Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, May 20: As a tribute to Kirpal Singh Kasali, the well known Punjabi playwright, the newly formed Kasali Kala Manch, presented ‘Kandyali Taar’, as its maiden performance at Government College for Women Auditorium, here today.
‘Kandyali Taar’, the Punjabi play written by late Kirpal Singh Kasali and one of the best scripts of the playwright, is a moving comment on how 1947 Partition not only divided the sub-continent but also forced a partition among people who still share a common cultural ethos. Directed by Jan Mohammad, the plot of the play revolves around two soldiers: Prem Singh, a Sikh of Indian Army and Mushtaq of Pakistani Army, who while posted on the border discover that Prem Singh is living in the same house in Gurdaspur, which belonged to the family of Mushtaq before partition.
Both develop cordial relations, and Mushtaq tells him about the gold mohars which were buried by his ancestors in the Gurdaspur house and after coming to know about the marriage of Prem’s daughter, he tells him to use the gold for marriage.
Prem reports back to border after solemnizing daughter’s marriage, and when he goes to meet Mushtaq, he finds a barbed fencing has been raised on the border. While he is about to hand Mushtaq back the gold, along with a brick from his house as a reminder of his roots, Army officers from both sides of the border, having become suspicious of the meetings of two ‘enemies’ fail to appreciate the transaction and after labeling the both as traitors, kill them. Jan Mohammad acted as Mushtaq and Varun Kundal as Prem Singh. Other members of the cast included Mohammad Aslam as Commanding Officer, Gagan Deep Singh as Subedar, Abdul Razak Bhatti as Veer Singh, Shehzad as Pavitar Singh Katoch, Vaneeta Sharma as Mushtaq’s mother, Sunil Mehra as Mushtaq’s nephew, Mohammad Shokat, Razat Ali as Pakistani soldiers, Shushma Manhas as Awaaz and Janu as Pahad Singh.
The chief guest of the function was ex-Minister Babu Singh. Chief Engineer PWD, veteran stage actor, writer Santosh Sangra and Baljit Raina were among the audience which mainly comprised of relatives and friends of actors, backstage team, and Punjabi writers, poets, stage actors and theatre lovers.
Today’s performance by the club named after the playwright was high on emotional quotient, but found wanting in terms of actor’s preparedness, director’s facility with stage design etc.
Nonetheless, the play did succeed in leaving a powerful message that shared cultural bonds have the capacity to transcend any artificial barrier.
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