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With Ajay Shukla’s “Taj Mahal Ka Tender” presented by A.R.S.D. College’s Dramatic Society Rangayan joins the ranks of three to four top dramatic societies in Delhi University. No mean achievement indeed considering Rangayan is only five-years-old and what is more, it produces only a play a year.

Shukla, the playwright, has written just two plays in the last 10 years or so,“Dusra Adhya” and “Taj Mahal Ka Tender”. Both were awarded the Mohan Rakesh Samman by Sahitya Kala Parishad for the best original Hindi plays. “Taj Mahal Ka Tender” has been staged all over India under different directors. The play was first directed by Chitranjan Tripathi for the NSD Repertory.

Rangayan’s presentation is directed by Danish Iqbal who after graduating from NSD in 2002 moved on to the Central School of Speech and Drama in London and obtained the Master’s degree in 2005. Since his returnhe has been actively associated with NSD in different capacities apart from acting and directing for different theatre groups and also conducting theatre workshops.

In contemporary Hindi theatre, satire is perhaps the weakest link both in content and presentation and Shukla’s “Taj Mahal Ka Tender” for its contents and Iqbal’s overall production design has come closest to what a satire should be. What is more, the young cast, despite the limited stage experience, performed with commendable understanding of what the director was aiming at. Those who stood out among the cast are Himmat Singh Negi in Shahjahan’s role projecting well the emperor’s changing moods, Bhanu Pratap Singh as Gupta, the sanctioning officer for the project and Sivam Agarwal playing the Bhaiyaji, the slimy go-between, live their roles well. To add colour to the presentation, the director has introduced a dance sequence in the court scene and the playback singers do full justice to the lyrics of Iqbal.

Shukla’s “Taj Mahal Ka Tender” is an interesting play that more or less fulfils the criteria of a good satire. The play opens with the Emperor Shah Jahan’s desire to build a monument for his Begum, Mumtaz Mahal. One of the Emperor’s trusted officer and Sudhir as Gupta’s number two form a team that is not only perfect in delaying the project but also masters in corruption. The tactics of the bureaucrats and their routine functioning brings into focus not only the emperor’s helplessness in dealing with them but also places the past in the present and the present into the past.

All this goes on for 25 years and the project only reaches the first stage in issuing the tender. The emperor dies much before the foundation is laid and as the curtain comes down our thoughts go back to the many unfinished government projects, big and small.

“Taj Mahal Ka Tender” is one of the best satires in Hindi theatre today . One shouldn’t miss it if it goes on boards again.

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