A dose of black humour
ROMESH CHANDER
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The Hindi translation of Marathi satire "Shobhayatra" was a delight.
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ACTION-PACKED! A scene from the play "Shobhayatra".
It was sometime in 1980 that Sri Ram Centre for Performing Arts started a full-time professional Repertory Company (CRC Repertory) with the well-known theatre director Rajender Nath as its director. After about two years he left the post but rejoined in 1983 and stayed on for about six years. During this short period and with some outstanding presentations like "Pagla Ghora", Tendulkar's "Anji", Mohan Rakesh's "Ashad Ka Ek Din" and Tendulkar's "Sakha Ram Binder" along with some other brilliant plays, the SRC Repertory soon gained an all-India reputation. With Rajender Nath's departure in 1989 began a fast decay with some leading theatre directors like Bansi Kaul, Bhanu Bharti and a few other directors leaving in quick succession till the present director Mushtaq Kak joined in 1999. Seven years in the life of a theatre repertory is not a long period particularly when you begin from almost a scratch. Thanks to SRC's two-year part-time training programme, the Repertory to a certain extent has been able to produce some good actors who have now been with the Repertory for some time. The results are for regular theatre-goers in Delhi to see. Thanks to its well planned training programme as also because of its presentations SRC Repertory today is once again recognised as one of the top in the country.
Yet another plus point of SRC Repertory's policy is to encourage fresh talent and new plays. It was perhaps keeping this in view that we recently we had on boards the Hindi translation of Shafaat Khan's Marathi satire "Shobhayatra' designed and directed by Laique Hussain.
Marathi playwright
Shafaat Khan is a popular Marathi playwright who has written some prize-winning one-act plays. Marathi knowing friends say that many of his plays have been translated into Hindi and some other Indian languages. Unfortunately, most theatregoers in Delhi are not familiar with Khan's work but if what we saw on the stage recently was any indication, the playwright's work is indeed marked with black humour. It hits out against our political leaders of different shades and colours. The political leaders we meet, like most leaders in real life, depend on `dadas' on their pay roll. The play is not only a satirical depiction of the political scene in Mumbai but in most parts of the country and as we go along, the playwright brings in well-known names in our freedom struggle like Gandhiji, Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose, etc. to drive his point home. The barbs are sharp yet subtle. But it is Laique Hussain's directorial concept that to a large extent robs the characters of the subtlety so essential in a satire.
The cast is a mixed bag. Some of the senior hands like Diksha Thakur as Rani Laxmi Bai, Ambrish Saxena in Gandhi's role, Sonu as Chootu and Sanjay Kumar Singh as Pavlas were good. But then we have Rakhee playing as Barbie who provided glimpses of her potential but unfortunately the director had her play a typecast TV Reporter in a C-Class TV programme.
But all said and seen, one should be grateful to SRC Repertory for giving us a worthwhile glimpse of a talented Marathi satirist, Shafaat Khan.
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