Jammu, Mar 29: Natrang presented a compelling performance of the Dogri play ‘Diary Kuse Lok Naath Di’ today at Natrang Studio under its weekly theatre series ‘Sunday Theatre’. Based on a story by one of the most celebrated Dogri writers, Prof. Madan Mohan Sharma, a recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award, the play was thoughtfully adapted by Dimple Sharma and directed by eminent theatre director Neeraj Kant. Despite its modest scale, the dramatic presentation emerged as a rich and engaging artistic experience for the audience.

Speaking on the occasion, Natrang Director Balwant Thakur shared that showcasing the works of eminent Dogri writers through ‘Sunday Theatre’ is a new initiative aimed at promoting Dogri language and literature. He further emphasized that dramatizing literary works and transforming them into compelling stage productions is a challenging task. However, Natrang is fortunate to have a team of dedicated experts who possess the creative vision and technical expertise to convert any idea, concept, or narrative into powerful and engaging theatre.
As the title suggests, the play revolves around the diary of one ‘Lok Nath’. The writer’s son finds a diary from a pack and takes it to his home. The cover of the diary was so tempting and attractive that the writer could not resist going through it, knowingly that peeping into someone’s personal affairs is not a good habit but reading the pages of the diary, he finds a very interesting and dramatic life account of Lok Nath. Whenever there was any unusual happening in the life of Lok Nath he has not forgotten to pen it down. The life of Lok Nath is portrayed in such an interesting manner that a common-man identifies with each situation and turns of his life. The opening pages finds Lok Nath disillusioned with everyone around him even to the extent that he has lost faith in God. Later he looks for something exciting to happen in his life. Cash starved Lok Nath opts to do tuitions by teaching the children of his own boss, this way he will be able to please the hierarchy and make some pocket money as well. Here he happens to have some encounter with the sister-in-law of the boss. Lok Nath finds her very attractive, charming and pleasing, which prompts him to venture into an affair. Every day he goes with a new plan to approach her but is unable to muster courage to do so. Finally he withdraws his plan for the reason that if his boss will come to know about his intentions he is not only going to lose the girl of his dreams but the tuition and the regular job as well. The most interesting part of the play was its language which was itself a complete theatre.
Neeraj Kant as ‘Writer’ maintained the required tonality whereas Pawan Verma as ‘Lok Nath’ portrayed the inner conflicts of the character in a beautiful manner. The lights and the music of the play were executed by Kushal Bhat.