Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 4: ‘Karamgati’, a bold and experimental play, while preserving the legendary narrative of the folk hero Bawa Jitto, was successful in providing an opportunity to the audience to relate anew with the iconic character at a humane plan.
Staged during the ongoing Spring Theatre Festival and organized by J&K Academy of Art Culture and Languages, the play, written by Vikram Sharma, directed by Sapna Soni and staged by The Kalakar’s, ‘Karamgati’, in Hindustani/Dogri, can be considered as a fresh gush of air in a theatre scenario bereft of experimentation and creative take on contemporary scenario where hackneyed approach is ruling the roost.
The plot revolved around a teacher and a religious person deeply entrenched in the saga of Bawa Jitto. After the shock of his wife’s sudden death, he had been put in a mental asylum after he started living and enacting the characters of Bawa Jitto’s legendary life. When his daughter seeks the help of Atul chalotra a stage actor, renowned for enacting Bawa Jitto’s role on stage, he reluctantly agrees but warns that since the end of the play was tragic, allowing her father to enact the role as a therapeutic measure may prove detrimental for him. But she pursues him to give it a try but her father as predicted dies in his final performance.
Today’s presentation structured as a ‘play within a play’ added a dramatic fillip to the overall production which also came alive through the histrionics, body movements and gruff speech of the sick father in the mental asylum. The cleverly designed set, with a high platform, placed right in the middle of the stage, as the interior of the Asylum, was another highlight that allowed the actors to use the space effectively.
Aditya Bhanu as the mentally challenged father gave an impressive performance. Seasoned actress Sapna Soni as Gauri Pathania, the daughter gave scintillating performances while Atul Chalotra as Atul the debutant left an impeccable impression.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
