Focusing on the sacrifice of freedom fighters, a two-day theatre festival ‘Jan Kranti’ was organised at Ravindra Bhavan.
Hindi play ‘1857 Ki Kranti’ (Revolt of 1857) was staged before the Bhopalites on Thursday. Organised by Yamini Film Institute and welfare committee, Bhopal, fest began from Wednesday and ‘Bajirao Peshwa’ was staged on the first day of the festival.
Directed by a young theatre artist Saulat Khan, the play was presented by Kasauti Ballet Performing Art Society, Bhopal.
‘1857 Ki Kranti’ is all about an incident where the weavers during the British rule raise their voice against the injustice. The scenario that was portrayed on stage was after the death of Mangal Pandey. The play begins with a scene of village, where the weavers are working. Suddenly a British official enters and starts hurting one of the weavers asking him for ‘lagaan’. As the weaver was not able to pay the tax British official takes his daughter away as a penalty of tax.
After going through all the insult and embarrassment, the weavers decided not to work for the Britishers. The great freedom fighters like Rani Avanti Bai, Tatya Tope, Nana Saheb and Azim Ullah Khan become a part of the Revolt. The audiences were spell-bounded with the performance of the artists. The narration part during the play left a great impact over the audiences.
While talking to The Pioneer, organiser of the festival Seema Morre said, “Theatres have a lot of exposure for those who want to train themselves in direction, script writing or acting. This festival is a small endeavor by us to provide the artists a platform.”
Elaborating further about the festival, Seema said, “This three-day festival is organised keeping in view the sacrifices of freedom fighters. Another fact to organise this fest is that the new generation of the society is not well aware of these great personalities. So to spread awareness about them this is a small endeavour.” All the plays are based on freedom fighters and struggle for freedom, she added.