‘Ek Kalakriti’, a play in Hindi originally written in Russian by Anton Chekhov and translated by Satyendar Sharat was presented here today at Natrang Studio Theatre in its Sunday Theatre Series. The play was directed by Neeraj Kant and presented the real gist of the story in a comprehensive manner.
The play opens at the home of one elderly lady who is searching the old stuff belonging to her dead husband. Her young son stops her by terming all such old and useless stuff as garbage which offends her as she is very nostalgic and emotionally connected with that stuff. From the store, she gets a very beautiful sculpture of Venus (goddess of love & beauty). Though the sculpture was very beautifully crafted with clean intentions of the artist who wanted to portray the maximum beauty but it appears obscene to most of the people depending upon their sensibilities. The mother tells her son to present the same to the doctor who saved his life as a gesture of gratitude as they could not pay him well. Doctor was happy to see the gift but was uncomfortable to keep it with him as he thinks it to be seductive and not as per the standard of his patients. He gets rid of the same by further presenting to his advocate friend who had done some favour to him. But unable to display the uncovered sculpture at his chamber, advocate forwards it to a famous actor. The actor liked the gift but was criticized by his wife for keeping such material he decides to sell it further and the cycle continues. In a very beautiful manner the writer has expressed that things may appear different from different perspectives. The same thing which appears noble and beautiful piece of art to one may look obscene and vulgar to another. Sometimes the filth is not in the things, it is in the mind of people.
Natrang artists who presented a wonderful performance included Kananpreet Kaur (Mother), Aryan Sharma(Son), Pawan Verma (Doctor), Kushal Bhat (Advocate), Shivam Singh (Shoshkin), Meenakshi Bhagat (Natasha), Adaksh Bagal(Make up Man) and Kartik Kumar (Kabadi Wala). The lights were designed and operated by Neeraj Kant and the music of the play was scored by Vandana Thakur. The show was coordinated by Mohd. Yaseen.