Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 2: A comedy play ‘Sainyan Bhaye Kotwal’ under the direction of Padamshri Balwant Thakur was staged by Natrang here today.
Written by Vasant Sabnis originally in Marathi in Tamasha style, the music of the play was scored by ace musician and singer Suraj Singh.
Brij Mohan Sharma, Principal Secretary, Department of Culture, J&K Government was the chief guest on the occasion, whereas Harvinder Kaur, secretary and Sonali Arun Gupta, additional secretary, J&K Academy of Art Culture and Languages were the special guest and guest of honour respectively.
Speaking on the occasion, president and founder of Natrang Balwant Thakur informed that this is perhaps the only production of Natrang which features the most decorated cast and off-stage members.
The chief guest, Brij Mohan Sharma, Principal Secretary culture appreciated the hard work, devotion and dedication of Natrang artists in creating a class in theatre.
Play ‘Sainyan Bhaye Kotwal’ opened at a kingdom ‘Surya Nagar’ which is shown suffering from corruption, nepotism and lawlessness. The king is busy in hunting and foreign tours and the functionaries of his Government are busy in making the best use of his absence.
Kotwal (Chief of police) of the kingdom dies and the king authorizes the Prime Minister to appoint a suitable person at his place. Hawaldar the only contender of the post who was waiting for the last ten years for Kotwal to die gets a big setback when Prime Minister appoints his own brother-in-law to the post.
Now Hawaldar has no other option but to get the new Kotwal trapped in some criminal case so as to show him the exit. Kotwal who is fond of music is taken to a court singer where he falls in love with her and visits regularly.
A caricature of bad governance has been beautifully depicted in the play.
Among others who performed in the play included Anil Tickoo, Sanjeev Gupta, Neeraj Kant, Pankaj Sharma, Meenakshi Bhagat, Subash Jamwal and Shivam Singh, Adaksh Bagal, Kartik Kumar, Aryan Sharma, Vansh Pandotra, Arun Dev Verma, Simran Bhagat and Prerna Sharma.
The music was comprised by Suraj Singh, Supriya Sharma, Parminder Singh, Laksh and Vijay Anand.
The lights were professionally designed and executed by yet another senior lights designer Suraj Ganjoo.
The production was managed by Pawan Verma and Mohd Yaseen and was supported by Karanpreet Kaur.
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