The theatre buffs of the city were served with a delightful collage of Harishankar Parsai’s stories on the second day of 25th Iftekhar Theatre Fest.
Here on Friday, the play Nithalle Ki Diary was staged at Antarang Hall, Bharat Bhavan. The artists with an overwhelming performance left the audience enthralled.
Directed by Arun Pandey, the play was performed by the artists of Vivechna Theatre Group, Jabalpur. According to the director, it is a beautiful collage of Parsai’s stories out of which character Nithala and Nattu were born.
He says that Nithalle Ki Diary is an adaptation from a series of short stories by one of India’s finest satirist.
Haria is a caricature of a village boy, indecisive to any profession and hence choosing to be a village idler. The plot is a portrayal of various chapters from his diary. Each chapter is sarcasm on the myriad aspects of our inefficient public administration system. The drama highlights the deteriorating ethics, corruption, and the superstition prevalent in the present society. It represents the way the narrow understanding of religion makes people less unaware of the world as it is.
The play was a classic example of using a bare stage as a set in itself and making it a property for actors. The design of the play was brilliant. The play starts with a high energy and involves the audience with the songs and subsequent comic sequences.
The play uses the classical ‘nautanki’ style of Indian theatre and does justice to it. The acting was far above the bar set by other actors with the character Ram Sewak taking away all the love of the audience by imitating multiple mythological characters in his act. The best part of the play was the fact that it starts on a light note, raises all the valid political questions and takes the drama to an extremely serious and sensible end.
It was much enjoyed by the Bhopal theatre buffs. The sensible acting, matured presentation and a perfect satire made the audience lost in the whirls of deep thoughts.