Vishwa staged 'Kutubpur ke Bhikari Thakur' on 15.7.2018 in Patna

Artistic avatara  of a barber

"How you dare to call him Dalsingar Thakur who is just a Dalsingar-ba hajjam" summarizes the tone and tenor of the play. Bhikhari Thakur is a not a man he is a phenomenon. He is a true reflection of a so-called progressive and yet internally an extremely regressive society called Bharat. His life is itself a master-script of dramatics from where evolved many of his immortal creations like Bidesia, Launda Nautch, Beti-viyog, Gabar-ghichor, Vidhwa-vilap etc. The Brahmin-caste cleric still despises him when he reached a status of learned poet in his later childhood. The more frightful aspect of it was that the ignominy he suffered was not personal it was societal. This caste-ridden stinking mindset flourished astonishingly even after the passage of a century from the day of independence of the country. 

The play begins in full swing and displays the childhood events in considerable detail with a real-life sensitivity though reduces itself to merely a documentary type in the later half. Since the epic of Bhikari's biography is too big to be served as a capsule, the author and director focused more on childhood events. And the effort of capturing the moments of metamorphosis of Bhikari Hajjam into  Bhikhari Thakur, a legendary poet was successful. The play was studded with bits of sonorous folk songs and scenes of the theatre as the parts of the play. The scenes of Bidesia caught the attention of viewers. 

The chorus from backstage was superb and they were quite visible in the typical style of Bhikari's plays. They were vital in running the show through. Brij Bihari Mishra was the main musician, Aditya Gunjan on dholak, and Kunal, Rahul, Ravi, Abhishek in chorus added valuable inputs. Pratyush Mishra's dance direction was fine. 

Though actors in this show need to take more strain to make the show thumping still more than one were up to the mark. The mother of Bhikari (Pallavi Singh) , Ganpat Pandit (Prince Raj) and the wife of Bhikari (Tanu) left indelible impression through their acting. The male in the role of the first wife of Bidesi (Harsh K Roy) also caught the attention of viewers. Father of Bhikari (Jagdip Yadav), , Harku (Harendra Kr), Bhikari (Tarun Kr, Sandip Kr) himself,  Batohi and other others did well.Ujjwal Singh, Yatindra Kr, Sriram Yadav, Nitin Kr, Raju Kr, Alok Ranjan and Pankaj Kr. Tiwari, acted well.

 Dress design by Md Saddam and make-up by Adil rashid was good, Lights by Raushan Kr were fine. Madhukar Singh's script had more depth in the first half of the play. Direction of Rajesh Raja has already been applauded though he will have to leave more space for actors to deliver.With the glut of good works by director haunting your mind you wonder whether drama is an actor's medium or of director.
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Review by - Hemant Das 'Him'
Photographs by - Binay Kumar
E-mail of the reviewer - hemantdas_2001@yahoo.com
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