Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, Mar 24: In a classic example as to how a celebrated contemporary literary text transcends geography to find different avatar’s, Nobel laureate Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’, was impressively presented in the Dhudhand dialect of Jaipur district, at the Abhinav Theatre, here today.
Staged by Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), Jaipur, as the third performance of ongoing Jammu Chapter of 8th Theatre Olympiad, the play based on Hindi translation of Devendra Anurag, Veerendra Saxena, written and directed by Rakesh Khatri, came out a treat for the sheer virtuosity and prowess of the actors.
Both realistic and philosophical, the play utilizes character archetypes to communicate allegoric lessons of humanity, love, hope, and despair, and unending human dreams and desires. Titled ‘Oondra’ in Rajasthani, it is a story of two landless laborers, Jaggu and Lori, who move from one place to another in search of work.
Jaggu is illiterate but intelligent, whereas Lori, although being hefty and well-built is somewhat retarded. The dream of owning a piece of land someday binds them together. Lori has a fetish for soft things and under the spell of uncontrollable emotional intensity, he ends up killing rabbits, cats etc. Jaggu acting as his protector saves him from harm. Carrying their unfulfilled dream in their hearts, they finally find work at a rich man’s house. In a series of events, on one fateful day, Lori while caressing hair of rich man’s flirtatious daughter-in-law ends up strangulating her. Jaggu, foreseeing the impending events, shoots Lori.
Arif Khan as Jaggu, and Rohan Singh as Lori got standing ovation from the audience, for enacting out realistic portrayal of respective characters. Other actors who also impressed were Abhijit Sharma as Khemu, Aijaz Khan as Bobby, VijayGurjar/ Sachin Sukhadia as Suleman, Sikander Khan as Kailash, Lavina Sadhwani as Bobby’s Wife, Taalib Hussain as Hira , Krishn Bhargava as Babu, Vijay Prajapati as Maalik.
The artistic set depicting rural ambiance, costumes, props, along with effective light and music design-all emerged as vital elements to the success of the performance which will be remembered for simple but effective production design as well the acting prowess of young actors from Jaipur.
Tomorrow, Mumbai’s Ekjute Theatre Group will present Hindi play Salaam 1950’s Ke Naam, under the direction of Nadira Babbar.
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