Passion for art triumphs hearts

While acting in Utsarg, Ramchandra Singh uses Bihari dialect in the nautanki form. This talent of his is what got him the Akademi award.

The Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA) is holding a festival of performing arts featuring the recipients of the Akademi Fellowship Awards 2015. One of the recipients of the theatre awards this year was Ramchandra Singh whose Hindi play Utsarg we saw recently at the festival.

Singh played the lead character as well as directed the play. He wrote the play’s script inspired by the Russian play Swan Song written by Anton Chekhov. The central character of the play is Vasili Svietlovidoff who tries to attain great success in his long acting career. In the play, Vasili’s condition is pitiable. He is old, unmarried, lonely, neglected and frustrated. Luckily, a wonderful, charming and rich lady falls in love with him. He reciprocates her love and wishes to marry her.

However, they face a hurdle. The lady wants Vasili to leave the stage and acting as the profession is held in low esteem.

Stage actors are regarded as nothing more than entertainers. This leaves Vasili in two minds —whether to give up his stage career for his love, or leave her to carry on acting. While he is yet to take a decision, he meets four people who are background workers in the play.

As a departure from his own realistic acting style, Vasili has the four of them playing robots to his command, which finally leads to his death on stage.

The play was interesting and I think Singh totally justified the emotional character in the play.

A native of East Champaran district of Bihar, Singh learnt various traditional and folk theatre forms there. He is an expert in the “naach” form, which is clear in his stints with Habib Tanvir. While performing in Utsarg, Singh uses Bihari dialect in the nautanki form. This talent of his is what got him the Akademi award.

The stage-craft included a large orchestra. On the harmonium was Devilal Nag. The stage lighting was taken care of by Murli Basa. The set design was also effective as were the props and costumes.

Manoj N. Joshi’s Hindi play Chanakya was another play staged by the SNA. Joshi himself directed and acted in the play. Chanakya’s satirical quips and his strong political strategies was the hallmark of this actor. He played the two aspects of acting very well. Under the guidance of Chanakya, Chandra Gupta Maurya ended the cruel and selfish rule of the Nandas and established the strong Mauryan Empire.

From a weakling to a strong man, Rajiv Bharadwaj in the role of Chandra Gupta played the passage of his life very well. Chanakya seemed to be modelled after a television show with the same name.

Manoj is a good actor. As Chanakya, Manoj presents an infinite variety of gestures and aptly captures the ethos of the situations. His performance in this production is probably the best.