A Hindi play ‘Andher Nagri’ was staged at Tribal Museum on Friday. The play was performed under the regular series of drama performances organised by Madhya Pradesh Tribal Museum.
Written by Bhartendu Harishchandra the play was directed by Surendra Wankhede. It was splendidly performed by the artists of Gandharv cultural organization, Bhopal.
The story goes around a kingdom named Andher Nagri ruled by foolish king, the rules and laws of the kingdom were very strange. Everything had an equal cost be it fruit or some other commodity.
One day a saint and his disciple entered the city and found it very strange, sensing something suspicious, the saint leaves the city but being materialistic, his disciple remained there to face the future consequences. Once a goat died in the kingdom, the king being very cynical summons the whole city so as to punish the real culprit.
The blame was shifted to one and the other. Eventually on very illogical grounds, policeman is found guilty but, when he was being hanged; his neck did not match the size of the noose. King orders to find a person who fits the size so as to give the justice to the goat's death. Disciple’s neck fits that size and thus was sentenced to death. He calls his Guru for the help. Sensing the king's foolishness, saint weaves a false story which tempts the king to die so as to attain Moksha. It is a comic play which gave out many messages. In a very hilarious manner, the play taught many facts about the current situation of the society.
The audiences were enthralled by the performance given by the tiny tots on stage. They enjoyed the show whole heartedly. The audience burst out laughing as the situational comedy was being staged. A satirical play was wondrously performed with sensible light design, accurate costumes and stage craft.