Sumit Sharma’s play ‘Mind Games’ staged

Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, Feb 24: Sumit Sharma, the young theatre director, actor and playwriter, who represents the new generation of drama professionals in the winter capital, added a feather in his cap with his Hindi play ‘Mind Games’, which was staged at Gandhi Nagar Government Women College Auditorium, here today.
The play written and directed by Sumit Sharma and in which he also acted the main role, was highly appreciated by the full house of audience for its subject matter as well as dramatic form. The plot of the play revolves around main protagonist ‘Ajit’, a young man who due to his shy nature is humiliated by his office colleagues including a girl to whom he likes.
As a psychological measure to counter the perpetual state of inferiority complex, ‘Ajit’ dreams about a character and identifies with the dynamic, dashing, bold and charming personality who conducts himself in such a heroic manner that every body is impressed by him. Ajit emulates the character in his day to day life, gets wanted results but is unable to own his mental creation ‘Krish’ whom he see as a separate entity. Unable to resolve his personal dualism, he reverts back to his original self.
The script characterized by everyday situations in Indian urban centers like the struggle to board the crowed public transport, office culture of arrogant bosses and their partisan attitude towards blue-eyed employees, harassment of simple and shy workers, inability in expressing one’s likeness for a young female colleague—all were very affectively represented in a dramatic language that made competent use of elements and techniques combining mime, flash back, dance movements perfectly cued to a racy background music; an admixture drawn from western and Indian classical sources.
The unfolding of sequences and their replay in slow and fast forward movements was especially impressive piece of directorial talent of the young director who also acted the role of ‘Ajit’. Gaurav Jamwal as Krish, was impressive for his mature handling of dialogs and body movements that enhanced the contrast between two characters. Chitra Thapar as ‘Simran’, the object of Ajit’s love, also left a mark with her subtle dialogs and dance sequences. Others who also acted well included Pawan Sharma as Boss, Rahul Singh as Kumar. The actors in the ‘chorus’ were Mohammad Yaseen, Sunil Bhardwaj, Vishal Sharma, Ashwani Bali, Ankush Lakhotra, Uplakash Singh, Sajra Qadir, Anita Dhar, Shivika Verma and Shekhar Sharma. Suraj Ganjoo was on lights while Anil Tickoo handled the music.
Today’s production which had an unmistakable stamp of Natrang’s artistic use of the physicality of actors’ body was staged by Natrang in collaboration with Karamsheel Charitable Trust and Government Women College, Gandhi Nagar. Raman Bhalla, Minster for Culture and Horticulture, was the chief guest on the occasion. Padamshree Balwant Thakur, creative director of Natrang, Maj Gen (Retd) Govardhan Singh Jamwal, Prof Kiran Bakshi, Prof Lalit Magotra, Prem Mehta and Anil Padha were also present in the audience.