Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, May: 19
Natrang presented a hardest political satire ‘Topian’ written by Mani Madhukar under the direction of Balwant Thakur in its weekly theatre series ‘Sunday Theatre’ at its studio. Most appropriate and timely presentation on the contemporary political scene of the country, the play is a dig on the lusty politicians who can change colors faster than a chameleon just to ensure that they remain in power. For them, mission is to be befool public and for that they have the requisite theatrical art, know-how, expertise and the excellence to transform themselves to any color or attire as per the situation and the requirement. Human civilization has witnessed lot of social and political revolutions, each time thinkers and philosophers have sold new political thoughts and doctrine of governance. But ironically the same faces have made their way to power just by hiding real faces in new masks. They have been changing color of their caps and not their mind set. In the backdrop of the story of two neighbors who pledge to change the political scene are shown looking for alternatives. Each time they come across a person they meet only those wearing different caps and attire offering them variety of manifestos. Each time they identify him as a different person and expect a different ideology from him. This way they succumb to his tactics. Over the time when they find that nothing is changing, the slogans of socialism are furthering the divide between rich and poor, quality of life is deteriorating day by day and the security of life and property is at the mercy of God. Both muster courage and strip the person selling those dreams. Surprisingly inside clothes they find that he is the same person and every time he used to come to them in different attire.
The playwright has successfully portrayed that the politicians are the same; they only change their caps and their colors just to befool public. They can be friends and the enemies at the same time, their equations and confrontations change for lust of power. This absurd play posed a big challenge before the young actors of Natrang but interestingly their handling of the characters surprised many. Chirag Anand played the central character of the play who frequently changes into different colors was beautifully portrayed by him. The two neighbors were played by Sushant Singh Charak and Udit Sagar. Both gave engrossing performances. The lights of the play were designed by Neeraj Kant whereas Aarti Devi scored the Music of the play. The show was coordinated by Mohd. Yaseen and the presentations were done by Kananpreet Kaur.
