Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, Apr 5: In a laudable effort to symbolically relate the historic misrule of 11th century king of Kashmir with the conditions prevailing in present times, ‘Naagr Udas’, a play in Hindi, was performed at the Government College, Gandhi Nagar, here today. Based on Dr Gaurishanker Raina’s Hindi translation of original drama written by Moti Lal Kemmu in Kashmiri, today’s production marked the conclusion of two-month long theatre workshop held under direction of Moti Lal Kemmu.
The play is the dramatization of Rajatarangini’s ‘Taranga’-chapter containing 120 shlokas that describes misrule during times of Kashmir’s king Ananta Deva’s son Kalasha.
Ananta Deva, after renouncing the kingdom in favour of his son Kalasha at the behest of Queen Suryamati, lives in Vijayeshwar (presently Bijbehara). The father and son conflict results into sufferings of people and foreign saboteurs’ domination.
Ananta Deva’s decision to install his grand son Harsha as king, makes Kalsha, who in reality is son of common women, placate his father to go back to capital. The older king coming to know son’s plan to imprison him, escapes and reaches back to Vijayeshwar. Kalasa’s men wreck havoc, burn down royal quarters and Vijayeshwar temple where people had taken refuge.
The efforts of the old royal couple to reconstruct Vijayeshwar are thwarted by Kalsha who orders his father to leave Kashmir and retire to Poonch. Harsa comes to his grand parents. But he is too late as the king has killed himself and the queen also commits Sati.
Directed by Moti Lal Kemmu, the stalwart playwright, today’s production had the feel of classic theater. All the dramatic action revolved around the set which comprised only of an architectural replica of a typical Kashmiri temple, placed in centre of the stage.
The thought full costumes design helped in establishing the period and the characters including king, queen, courtiers and Brahmins. Meenal Peer as queen Suryamati, Balwinder Pal Singh as Anant Deva, Manoj Bhat as Khir Bhoop gave good performances. Others members of cast included Hardeep Singh, Vishal Hanjura, Mohit Rawal, Rohitashiv Sharma, Rohit Verma, Arvind Koul, Attied Khawar, Vinay Pandita, Pankaj, Dazy Bazaz, Kusum Koul, Priyanka Sehgal, Anku Sharma, Sheetal Raina, Neha Sharma, Ramesh Pandita, Vinay Pandita and Vinay Suri.
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