Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Students of Tagore National School of Drama have staged a play ‘Jeevan Ke Rang, Bijji Ke Sang,’ based on the three stories, penned by playwright Vijaydan Detha.
The stories included ‘Anekon Hitler,’ ‘Dujo Kabir,’ and ‘Aadamkhor’. The students of the first batch of the school prepared the play under the direction of former director of National School of Drama Devendra Raj Ankur. It was part of the concluding-day of the two-day drama fest at Ravindra Bhavan in the city on Tuesday evening.
The play Anekon Hitler (Many Hitlers) depicts five cousins who buy the land of migrants after independence and go to the city to buy tractors. On their way back, a cyclist overtakes them and they consider it an insult. The race starts between the tractor and the cycle. The five brothers hit the cyclist to show their pride. With the cyclist, end his dreams and his girlfriend's dreams.
I am glad that I have got an opportunity to do the theatre of the stories with the PG students of the first batch of the school. The whole class was divided into three groups and in the process of about 14-15 days. My role has been as a catalyst for them to reject their own work over and over again to create new work and to find new obstacles for themselves, so that these people also understand the depth of the literary side of the story and take it on stage and explore different ways. - Devendra Raj Ankur, director
Dujo Kabir revolves around the protagonist Kabir who is an eminent artist and a weaver. In the story, a king and his daughter once pass through the city of Kabir. The princess expresses her desire to see Kabir. Eventually the king and the princess reach Kabir's house with a group of people. The king is very impressed with his works and expresses his desire to buy them. But Kabir refuses to sell his artworks because it goes against his ideals. And then the king gets angry and misbehaves with Kabir. But Kabir's ideals leave a great impression on the heart of the princess.
Aadamkhor tells a story about a priest's parents who, fed up with his antics, hand him over to the goddess in a temple. He got absorbed in the devotion of the goddess but perhaps that devotion was not reaching the goddess. One day he got fed up with the goddess and decided that now he will sleep only after crushing the idol. As soon as he goes to do this the goddess appears in front of him and gives him a boon that all his wishes will be fulfilled. But whatever he gets, the neighbours will get the double of it. Now he was sad as well as happy because of this. He fulfilled his wishes by fulfilling the blessings of the goddess, but he also got jealous seeing the neighbours. Out of jealousy, he dug a well of death for his neighbours, in which his wife himself got drowned and he could not save his wife. At the end the boon of the goddess loses to the worshipper’s reason.
Rajasthani litterateur Detha was also known as ‘Bijji’. He was a recipient of several awards including the Padma Shri and the Sahitya Akademi Award. He has more than 800 short stories to his credit, which have been translated into English and other languages. Movies like 'Duvidha', 'Parineeti' and 'Kanchali' have been made on the stories written by him. Detha was the second Indian after Rabindranath Tagore to be nominated for the 'Nobel' Prize for Literature in the year 2011.
