One of the hit plays of Habib Tanveer ‘Gaon Naam Sasural, Mor Naam Damad’ left the audience in the whirls of laughter as the play was staged here on Wednesday to mark the opening day of ‘Folk Theatre Festival’. The play was presented at Antarang Hall, Bharat Bhawan.

The five day long theatre fest is all about dramas of different genres. On the opening day of the fest, the audience enjoyed the show whole heartedly.

Hindi play ‘Gaon Naam Sasural, Mor Naam Damad’ was splendidly performed by Habib Tanveer’s founded theatre group ‘Naya Theatre Group, Bhopal’. It was first directed by Habib Tanveer in 1973 after a month long Nacha workshop at Raipur.

The play includes three folk Nacha traditions. The first is Chher Chhera (Folk Tradition of Chhatisgarh), second one ‘Budhwa Vivah’ (Marriage with old) and Dewar Nakal.

In Habib Tanvir’s words, "This play was like a milestone in my theatre journey and this play also helped me to give a way to my next production Charandas Chor."

Describing the colours of culture and tradition of Chhattisgarh, the play was performed in Chhatisgarhi dialect. Naach Style is finely defined in Tanvir’s this play, which means that a chorus is needed to narrate the story through songs and music.

‘Gaon Naam Sasural, Mor Naam Damad’ is a folk tale and a light hearted comedy. This play is satire over the society and various phases of it. It also defines the perceptions of the society towards youngsters falling in love.

The play begins with showing the harvest festival Chher-Chhera and the story introduces two young boys Jhanglu and Manglu. Jhanglu falls for Manti and proposes her for marriage. Manti’s father has already accepted an old sarpanch as his son-in-law.

Now Jhanglu wants to marry Manti. But girl’s father fixed her marriage with a rich old man of the village.

Here Jhanglu appears as a fake dewar before the girl’s father and the boy uses some tricks and tantrums and run away with the girl. The audience burst out laughing by situational comedy.

With the traditional songs and music of Chhattisgarh the play became more interesting.

The audience was enthralled to watch the performance of the artists. It was a delightful experience for the spectators as the dramatic irony was sensibly used in the presentation.