'Surajmukhi aur Hamlet' (Sunflower and Hamlet) staged in Patna by Imagination & DSDO on 12.6.2017

Hold-backs in the constructive progress 

(इस नाटक-समीक्षा का हिंन्दी संस्करण यहाँ पढें:   http://biharidhamaka.blogspot.in/2017/06/1262017.html)

 

The hero is in a fix. He is not able to move further with any of his productive works. Neither he is able to give an interview to the beautiful interviewer from Bangladesh nor is he able to relax. The undertone theme is expression of the condition of a typical layman in the society. Even though being fully civilised, courteous and dutiful, such persons can't do anything they want notwithstanding the piousness of the purpose. He is always trapped in rubbish kind of conflicts inside home and even in some of more rubbish so-called friendly obligations outside the home.

The play says much more than it shows on stage and very symbolically portrays the scenario in our country where there are so many pull-back forces in action ensuring the fatal inhibition in national progress.

The show started with verbal skirmish between husband and his better half. And this fight persists up to the end of the play where it reaches a proclaimed artificial culmination of happy relationship between the combinations of husband with wife and mother-in-law with daughter-in-law. The last dialogue of the play that "it must show happy ending" is the epitome of the ever fighting pairs in this universe where the probability of good relationship amount only to forced happy ending. 

It would really be very tough to assess which fight was more vigorous - between husband-wife or Saas-bahu (mother-daughter pair-in-law)? This problem is like anwering the eternal question unfailingly asked by every wife nowadays, "Whom you love more- me or your mother?"  

And to make the story even more piquant, there is a writer friend of the hero who is always ready to describe the ending of his story of the oncoming feature film. Mother has a separate issue of searching a rented house where she can live away from her nagging bahu (daughter-in-law). And the scale of her involvement in house-search has turned her a full maniac. The housemaid has her own expectation of even more loving behaviour from the hero . Another woman is obsessed with taking the hero for her first husband Billu over mobile calls and for ensuring that she calls again and again and always. The doorbell rings up at the nick of time when the hero wants to relax after somehow managing everything. 

Two plumbers and a CID Inspector come in turn with their own series of situational attacks on the hero. The pipeline in the house is about to seep so heavily that the fear of domestic flood is imminent. Inspector is striving hard to snatch out a  terrorist or sex-racketeer from  the hero's house so that he finds a case for profession. 'Tum Itna Jo muskura rahe ho" (You are smiling so much that..) the sonorous ringtone is so frequent that after this play no one would dare this song again. The sound of doorbell speaks "Kabhi to kholo" (open at least sometime) . In brief, the play is out and out a mess for the hero.

Rubi Khatun as the heroine Maya and Ravi Raj/ Saurabh Kumar as the hero (lekhak) presented marvelous pieces of their acting. Both are fully mature and were able to express the feelings of the characters lively. The ex-wife of Billu also left an impact on viewers with her catchphrase "kaat diya phone?" (Oh! he cut off the phonecall). The friend (story writer of film) acted superb. The inspector also succeeded in creating a horror like situation by smelling a terrorist or racketeer in every instance. The housemaid and plumbers acted as per the director. The person at door bell did a good work. Sound system was appropriate and lighting was good enough to manage quick revivals after several cut-offs.  

The stage design and make-up were absolutely as per the demand of the play. The script of Jaya Annui has been adapted in drama by Ranjeet Kapoor. Though he did a praiseworthy work, the very selection of this piece of story seems to be questionable. You might have more options of choosing a more relevant sarcastic story. The message lying in a pure comedy can only be perceived by a critic and not a lay viewer. The direction of Vinod Rayee was up to the mark and special challenge he undertook successfully was that of grooming up of slum-dwelling children and ingraining the dramatic skills within their immature psyche. 

The whole presentation of this play at Premchand Rangashala, Patna worth applauds. 
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