Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, Jan, 27
9th Natrang Theatre Festival, a festival of 4 plays, opened here today at Natrang Studio Theatre Jammu with the presentation of the play ‘The Game of Chess’, a world classic by Kenneth Sawyer Goodman and directed by Neeraj Kant. Natrang is organising a Theatre Festival of four plays every month since last eight months in commemoration with the celebrations of 35 eventful years of Natrang. In his welcome address, Senior artist of Natrang Suresh Kumar informed that Natrang has already created a record in the country by showcasing 32 major different plays by the same group in a period of eight months. He complimented all actors, directors and technicians of Natrang associated with the holding of such historic Natrang Theatre Festivals. Natrang has not only provided the audience a chance to witness the different plays of highly social & artistic relevance but also has added to their creative and intellectual repository by staging the literary works of the most celebrated writers of the world.
The play ‘The Game of Chess’ unfolds the point that power hungry people can go to any extent to turn the game in their favor as they possess not only the expertise but also the crookedness to change any misfortune. The play revolves around a powerful man ‘Syed Jahagir Khan’ who represents both the riches and politically empowered class. ‘Ysuf Khan’- a representative of the suppressed class has taken to revolution and has pledged to eliminate the exploiting class.
Targeting ‘Jahagir’ he plans to kill him and goes to him with latest armory. ‘Jahagir’ who lives in a high security protected house allows him to enter his place without any kind of frisking and sensitization.
This surprises ‘Ysuf’ who feels victorious for making an entry to his target with a loaded pistol. But the clever ‘Jahagir’ pushes him to an emotional zone. He cooks a story and establishes himself as one of his lost brother during childhood. He goes even further and convinces him that both of them are the extremists of their respective fields. One is exploiting the poor and the other is killing the exploiters. Their living on this earth will be very fatal for the masses. Both deserve to be eliminated as they are not good for the society. He offers to share a bottle of poison so both can easily end their life. Interestingly ‘Ysuf’ succumbs but the same does not affect ‘Jahagir’ as he had developed his immunity for consumption of poison. ‘Jahagir’ terms himself belonging to such a class and breed which cannot be eliminated so easily by such revolutions and revolutionaries. In any game against them they will come out to be the winners.
Tushant Mattas played the lead role of ‘Syed Jahagir Khan’ with professional ease, he was equally supported by Manoj Lalotra as ‘Ysuf Khan’. Others who were appreciated included Brijesh Avtaar Sharma as ‘Qadir’ and Sushant Singh Charak as ‘Servant’. The lights of the play was designed Neeraj Kant and executed by Ajay Kumar Lalotra. The show was coordinated by Mohd. Yaseen and the presentations were done by Sameena Kousar.
