Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, Jan 24: Samooh Theatre’s presentation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Hindi at the Abhinav Theatre, here today, emerged as an impressive production which succeeded in giving the feel of epic theater to the audience.
Presented on the penultimate day of theater festival titled as J&K winter Carnival, today’s play translated by Harivansh Rai Bachchan, designed and directed by Ravinder Sharma, which had won major awards in the recently concluded annual drama festival, presented a dramatic ambiance befitting the large canvas of Shakespearean plays.
The play begins with the recent death of King Hamlet, who was Prince Hamlet’s father. Following King’s death, his brother Claudius, and uncle of the young prince was crowned the King of Denmark. After assuming the position as the new king, Claudius married Queen Gertrude, Prince Hamlet’s mother. The disgusted young prince feels outraged and vows revenge on Claudius. Not long after the death of his father and marriage of his mother and uncle, the ghost of King Hamlet appears to the prince. Previously, others in the kingdom believed that the king died because of a snake bite, but the ghost reveals that the king was murdered by Claudius. Hamlet then puts on a play for Claudius that reenacts the death of the King. The play concludes with Gertrude drinking from a poisoned cup, Hamlet stabbing Claudius and Hamlet himself being stabbed by a poisoned blade.
The plot with number of sub-plots adding a tempo to the overall narrative, was equally matched by the team of young actors who in unison gave an impressive show of their ability in almost flawless delivery of the lengthy dialogues, especially the soliloquies by Hamlet, infusing a parade of emotions, along with movements, groupings and umpteen entries and exists.
The remarkable rendering of the (background) voice of the king Hamlet’s ghost by Sudhir Mahajan added the appropriate a kind of tragic gravity to scenes. The set with its multiple levels, background score music, and light design, emerged as strong elements of the production.
The actors in various roles included Sandeep Thakur as Hamlet, Yuvraj Sharma as Horatio, Vishal Singh as Claudius, Rashmi Jasrotia as Gertrude, Devanshu Raina as Polonius, Neha Langeh as Ophelia, Sandeep Manhas as Laertes, Aditya Pandita as Rosencrantz & Laborer 1, Samdhish as Guildenstern& Laborer 2, Rohan Sharma as Osric/Actor 3, Abhishek Sharma as Boy/Actor , Aashima Dutta as Girl 1, Sameena Kousar as Girl 2/Actor.
Choreography by Rohit Bains, lights by Ravinder Sharma, music by Surinder Manhas, and Operated by Rutvi Koul , sounds by Lokesh Chander, makeup by by Shammi Dhammir, costumes and sets by Ravinder Sharma,
Padamshree Balwant Thakur, Rafiq Masoodi (Former secretary JKAACL), Pardeep Dutta (Bureau Chief Times Now) were the special guest on the occasion.
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