To observe the 138th birth anniversary of Munshi Premchand, a three-day theatre festival ‘Zindagi ke Kayi Rang Re’ began at Shaheed Bhavan Auditorium. The fest began here on Friday with the play ‘Namak Ka Daroga’.
Munshi Premchand also known as the Shakespeare of Hindi literature wrote the story Namak Ka Daroga. The core theme of the story is the price of honesty. The story is set during the British era, in those days salt was heavily taxed and people literally started smuggling it to make hefty profits.
In this story, Premchand has painted a perfect image of a society where the State control leads to smuggling, black-marketing, tax evasion and corruption.
The play was directed by Ashok Bulani and was performed by the artists of Rang Samuh Theatre troupe, Bhopal.
The story is about the times when trade of salt was banned during the British rule. Vanshidhar, an honest daroga, is placed as the official there. Vanshidhar’s father is happy that his son has got a job and now he will be able to marry his daughters without any problem, also all the monetary problems will be solved.
On the other hand there was an elite person Alopidin who used to smuggle salt from Vanshidhar’s area. Vanshidhar then get hold of him and caught him red handedly. Vanshidhar then refuses to accept bribe and thus has to face the consequences. Alopidin, the illegal trader, is sent to jail following Vanshidhar's refusal to accept bribe.
Unexpectedly one fine day, Pundit Alopodin arrives at his home and offers him the position of manager of his wealth with perks like bungalow, servants and other benefits.
The end of the story gives a message that people need to believe that honesty does pay.
The play was beautifully performed that left the audience spellbound.