Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 1: Theatre group Natrang here today staged Hindi play ‘Girgit’ directed by Balwant Thakur. Based on a Russian short story by Anton Chekhov the play is a hard hitting satire on the present socio-political system. The adaptation of the play was deeply rooted in the soil of Jammu and its dramatic structure made the audience feel as if they are watching their own story. The play ‘Girgit’ revolves around a dog and corrupt police officer, who changes colours like a chameleon, every time as the situation changes irrespective of right or wrong.
The stage action starts when a dog bites a pickpocket who approaches the police officers to help him to roundup the owner but all in vain. A passerby hints that the dog belongs to the local Minister as he saw a similar dog moving around his bungalow.
On getting his clue, the officer starts beating the pickpocket for teasing a respectable dog having lived a high life. The officer claims that a dog of Minister cannot bite unless and until forced to do so. While he is beating the pickpocket, another man from the crowd observes that the local minister cannot keep such dog, as he is known to have pointer-hunting dogs only.
On this, dog is thrashed and search continues for the owner of the dog to enable the pickpocket to claim the compensation. The beating of dog continues until a servant of the minister appears on the scene. At first he refuses to recognize the dog but later identifies him as minister’s brother’s dog who has visited from Delhi. Here the dog is escorted back home with full honour and official protocol.
Actors who acted in the play were Kananpreet Kaur, Sushant Singh Charak, Brijesh Avtar Sharma, Gopi Sharma, Kuldeep Angral, Lovely Sharma, Parth Magotra, Mihir Gujral and Sumit Raina. The lights of the play were executed by Manoj Kumar Lalotra. The show was coordinated by Mohd. Yaseen and Aadesh Dhar presented the show before the audiences.