Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU Mar 10: Shiv Mehta’s Dogri adaptation of Vijay Tendulkar’s Sakharam Binder, the acclaimed modern classic play, was staged by Natya Karmi, at auditorium of Government College for Women, Gandhi Nagar, here today.
The play Sakharam Binder tells the story of the book binder Sakharam who takes home a series of women after they have been thrown out of their homes by their respective husbands. In return for providing shelter, Sakharam exploits the women by getting them to perform household tasks and occasionally, for sexual favors. The play opens with the seventh woman Laxmi who is docile and timid by nature. After exploiting her for a few days, Sakharam throws her out and brings the next woman Champa, who is flamboyant and head-strong. Things get complicated after a few days when Laxmi returns. What follows is a succession of unexpected events which culminate into a dramatic end.
Directed by young director Ashish Sharma, today’s production due to its Dogri adaptation, while maintaining original characters and plot sequences, was conspicuous for unique local flavor and connotations that seeped into the context because of clever use of idioms, proverbs and colloquial directness inherent in Dogri language. Shiv Mehta, a multifaceted personality who is not only an ace Dogri short story writer but an accomplished stage, TV and film actor and script writer, has succeeded in bestowing a home-grown realism through crisp dialogs.
Today’s performance, the first directorial venture of Ashish Sharma, was noticeable for performance of Archana Sharma as Lakshami who successfully not only lived the role of a simple women left to the cruel hands of fate, but impressed with her flawless diction of Dogri language and delivery of dialogs. Other who gave equally good performances included Sahiba as Champa, Uplaksh Kotwal as Sakharam, Varun Sahrma as Hawaldaar Shinda and Sushil Raina as Dawood.
Tomorrow, The Last Séance, the seventh play of the ongoing Annual Drama Festival, organized by J&K Cultural Academy, would be presented by Shivani Cultural Society.
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