New Delhi: Eminent theatre director Bhanu Bharti presents ‘Doobi Ladki’; a theatrical play that portrays a unique blend of three of Gogol’s famous short stories - The Overcoat, The Nose and A Night in May. The play is a simple love tale albeit portrayed in a multi-dimensional setting of supernatural and magical world of human complexities. A new production from Bhanu Bharti, the play will be staged at Abhimanch Auditorium, NSD, Bhawalpur House, Bhagwandas Marg, Mandi House, New Delhi from March 18, 2010 to March 21, 2010 from 6:30 p.m. daily. Extra shows on Saturday and Sunday will be at 3:00 p.m.
Says Bhanu Bharti: “Gogol’s writings acquired a special meaning for me after my interaction with the Indian tribal society and culture. Akin to Gogol’s world of humorous intrusions of the magical with the banal, the customs and the cultural traditions of the tribal Indian society are equally engaging. Hence, I chose to recreate Gogol’s stories on stage. Even though Gogol’s stories were written long back, still they have a strong allusion to our own times and its consumerist culture, which have blinded us totally not only towards our fellow beings, but also towards our own progeny and future.”
‘Doobi Ladki’ – A brief synopsis
Adapted from three of Gogol’s famous short stories - The Overcoat, The Nose and A Night in May, the play ‘Doobi Ladki’ is about a self seeking and self-centered father, who abandons his offspring to perpetual emotional and physical agony. He is exploitative and blinded by his greed. His own son rises in revolt against him and the curse is finally cured. Set in Betab Nagar mohalla (society) in Bihar, the mohalla has all kinds of characters living together – barber, tailor, copier clerk, munshi, drunkard, a constable along with the powerful ones. But, behind this seemingly liveliness of the mohalla, lies a tragic tale of the ‘Doobi Ladki’. It reveals itself when a mother and a daughter (Gul) enters the mohalla, with the intention to live there.
Gul (heroine of the play) falls in love with Nanhe who is suffering at the hands of his father, the evil Chaudhary and his step mother, who in all probability had killed his mother. Gul’s and Nanhe’s love story emerges as a metaphor for the ‘Doobi Ladki’, a reference to the Gogol’s story A Night in May or the Drowned Maiden in which the boy who is being exploited by his father is finally helped by a ‘drowned maiden’ who comes to his rescue. Here, Gul imagines herself as that maiden and begins to believe that she too is living the same curse as the magical maiden of Gogol’s story. Nanhe gets a shock when he comes to know about it and he decides to remove the curse of the ‘Doobi Ladki’ from his mohalla. From here the high turning point of the play takes place, where it enters a world of fantasy.
Then there are other characters like Nakkal Nawees, a copier clerk who is dedicated to his job, taking special relish in the hand-copying of documents. His threadbare Overcoat is often the butt of his colleague’s jokes. One day Nakkal decides it is necessary to have the coat repaired, so he takes it to his tailor, who declares the coat irreparable. The cost of a new overcoat is beyond Nakkal's meager salary, but, when he buys one, he becomes the talk of his office. From an introverted, hopeless but functioning non-entity with no expectations of social or material success, Nakkal progress to one whose self-esteem increases and thereby expectations are raised by the new overcoat. His hopes are quickly dashed by the theft of the coat. He attempts to enlist the police in recovery of the coat and employs some inept rank jumping by going to a very important and high ranking individual but his lack of status (perhaps lack of the coat) is obvious and he is treated with disdain. He is plunged into illness (fever) and cannot function. He dies quickly and without putting up much of a fight.
Another story by Gogol’s - The Nose finds reference in Chaudhary’s character. A symbol of shallow and vanity of the higher class, the Nose assumes an independent identity. Other characters include Hakka Darzi and Nazeeb Nai who handle the situations with pragmatic intelligence and humanness. Even though poor, they emerge in the play as truly evolved.
In short, the play has ample theatrical elements of absurdism, the mysterious and the heroic feats of the human spirit caught into an ordinary and common place banality of a small town existence. It is a play which has comedy, tragedy, fantasy and metaphors that are used extensively and gives a complete experience of life. The strength of the play is that when on one side the fantasy is being enacted, at the same time the harsh reality of the present times are also portrayed in all its realism.
Further Details:
· Duration of the play - 1 hour 45 mins that includes two acts and nine scenes.
· Tickets – Priced at Rs 10, 30, 50 and 100 are available from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at NSD repertory office.
· Entry - First come first serve basis
· The Play has extremely interesting sound track and lights as it has a strong element of the supernatural or the magical along with the reality of daily life. The sense of magic and the supernatural is heightened with the sound track and lights and use of smoke in the play.
· 26 characters in the play
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