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A song for simple Simon

to the t Munish Sharma with his boyish good looks suited the role

To an anticipating audience at the Ranga Shankara, Manav Kaul’s “Five Grains of Sugar” (Shakkar ke Paanch Daane) translated by Arshia Sattar, staged by Just Theatre and directed by Nirmala Ravindran unfolds from a file, letters, tab le and chairs, blackboard and a truck board suspended from atop.

And small-town boy Rajkumar, played by Munish Sharma with his sleeveless sweater, unkempt hair, ever-smiling face and boyish good looks suits his role.

The objects scattered at different corners on the stage are his worldly belongings — the only possessions he can assign some significance to.

Raju, as we learn, is the stereotypical simpleton with his school-boyish chanting monotone, limited vocabulary and knowledge, ‘dumbstruck’ expression, child-like bursts of exclamation and awkward, unsophisticated body movements.

As Raju surveys his life and the noteworthy people in it, several points in the play highlight the mediocre, trouble-free life of a man who is at ease with the small happenings in his world.

In doing so, the playwright cleverly pokes fun both at the inability and insignificance of Raju’s life in the small town and at the multitude of isms the well-bred, worldly-wise and well-heeled urban dweller constantly seeks to find.

It is in the examples of the larger-than-life propagandist “Mother India”, the absurdity of the poet and his inexplicable poetry to the obsessed, desperately-seeking Gandhian that Raju remembers his mother, uncle Pundalik and Radhe respectively.

The unassuming, simple life of the man who lives neither in a town, village or city — but somewhere in between gave a different perspective.

From the wide-eyed adulation of the English-speaking boy wonder Raghu with his boots and tight t-shirts, naive curiosity about ants and their modus operandi to the oft-used ‘OK’ in assessing the lack of achievement in making it to the cricket team, school results and his unglamorous name could be juxtaposed to the life of the otherwise over-achieving, ambitious city-dweller.

The expressions and metaphors were sweet, endearing and humorous — but only up to a point — making the play seem longer than its 70-minute duration.

The exaggerated and magnified simplicity and humility of Rajkumar were driven home one too many times, making the one-act play tedious in the protagonist’s attempt to defend his life and its meaning.

The audience, however, were simply delighted — hanging onto every joke, lapping it up and bursting into peals of laughter at the slightest pretext, right till the end.

Raju’s attempt to transform to the self-assuring Rajkumar was witty, his blown-up problem was funny, the hero worship of Raghu was comical, the dumbstruck expression at his uncle Pundalik’s poetry was hilarious.

The props were minimal to the extent of exalting the lone character’s presence, lines, which engaged the audience could have been edited to fit into a shorter time frame, music played was appropriate to emphasise the comical aspect, movements spread out, but the suitably effective lighting and direction could have pushed greater physical boundaries in moving from the simplistic.

The playwright and actor made too much of an effort to create an aura around the over-zealous, happy-go-lucky small-town boy. And with the closing philosophy of ants, “Five Grains of Sugar” was a simple tale that was simply told in round and round in circles, leaving one with spoonfuls of sugary sweet syrup.

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