Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, Mar 24: Contrary to the present-day trend in popular TV soap operas depicting mother-in-law as a negative and controlling character, Dogri comedy play ‘Sass Puran’ breaking the stereotypical image and presented mother-in-law as one who treats her daughter-in-law as a daughter.
Presented under the banner of Society for Environment, Education and Modern Art, written and directed by Shashi Bhushan, the play was staged in the ongoing Festival of Plays 2020-2021, at Abhinav Theatre, here today.
Play’s plot revolved around Madhu, an innocent housewife, who is convinced by her crook servant Kalu that since has remained issueless even after seven years of marriage, her mother-in-law is planning to remarry her husband. The inadvertent negative feedbacks from her friend, neighbour, milkman, TV crew etc make Madhu paranoid and she starts believing that her mother-in-law wants to kill her. The play ends with Vishnu, Madhu’s husband, exposing Kalu’s machinations and the mother-in-law presenting gifts to Madhu and says that she loved Madhu as her own daughter.
The well-paced comedy high on melodrama came out to be an entertaining affair for the audience who enjoyed the turns and twists of the plot. The main actors Usha Salthia as the gullible Madhu, Shashi Bhushan as Vishnu and Deepak Singh as servant Kalu, carried the play with their high pitched animated acting. Other members of the cast were Seema Devi as Rano, Ajay Baba as Thodu/Mohan Lal, Neha Sharma as Kanta, Rakesh Dogra as Media Wala/Mama, Dakhsh Sagoch as Media Wala 2, and Twinkle Rajput as Sass. The young actors were Tatvagya Bhargav as Tavi, Saksham as Tavi’s brother, Vaibhav Sagoch as Akhbar Wala.
The play, despite the miscuing, was enlivened by the background musical score and audio effects. Ajay Baba assisted in direction, make-up by Usha Slathia, costumes by Rakesh Dogra, set by Deepak Singh Jamwal, music executed by Kiran Kumar Ricky, sound by Lokesh, lights by Pankaj Sharma.
Tomorrow, Chinar Art Foundation will present Meera Kant’s Hindi play ‘Ant Hazir Ho’.
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