Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, Sept 22:
In its constant endeavor to promote meaningful theatre, Natrang presented Pratap Sehgal’s ‘Ladai’ in its weekly theatre series’ Sunday Theatre’. The play has been directed by Neeraj Kant. The play, ‘Ladai’ showcases casteism as a social evil in our society. The play is an eye-opener for people with a conventional mindset. Inter caste marriage is still a taboo in India and where India is heading towards becoming a developed nation leaving behind its third world country tag, inter caste marriage being a taboo could be a big hurdle in its growth. A very thought provoking message was rooted in the play which had a lot to convey to the audience.
The play opens with two childhood lovers, Madhu and Manish, recalling their high school memories and cherishing the beautiful time they’ve spent together. Madhu persuades Manish to talk to his mother for their marriage. Manish tries to convince his mother that he wants to get married to Madhu, who belongs to a lower caste family. His mother’s orthodox mindset restricts her from showing a green signal to this inter caste marriage leading to Manish losing his temperament and leaving the house dejected. His mother gets perplexed and asks her elder son to go and look for Manish. In the next scene Manish is seen having a word with Madhu’s father and assures him he doesn’t believe in caste patriarchy and everything will be fine once they are married. Manish and Madhu comes to their house with a fear of not getting accepted by his mother but to their surprise both receive a warm welcome from his mother. As both were wondering what led to this change of thought, soon their confusion is cleared by his elder brother who tells him his uncle had convinced his mother to accept Madhu as their daughter in law. He himself has let her daughter marry a boy from a lower caste family.
Natrang’s actors who acted in the play included Mohit Sharma, Sumit Raina, Kananpreet Kaur, Kuldeep Angral, Toyab Hussain and Arti Devi. Lights were operated by Neeraj Kant, music was scored by Sushant Singh. The show was coordinated by Mohd. Yaseen.
