Rang Gurukul staged "Seema Par" in Premnath Khanna Smriti Samaroh on 27.7.2018 in Patna

Humanity has no borders

A soldier too have a heart and a killer of enemies can be a heartiest friend as well. The play "Seema Paar" authored by Mamta Mehrotra dissects the myth of eternal hostility beyond two borders. A woman belonging to some country  is seen in a deranged condition with a doll in her hands by the guards of the border of another country. One of the soldiers firstly have a doubt over the woman whether she is a spy of enemy and so think to finish her life. But the other come forward in her protection and says that this woman is helpless and must be  safeguarded as this would be befitting to the pride of his country.  And even facing the anguish of his own colleagues he brings that lunatic woman inside the village and provides shelter to her. The soldier has a humanly sympathy towards the woman and tries his best to provide all kinds of friendly support. The woman gradually becomes normal but the neighbors are still suspicious about her. 

One day when some goons attacks an innocent teenager girl this woman stands like a pillar against the miscreant and warns them not to move ahead with their malafide  intentions. But even after this one of them attacks the woman with a knife. This brave woman snatches the knife from that man and kills her. Others flee away. Now the people in the area begin to respect her.

In an evening that soldier who had given shelter to the woman comes to her and conveys that he is set to leave the place as he has been transferred to somewhere else. That woman is shocked and feels helpless again. But then the old villager comes and assures that she can happily stay in the village as her livelihood is the responsibility of this village now. The soldier and the woman feels the pangs thinking about separation and ultimately the soldier who is still a bachelor promises to marry her and both hugs each other.

The happy ending of the play was the characteristic of this eventful story in which happenings of the instances were rich and most important. In other words we can say that the writer is visible in every movement of the character from the very beginning to the the end. 

The begonning of the show with heavy firing across the border and the realistic sound effect created a situation as if the viewer were themselves sitting on the line of control on Indo-Pak border. The viewers were stupefied and remained so for tens of minutes. Ujjwala Ganguli in the role of woman, the main character was successful in presenting the different aspects of the struggle of a woman. When she is not ready to part with the doll to the nurse and it's only after the assurance of the soldier of enemy country when she is ready for that, has been enacted with full sensitiveness. The friendly talk with the lunatic woman to the soldier never reaches a stage when it can be said as a romance, this is purely a human bond and this is the grit and poise of the director who could present this delicate phase of their lives in a genuine manner.  The soldier (main character) acted well and so where his friends. Narendra Kumar in the role of the old villager did justice with the role. 

The actors other than Ujjwala Ganguli will have to work more on their respective roles to make them more impressive though they undoubtedly acted well.   Having said that, this would not be irrelevant to mention that the play did reflect some tinge of formula stories. But the special thing was that it succeeded in showing the soft aspect of humanity with has actually no borders. The writer Mamta Mehrotra, and director Gunjan Kumar must be praised for this. The other villagers also acted well. 

To keep the minute sensitivity of an events based play was the biggest task of the drama-artists and they succeeded in it to the farthest extent. 

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Review by - Hemant Das 'Him' / Samir Parimal

Photographs by - Binay Kumar

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