Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Feb 10: Natrang’s highly acclaimed Dogri play ‘Mahabhoj’ featured in National Awards Festival at Rabindra Bhawan, New Delhi.
The festival is being organized by National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama, New Delhi.
Written by Mannu Bhandari, translated in Dogri by Prof RN Shastri, play ‘Mahabhoj’ is innovatively directed by Balwant Thakur.
The most noteworthy feature of this performance was the featuring of Anil Tickoo in lead, who has been conferred this year’s Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Acting in Theatre.
This exclusive presentation also featured two Bismillah Khan Yuva Sangeet Natak Akademi Awardees Vikrant Sharma and Sumeet Sharma.
Acclaimed all-over for its unique style of presentation and innovation this unconventional play ‘Mahabhoj’ revolves around the agricultural labourers of ‘Saroha’ who bear the brunt of the wrath of their landlord for raising voice against his atrocities. In a gruesome act of arson, their settlements are torched and nine innocent lives are lost. “Beesu”, a fiery young man is murdered in a dastardly act and a bold voice is strangulated. The murder of ‘Beesu’ is sensationalized and every political party is out to earn maximum mileage out of it as elections are round the corner. The media magnifies this tragedy beyond proportions. The Chief Minister, Da Sahib, mastermind behind the murder, uses this murder as a weapon to silence his opponents and suppress internal unrest within party ranks. The hurt sentiments of people of ‘Saroha’ are nursed by installing a Cottage Industry Project, thus, providing employment opportunities. A fresh inquiry is ordered into Beesu’s murder. The politics of power plays its dirty game once again and truth becomes a casualty. ‘Binda’ a friend of Beesu and a crusader, is falsely implicated and arrested. The play deals both with the hawkish lust of human being for power and tenacity of human race to stand up courageously against all odds.
The artists who accompanied Anil Tickoo include Suresh Kumar, Neeraj Kant, Subash Jamwal, Sumeet Sharma, Vikrant Sharma, Mohd. Yaseen, Manoj Lalotra, Meenakshi Bhagat, Vrinda Sharma, Abhinav Sharma, Sumit Raina, Rakesh Kona and Sushant Singh.
Music to the mega theatre production of Natrang was rendered by Suraj Singh whereas the lights of the play were designed and executed by Shivam Singh.
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