prince knows now that it was the whole time his other self who was with Siri and he can finally accept her and the child. In the end, the prince in a fit of jealousy kills the Nagraj and dies himself. Thus fulfilling the ancient prophecy that he will die upon the death of his brother.
Today’s performance incorporated a mix of folk style and modern theater languages like Body Theater and mime. Complimenting the Dogri script, today’s presentation by using native dance poetry forms like Kud, ‘Haran’, ‘Yatr’ and ‘Kaarak’, came out as ingenious endeavor that along with ‘sutradhar’ included elements of dance, drama, narration, song, sex, death and religion. With the result the dramatic experience for audience was like participating and sharing a religious ritual in the form of a play.
The other highlights of the play were appropriate design of masks, lights, background score, sound effects and make up. A well-knit production, which saw all the departments working in unison, the play came out as a befitting finale of the theatre festival.
The cast included Akshay Razdan as Prince, Surbhi as Shampa, Rishi Kumar as Nagraj, Priyanka Thakur as Maharani, Aditya Bharti as Sunder, Abhishek Sharma as Nat, Neha Bhat as Nati, Rishav Satti as Wazir, Kanav Sharma as Dyala, Amandeep Sharma as Sarpanch, Rakesh Dogra as Lambardar, Garu Ram as Jogi, Lalit Sharma as Haran\Samant, while in chorus were Tejan Bharti, Rahul Sharma, Allen, Niharika Sakshi, Shubangi Dhamir and Aditya Gupta.
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