Lalit Gupta
Despite non-existent training opportunities and apprenticeships, poor infrastructure, lack of economy around theatre topped with measly State re/awards, it surely goes to the credit of dedicated lot of the old and young amateur theatre enthusiasts of Jammu, who driven by their inner calling of heart, made the annual drama festival come alive by performing serious, meaningful as well as entertaining plays.
Organized since late 1960’s, by J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, the annual drama festivals, in cities of Jammu and Srinagar, have been providing platform for independent, experimental and contemporary theatre groups of the state.
In the annual theatre festival-2014 which concluded on March 18, 2015, fourteen local theatre groups staged equal number of plays that ranged from creative responses to present day socio-political scenario, psychological predicaments of society in times of transition, in a theatre language that bordering from realistic to experimental succeeded in providing a wholesome entertainment to theatre aficionados of the winter capital.
The highlight of this year’s festival—that in consequence of the closure of Abhinav Theatre since four years, was staged in the deficient space of GWC, Gandhi Nagar auditorium—was the stellar performances like ‘Komal Gandhar’ by Pancham Group, ‘The Last Colony’ by Natraj Natya Kunj, ‘Local Tax Extra’ by Bhoorang Foundation, followed by ‘Andha Yug’ by Samooh Theatre, ‘Adalat Mein Gandhi’ by Yamini Cultural Society and ‘Ik Ha Gada urf Alladad Khan’ by The Performer.
The production like The Last Séance by Shivani Cultural Society, where the script by playwright actor/director Vikram Sahrma being an inter-textual take on the characters of ‘Devdas’, thus demanding an informed understanding of the original work by the audience, with an apparent over emphasis on aesthetic light and music design, faltered in gripping the attention.
Few theatre groups even after selecting good scripts and putting up lot of hard work by directors and actors ended up with performances which were a shade lower than the standards already set up by earlier performances by different groups in Jammu. Sandhya Shaya by Rangshala and Sakha Ram Binder-by Natya Karmi would fall in this category.
The Punajbi play Kandyali Taar by Society for Environment, Education and Modern art, marked with emphasis on musical portions and competently sung and danced by lead actors, showed an interesting addition in the design as compared to earlier performances by the play. Many new faces which brought in new set of audience, was another achievement of the group.
In reference to the acting by female actresses, the festival saw excellent performances by senior actress like Gurmeet Kour Jamwal (as Gandhari in Komal Gandhar), Meena Peer ( Local Tax Extra), while the other noticeable actresses who left their mark were Archana Sharma (as Lakshami in Sakha Ram Binder), Mousami Thakyal and Meenakshi Sahrma (as Noori and Dolly in Fasley), Subeer (as Kosar in Dukh Darya, Kanika Sahrma (as Gandhari in Andha Yug), Sapna Soni (as Kasturba in Adalat Mein Gandhi), Surya Slathia (as Ramkali in Ik Ha Gadha), Meenu Sharma (as Nani in Sandhya Shaya). Among the male actors who left an indelible impression included Aditya Bharti-The Last Colony, Shadi Lal Kaul, Farooq Sheikh, Ashok Bhan-Local tax Extra, J R Sagar, Deepak Sahrma—Adalat Mein Gandhi, Dilshad Ahmed as a Lakhnavi Nawab—in Vatan Fry, Vijay Goswami, Soham Kashyap, Aditya Bhanu—Ik Ha Gadha Urf Alladad Khan, Arya veer Singh, Dhanesh Dogra—Komal Gandhar, Rajesh Ajnabi—Sandhya Shaya. With regards to the scripts by local playwrights in the festival, the new Hindustani play by Balraj Bakshi, was conspicuous for mirroring the blatant corruption, nepotism and degradation moral, social and national character. Rajneesh Gupta’s new play Shah Sahni in Dogri, through a heart rendering tale of two lovers who suffered lifelong pain in separation, is a welcome script as good addition in modern Dogri literature on partition and turbulent history of the region. Shiv Mehta’s Dogri version of Sakha Ra Binder was another good attempt. The Dogri adaptations of Sharad Joshi’s famous play Ek Tha Gadha by Vijay Goswami, though managed to entertain the audience due to many local references, but sadly the adaptation came out as a farce rather that a poignant satire.
This year’s festival also brought focus on works of young directors like Abhishek Bharti, Ravinder Sharma, Pardeep Sharma, Ashish Sharma and Javed Gill who directed The Last Colony, Andha Yug and Shah Shahni, Sakha Ram Binder and Kandyali Taar respectively. Out of the above mentioned three directors, only Abhishek Bharti is academically trained in Dramatics from Chandigarh while the others are mostly self taught. Gurmeet Kour Jamwal impressed as director of Komal Gandhar.
The dedication and sincerity shown in operating of light and sound by Cultural Academy’s technical hands Pankaj and Lokesh, was thankfully appreciated all theatre groups. Notwithstanding the conspicuous absence of well known theatre groups like Natrang, Amateur and Rangyug, the drama festival 2014, emerged as a forceful statement about the vibrancy of the theatre scene in which number of amateur theatre enthusiasts come together every year to stage plays not only to vie for measly state awards but to celebrate the joy of being creative as well as being able to make a difference in the lives of citizens of Jammu through meaningful plays.
One only wishes that given the immense talent of local youth of the State in the creative field of theatre and other arts, the new government would post haste frame and implement a comprehensive cultural policy in which performing and other arts get their due importance and place in overall education system so that our youth and coming generations are able to hone their creative energies in socially beneficial ways rather than straying into strangle hold of anti-social and anti-national forces.