Kauwa Chala Hans Ki Chaal highlights man's quest for winning love

The play Kauwa Chala Hans Ki Chaal, the translation of The Bourgeios Gentleman, was directed by Shyam Kumar of Natsamrat Theatre Group, presented by an unknown theatre group. But it has some marvelous actors. The one who played the role of a poor man suddenly getting rich during a contest that is something like Kaun Banega Crorepati by giving the wrong answer to the question asked, was a good actor. He decides to spend the money on becoming a member of the clarky society.

He indulges himself in learning music and dance and sword fighting to begin with. The scenes between the man and the gurus who were teaching him a peculiar kind of music and dance were hilarious. Their subservience was obvious. As with the master teaching sports. There is a sword fighting scene, in which he is defeated all hands up and is instead declared victorious for finding a new style of sword fighting.

The man falls in love with a woman who is brought to his house by a man who is seriously cheating him and he brings her in order to get some money out of him. The man imagines the woman to be a very high society lady. But she is nothing but a cheap woman of doubtful character.

The scenes between the man, the woman and the other man were very well done. The dining scene where they sat together and ate their food and the chefs formed a chorus of complaints against the host was entertaining. Finally, she condescends to eat some jingoistic food, dishes of which has very strange names. The man impressed by the woman follows her faithfully wherever she goes in the house. The go between man is very jealous of the fact that the man is getting closer to the woman. The play ends with the wife of the man coming home unexpectedly and berating him for his bad conduct.

The play was very well cast. And we saw Shyam Kumar working with new actors for the first time. His work in Natsamrat Theatre Group is phenomenal. He has done Moliere in the group besides entertaining comedy by local writers and he himself has written a couple of plays that we have seen, done by the Group. Whether he has left Natsamrat after such a long association with the company,  needs to be answered.

After a long time I called up with Mohammad Sayed Alam’s play Lal Quile Ka Akhri Mushaira. We saw on stage a gathering of the most prominent urdu poets of the last century. Bahadur Shah Zaffar who himself was a renowned poet declares this to be the last gathering of poets and the last Mushaira. He turns then to Ghalib and says that “you will do the honours for this gathering”. Ghalib’s tongue in cheek reply  was typical of the poet and the gathering soon got used to this.

There was Zouk on stage who read his poem, ‘Ayi hayat aye, fiza le chali chale’. He opened the mushaira. There was constant bickering amongst the poets. The most vociferous of them all was Aish (the old poet who sat next to Bahadur Shah). Then came a poet, Munshi Muhammad Ali Tishna who was wearing just a lungi and a cloth over his shoulders. He came screaming and shouting, about the mushairas held in the past and how everybody was so critical of the shairi. He quieten down and sits behind Bahadur Shah Zafar at a distance. He sings a song of loneliness and sorrow: “Aankh padti hai kahin, paon kahin padte hain, sabki hai tumko khabar, apni khabar kuch bhi nahi”….

The play was gripping for people who understood Urdu. Amongst the younger generation there was Daag, an 18 year old boy, a student of Zouk and Ghalib. He recited very well. The others took their turn as Ghalib suggested. There was Momin on stage, who recited his famous ‘Chali Chale’.

Finally, when the mushaira came to an end, we had Bahadur Shah Zafar himself, mourning his state and the fact that he was still wearing the crown with these lines: ‘ya mujhe afsar-e-shahana banaya hota, ya mira taj gadayana banaya hota’. Which means that either you should have made me an officer of importance and power and given my crown the shape of a begging bowl.