Chitrangada - a Dance drama staged at Rabindra Bhawan Patna on 26.7.2015

 (Picture gallery presented beneath the story)

Story - Lord Shiva blesses the king of Manipur for having only sons as his progeny. But a daughter took birth in his house named Chitrangada who was brought up as a son. She used to dress up in the attire of men. Soon, she became adept in archery and martial arts. Once she went for hunting in the jungle where she saw Arjuna of Mahabharata who was living in exile. Chitrangada who was in man’s attire, challenged him for fight. But Arjuna did not heed to her challenge. Next day, she came to Arjuna in the attire of a lady dancer for courtship with Arjuna but Arjuna again rebuffed her. Then she worships Kamadeva and got beauty as a boon from him. Now Arjuna gets enamoured by her charm. Then Chitrangada speaks out the whole truth and Arjuna is again impressed by her truthfulness. Both get married by garlanding the necks of each other.

HAYBADAN A Mirage of Completeness (Story and photos of the stage play )

'Haybadan' - a stage play was performed in Kalidas Rangalay on 21.08.2014. 

(Presented by -'Anhad', Patna, Writer- Girish Karnard, reknowned actor and dramataist, Director- Raju Mishra)

Story- Haybadan means "one who has a head of horse".  A horse-headed person symbolizes the fact that the person is neither a complete this (horse) nor that (a human).  There are two bosom friends. One has a good face and the other has a good physique. After the entry of a woman in the scene who gets married to the man of good face, differences crop up over the issue of fidelity and love of that woman. Though the wife is living with her husband having the good face, she feels more attachment for husband's friend who is having more robust physique. The differences rise to the extreme and both decide to take the lives of each other. Both dies being beheaded by each other. Now a Goddess appears and tells the woman to just join the heads to the respective torsos. While joining heads to the torsos, the heads are interchanged and thus both get their lives again. The question arises here, whose wife the woman is. One has the husband's head and other has husbands's torso. Again a fierce dispute takes place though somehow both agree to the advice of a saint that the woman should live with the man who has husband's head.

After passage of some time, both  men feel that their respective torsos are also reverting to the earlier state of strength matching with their respective heads. Again, the wife feels dissatisfied with her husband and wants to go to the other man who is having the head of his husband's friend. She sends the husband to other city on the pretext of  purchasing a toy and herself goes to the jungle her husband's friend live in. The husband also returns and finds his wife with his friend. Both friends again try to sort out the problem by negotiation but they ultimately reach to the conclusion that they can't live together so they again deliberately murder each other. The wife just remains an onlooker as she perceives that both friends can't live together so lets them die. She also commits suicide after the mutual murder of his husband and his friend. 

Very meticulously, the play shows that the pursuit of completeness is only a mirage. Just be satisfied with what you have. And the way of completeness is your jolliness and laugh. Interestingly, when at the end of the play, the horse-headed creature says that he is satisfied that he has now both head and torso of  a horse but still regrets that he has no voice of horse. Then a child goes nearer to the horse-bodied man and gives some tickles to his body. The horse-bodied man laughs  making sound as .hehehehehehe.... the voice of horse and thus his completeness as a horse is gained.

HIRA DOM – a play staged in Patna on 21.8.2014 '(हीरा डोम' नाटक का पटना में 21.08.2014 को मंचन)

(गूगल द्वारा किया गया हिन्दी अनुवाद को अंग्रेजी टेक्स्ट के नीचे देखें)

HIRA DOM – A Review of Stage Play by Hemant ‘Him’ 

 (in Kalidas Rangalay, Patna on 21.08.2014)

Hira Dom was a protagonist adored as a saint in Dom community. He was so honest that he refused to assist in surgery on a corpse because the post-mortem report had already been prepared by the doctor well before the process of operation. He was proud of being a Hindu even though grossly neglected, marginalised and despised within his own religion. His legend is popularised and propagated by Thakaita Dom who dances and sings with the poetry of Hira. Thakaita and his group follow Hira Dom in word and spirit. “.. Din me saaf-safai, raat me karab gaan..” They make the habitation pure by clearing the sewage. If they don’t do this how the so-called pure will remain pure. And so a purifier must not be treated as an impure himself. The most remarkable feature thing is that they still revel themselves with full fanfare in the evening after their work.  Moreover, they remain undeterred by the temptation of Christ Priest who offers facilities if they choose to convert. Even the attempt of anarchic ultra-socialists could not cast any effect on them. But ironically, these extreme loyalists who practise exemplary honesty as well, get torture and abomination from the society. This is reflected in the form of police atrocity and other kind insult meted out on them. Even the beloved of Thakaita Dom spurns him seeing the mammon with the pseudo-elites.

The presentation was immaculate. Script of Usha Kiran Khan and Direction of Sanjay Upadhyay were perfect. The way poetry of Hira is portrayed and its melange with the pieces of other contemporary poets is brilliant. Acting of Raju Mishra (Thakaita), Abhishek Sharma (journalist)  Ruby Khatoon (Rajuli) was effective. Sweet music and melodious singing enchanted the whole hall. Light and sound was justified.

