Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 28: Balwant Thakur’s highly satirical Dogri play ‘Gatt’ was staged here today under weekly theatre series Sunday Theatre.
Based on Krishna Chander’s famous Urdu classic short story ‘Khadda’, Balwant Thakur adapted the play to the contemporary life of J&K which is badly hit by the devastating floods. The play transports the audience to a village situation where a poor-man has been pushed by the floods to a deep ditch and is crying for help and rescue. Many passersby pass through the ditch but have reasons for their inability to extend help to the poor-man.
The unemployed youth are unable to find time out of their fixed schedule of hunting for girls. The ‘Sadhu’ showers blessings and prays for his peace in as and where condition. The police cop lodges an FIR and asks him to report to the police station knowingly that he will never be able to come out of the ditch on his own. The foreigner lady enquires about his choice between India and Pakistan, which side he would like to take? The situation becomes more dramatic when a Minister after a complaint from the public about the worsening of the road condition, makes a round of the area. The workers of the Public Works Department instead of taking out the man from the ditch put wooden planks over the ditch and create a stage for Minister’s public speech. Here the Minister lists his development revolution and lashes at his opponents for cursing their Government for political gains.
The play reflects the plight of the poor masses who continue to suffer for want of help from those at the helm of affairs.
Natrang artists who gave performances, included Pankaj Verma, Susheel Raina, Namit Dubey, Abhi Bargotra, Purshotam Kumar, Amit Raina and Rajan Thakyal. The show was coordinated by Mohd Yaseen. Juhi Singh did the presentations.
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