Adil Rashid presented the play 'Lanchhan' on 18.2.2018 in Patna

Invisible trap of infidelity

The narcissism fostered by the conspicuous compliments lead to fatality in the play 'Lanchhan' presented by Adil Rashid. Devi, a beautiful wife of Shyam Kishore is very faithful to her husband and takes full care of him. Mannu Mehtar is a poor man who comes to Devi with an overt purpose of taking some help in cash or kind. Each time he comes to Devi he praises her beauty though with full  courtesy. Mannu also talks about the neighbrour Raza Miya and conveys that he is a big fan of the grandeur of her facial charm. Though Devi resists the onslaught of  unwarranted compliments, she could not forbid Mannu to meet her outright because she in fact liked sophisticated kind words for herself. Shyam Kishore is furious when he knows about the frequent visits of Mannu Mehtar and the compliments given in form of gifts to their baby by Raza Miya. Devi agrees to her husband but does not forbid Mannu Mehtar so as to uproot the creeping suspicion in the mind of her husband. 

Once her daughter went to the roadside while playing with the toys given by Raza Uncle and came under the wheels of a motorcar resulting into her death. Both Shyam Kishore and Devi face an unbearable grief and come nearer to each other. Soon after, they change their house to forget the tragedy. But here also Mannu Mehatar comes along with Raza Miya in pretext of expressing condolence. Shyam Kishores comes to know about it and his face contorts with rage on why Raza Miyan came to meet his wife. He blames his wife for her character. Devi feels insulted as she hasn't done anything wrong. She leaves the home of her husband. Shyam Kishore is highly dejected on the departure of his wife and hangs himself with a noose. While Devi is wandering where to go, Mannu Mehatar suggests her to take shelter in the house of Raza Miya. She accepts the proposal and enters the room of Raza Miya. Mannu Mehatar closes the door from outside. Now it is revealed to Devi that she has been deceived by Mannu Mehatar and Raza Miya.

The director successfully used the full floor of the stage equitably. The four characters of Premchand were well accommodated by him. He had also successfully designed the way of presentation of the sequence after the death of the little daughter.  Though the tom-tom scene could have been made by the director perhaps in a more effective manner had he used some extra stage property and characters. Yes we agree that after the death the use of doll was perfect. Perhaps there was some scope of a child actor playing the daughter's role rather than a doll.The script was fine. 

The actors showed their high class of natural acting. Satyajit Kesarai was able to communicate the stress of a suspicious husband and Aditi Singh the helplessness of the victim of that suspicion. The facial expression and body language of both Satyajit and Aditi were impressively visible. Aditi was also able to show the typical satisfaction of a woman through the gesture, posture and countenance while receiving the honey-coated words in favour of her facial charm. On the death of her little daughter the dejection was visible clearly. Aditi  though there is slight scope of improvement to make her weep more natural. Satyajit Kesari was flawless in acting though the script offered little chance of variety of moods. The sound quality was good and lights were also okay.

 The make up and costumes were up to the mark. The background music selection was well. Set design was well barring a thing mentioned below. The giant images of Premchand behind the four characters of Premchand proved a disturbance in creating different natural ambiance as per the needs. Those images were perhaps superfluous.  

In view of the high quality of presentation and acting, the whole play can undoubtedly be summed up as a big success.

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Review by - Hemant Das 'Him' / Sanjay Kr Yadav

Photographs- Upendra Kumar