A comedy play ‘Ek Ghoda Chhey Sawar’ marked the concluding day of the four day theatre fest organised at Antrang Hall, Bharat Bhavan.
Adapted and directed by Ranjeet Kapoor, the play is adapted from an English play written by George Abbott and John Cecil Holm. The play was brilliantly performed by Paradoy Theatre Group, Mumbai. The comedy focuses on a man who discovered that he has a talent for choosing the winning horse in a race as long as he never place a bet himself. The play is a humorous farce that uses ironies of life.
The characters in the play are symbolic of a collection of human foibles and moderations -greedy, dishonest, selfish. The story revolves around Arun Bakshi, a commercial poet who works for an obsessive yet caring boss JG Padamjee. Arun has a curious hobby of selecting winning horses for the day's races. He never goes to the racecourse or bets, he simply has a knack for selecting the winning horses and he does that every day on his way to office. On the way back he confirms the winning selections and writes down the national winnings for the day. He is not a greedy man and does not think of making money from this unique ability of his.
His brother-in-law Bhajan lal Arora, the three good-hearted goons he meet at the race course hotel, where he goes for a rare drink and all of them now want to strike rich through Arun. What follows is a 'wheels-within-wheels’ scenario of the goons trying to hide Arun in a hotel room and make money on his betting prowess. While his wife is worried that he has left because she was rude to him, and his boss is suspicious that his rival firms are trying to steal Arun and his wonderful poems.
Arun is oblivious of all this and is diligently trying to meet the deadline his boss had given him and is writing poems in the most unlikely inspirations. The play comes to a hilarious finale when it is discovered that Arun's gift comes to a naught if he bet himself. The play ends with a lovely poem from Arun extolling the virtue of hard work and diligence as the only true way to move ahead in life.