Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, Mar 18: Annual Drama Festival 2014, organized by J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, concluded with hilarious presentation of Dogri adaptation of Sharad Joshi’s evergreen play, ‘Ek Tha Gada Urf Alladad Khan’, by ‘The Performers’, at auditorium of Government College for Women, here today.
The play starts with Juggan, a washer man, who after death of Alladad Khan, his faithful donkey, is heartbroken and miserable. The group of young boys gathered at the shop of Devlal Panwala, get a thrashing from passing Kotwal, who calls them as antisocial. To save themselves, the young boys say that they have gathered to pay homage to Alladad Khan, a respected figure who has passed away. The Kotwal, who is getting late for Nawab’s court, thinks this to be a good excuse. Upon hearing the death of a respected man, the Nawab declares three day off and declares to attend the Janaza of Alladad Khan.
Upon the discovery that Alladad is a donkey, the shocked Nawab decides to hang the Kotwal. But Kotwal’s chance encounter with a common man named as Alladad Khan, offers a face saving solution. The Nawab hangs the man and then accompanies his funeral procession.
The play-hailed as a poignant satire on power struggle and the extent of inhumanity that politicians/leaders are ready to undertake to retain their power-in its Dogri adaptation today came out to be hilarious affair due to the apparent local references communicated in colloquial and popular phrases and expressions.
Translated, designed and directed by Vijay Goswami, who also played lead role of Nawab, today’s performance for its overall popular orientation was appreciated by the audience who especially warmed up to the musical interludes based on popular Dogri and Hindi films hits.
Vijay Goswami, through his control over speech, gestures, body movements successfully portrayed the so called people friendly facade of power hungry and megalomaniac Nawab. Others who gave noticeable performances included Soham Kashyap as Kotwal and Aditya Bhanu as Jumman. Saras Bharti, Shilakha Sharma and Atul Mehra, Chander Mohan Pandita, Surya Slathia also acted well.
The others in the cast were Amit Raina, Chetan Charak, Devinder, Gourav Sharma, Mehul Rajput, Nitish, Shekhar Sharma, Sonia, Vikram Khatri. The actors in Chorus were Ashu, Neha, Rocky, Priya, Amandeep Kour, Sadhana, Ikesh, Vinay, Amit, Sonu, Shekhar, Birju and Shivani.
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