Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, Jan 14: The response of the audience showed an upward trend in the ongoing festival being organized by Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, at Government College for Women, Gandhi Nagar.
Today’s production by Natshala was the immensely popular comedy Bicchoo, Wasi Khan’s Hindi translation of Moliere’s “Les Fourberies de Scapin”, under the direction of Tapeshwar Dutta who also played the lead role.
Play’s theme is broadly based on the lost and found formula, a story spun countless times in Bollywood. What is fresh about the play is the idiosyncrasy of the rich and the lovers’ desperation to fight against odds to marry and live happily ever after. Above all, the play shows the superiority of the folk wisdom of the domestic help, capable of resolving conflicts in a hilarious way that brings the comedy to a happy ending.
Tapeshwar Dutta, playing the part of domestic help, not only performed his role well but also played as anchor by supporting the other actors with cues for the entries, movements etc.
The set by Arvin Tickoo, showing a thoroughfare by the side of park like space lit with lamp posts made up of plastic drainage pipes reflected element of improvisation in set design. But the use of filmy dance sequence in between the scenes seemed more like a superfluous ploy to introduce popular element in the plot that revolved around two Nawab families.
Other members of the cast included Rahul Kumar, Arvin Tickoo, Ashis Uppal, Neeraj Magotra, Kanav Chopra, Gulshan Dingra, Aashima Sharma, Sheetal Sharma, Rohit Kapoor, Rohit Kumar, Snil Raina, Ashish Sharma, Sumit Sharma, Prashant Kumar, Prateeksha, Irfan Choudhary and child artist Hiresh Dutta.
Make up was by Manoj Dhameer, music designed by Surinder Manhas and operated by Sanjay Kumar and lights by Rohit Verma. Kanav Gupta was assistant director while Rahul Kumar was the associate director of the production.
Tomorrow Dr Sahib Singh’s Punjabi play ‘Parinde Hoon Jaan Kithen’, directed by T S Premi, would be staged by Manoranjan Kala Kendra.
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