(गूगल द्वारा किया गया हिन्दी अनुवाद)

हेीरा डोम नाम समुदाय में संत के रूप में एक नायक थे। वह इतना ईमानदार था कि उन्होंने एक लाश पर सर्जरी में सहायता करने से इंकार कर दिया क्योंकि ऑपरेशन की प्रक्रिया से पहले डॉक्टर ने पहले ही पोस्ट-मॉर्टम रिपोर्ट तैयार कर ली थी। उन्हें अपने धर्म के भीतर काफी हद तक उपेक्षित, उपेक्षित और घृणा, भले ही एक हिंदू होने पर गर्व था। उनकी किंवदंती लोकप्रिय है और हिमा की कविता के साथ गाती है और गाती है जो ठाकैता डोम द्वारा प्रचारित है। ताकाता और उनके समूह शब्द और आत्मा में हिरा डोम का पालन करते हैं ".. दीन मी saaf-safai, रात मुझे कराब गान .." वे सड़न को साफ करके बस्ती शुद्ध बनाते हैं। यदि वे ऐसा नहीं करते हैं तो शुद्ध तथा शुद्ध शुद्ध कैसे बनेगा। और इसलिए एक शोधक को खुद अशुद्ध नहीं माना जाना चाहिए। सबसे उल्लेखनीय सुविधा यह है कि वे अब भी अपने काम के बाद शाम को खुद को उल्लास कर रहे हैं। इसके अलावा, वे मसीह पुजारी के प्रलोभन से परेशान रहते हैं, जो यदि उन्हें बदलने का विकल्प चुनते हैं तो वे सुविधा प्रदान करते हैं। यहां तक ​​कि अराजक अल्ट्रा-सोशलिस्टिस्टों का भी प्रयास उन पर कोई प्रभाव नहीं डाल सका। लेकिन विडंबना यह है कि इन चरम वफादारों जो अनुकरणीय ईमानदारी का अभ्यास करते हैं, उन्हें समाज से यातना और घृणा मिलती है। यह पुलिस अत्याचार और अन्य प्रकार के अपमान के रूप में परिलक्षित होता है जो उन पर उल्लिखित है। यहां तक ​​कि ठाकैटा डोम की प्यारी ने उसे छद्म-कुलीन वर्गों के साथ ममता को देखने में उतार दिया।

प्रस्तुति बेदाग थी उषा किरण खान की स्क्रिप्ट और संजय उपाध्याय के निर्देशन परिपूर्ण थे। जिस तरह से हिरा की कविता का चित्रण किया गया है और अन्य समकालीन कवियों के टुकड़ों के साथ इसका मिलावना शानदार है। राजू मिश्रा (तकाता) का अभिनय, अभिषेक शर्मा (पत्रकार) रूबी खतून (राजुली) प्रभावी था। मिठाई संगीत और मधुर गायन ने पूरे हॉल को मंत्रमुग्ध किया। प्रकाश और ध्वनि उचित था

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LAHRON KE RAJHANS – A War Inside - A Review of Stage Play

LAHRON KE RAJHANS  – A War Inside -  A Review of Stage Play by Hemant ‘Him’

(in Kalidas Rangalay, Patna on 22.08.2014)

Commitment of a man (or woman) is never perfect. It exists only as much as it doesn't. A man always lives in a state of dilemma.The character of the play tries his best to show his blind love to his beautiful wife just to maintain a harmonious relation with her. The beautiful wife thinks that she is so charming that his husband will surely come back to her even after meeting the super-charmer  Gautam Buddha. The husband goes to meet Buddha but yes, still remain under the influence of erotic bond of his wife. The love to wife prevails in his mind even while getting his head tonsured. He take initiation into Buddhism reluctantly before Tathagat (Buddha) just to offer a courtesy to his step-brother Tathagat (Budhdha). 

After some time, the man comes back to his house with a pretension of begging for alms and meets his wife. His wife is shocked at the sight of tonsured head of his husband. The wife, a believer of aestheticism rejects her husband as he does not look attractive any more. The husband clarifies that he is disinterested in her as well. He further reveals that he felt infatuation for his wife while taking ‘diksha’ (initiation) of Buddhism but now when he has come back to ther, he feels attracted towards asceticism. The husband leaves his house and the wife is now in deep consternation.

My suggestion : As the drama required show of inner feelings and conflicts to the extreme, more and more dialogues should have been delivered from the front of the stage making the facial expressions more visible to the public.

The play is of high class written by legendary dramatist Mohan Rakesh. The language is replete with Sanscritised Hindi. The purity and  Indian flavour  maintained in the set design was remarkable. Sharada Singh was able to bring the inside story of conflicts out straightforward to the public. And the main character Sundari played by the director herself was brilliant. Suman Kumar playing Nanda was also superb and Uday Singh (Maiatray), Shyamanag (Bhikshu) did justice to their character. Vinita Singh (Alka) and Shashank (Sunil Kumar) had many dialogues and delivery was up to the mark.

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Review by - Hemant Das 'Him'
Photograph by - Bihari Dhamaka blog

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