Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, July 22: Lucky Gupta, the Jammu based actor has performed more than 157 solo shows of well-known play ‘Maa Mujhe Tagore Bana De’ for the benefit of school children and enthused by the response to his initiative in J&K and Himachal Pradesh, he also plans to perform more of such solo shows in other parts of the country.
Lucky Gupta and his associate Deepak Singh Jamwal after holding shows of the well known play in different schools of districts like Jammu, Kathua, Reasi, Udhampur, Ramban, Srinagar, Budgam and Anantnag, are presently on tour of Himachal Pradesh and performing in remote areas of Shimla and already held more than 20 performances there.
‘Maa Mujhe Tagore Bana Do’, is a play based on a Punjabi story written by Mohan Bhandari and designed and directed by Lucky Gupta. It is story of a boy’s struggle for getting education. It is a saga of dedication, determination and the strong will power of a poor boy who despite set backs hopes to be like Tagore in life and write poetry like him.
An actor who has worked with leading theatre directors of Jammu including Balwant Thakur, Mushtaq Kak, Deepak Kumar, Bhupinder Singh, Vijay Malla and others, Lucky Gupta under a unique personal initiative to popularize theatre amongst the children started series of solo shows of the play from last tow years with out any support from Government and society.
Talking to Excelsior, Lucky Gupta said there has been a tremendous response to our effort especially in those remote areas where some of the children till date have not witnessed a live drama performance. He said his two-member team consists of one actor and other member who manages back-stage support. The performances held in open space with him as solo actor moving among the children with speech, movements and mannerism, with minimum props binds the audience to experience of the drama which is intimate in character. He said such has been the enthusiasm of the local people that he is also holding drama workshops for the benefit of children. He said people are happily donating money to his team for continuing the initiative.
Lucky Gupta said “I wish to make theatre easily accessible to common masse so that it can become as one of the active modes of expression for the society. I believe that theatre can make a change in society if it done in effective way and with positive approach”.
In a bid to let children know the power of theatre as a tool of expression, he and his associate Deepak Singh Jamwal under the banner of their theatre group ‘Rangalok’, plan to hold more solo shows of the play in different parts of Punjab, UP and Nepal in coming months.
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