By Alok Joshi
I couldn’t have asked for a better winter-evening-treat than getting a chance to watch an amazing play, a Hindi adaptation of “There is Always a Price Tag” by James Hadley Chase. As a student of English Literature, I had grown up reading his gripping novels. The Hindi adaptation was titled “Qismat Palace”, directed by the young, talented Akhilesh Narain under the banner of Eklavya Theatre Group, Dehradun.
“There’s Always a Price Tag” is a classic James Hadley Chase novel (1956) adapted into the 1957 French film Retour de Manivelle (French title) starring Michèle Morgan and Daniel Gélin, about a man drawn into a murder-for-insurance-money scheme. It is a crime thriller. There is also a Naseerudin Shah-Paresh Rawal-Om Puri starrer Indian movie version titled Maharathi (2008).
“Qismat Palace” is a dark crime story in which a poor driver gets involved with a wealthy, shady couple, leading to a plot to fake a murder for insurance pay out, but things go wrong. A small time freelance worker, played by Akhilesh Narain himself rescues a drunken billionaire film director’s life, and soon gets appointed as a driver by the latter at his residence, much against the wishes of his glamorous and shady wife. He sees the new-found employment as an opportunity to become rich and famous, not knowing what is in store for him. The story has many unexpected twists and turns.
To be honest, my expectations from the performance turned out to be misplaced. How can anyone encapsulate a complex crime thriller into a live performance just within a span of ninety minutes? But the whole act was put together superbly. There were brilliant performances by Jagriti Kothari as Mallika,
Brijesh Narain as Adenwala, Hritik Simalti as Merchant, Adesh Narain as Gokhle, Akhilesh Narain as Subhash and Supriya as Bimla.
I left the hall mesmerised by their magical performances, music, lights and above all the direction. I also kept thinking that we spend thousands of bucks watching a multi-crore Bollywood movie for three hours and still come out bored and disappointed. Here was a performance that did not allow me to wink my eyes even once. And what do these actors get after putting in unimaginable hard work?
We are a society where theatre is considered old-school by many. We prefer to spend hours on the screens in our cosy living rooms than watching something live and encouraging the artists. Theatre is unique because of its immediacy, shared emotional experience and empathy unlike screen media.
For those who don’t know about this group, it was founded in 2005. So far, the Group has given theatre education to more than 1000 artistes, and in its initial phase, has awakened the general public on issues like women empowerment, family planning, AIDS, etc., by going to remote villages of Uttarakhand with its drama performances. Some of the famous plays of the group are – Yahoodi Ki Ladki, Hum To Aise Hi Hain, Sat Bhasai Raidas, Aurangzeb, Sleuth, Katha ek Kans ki, Ghar Wapsi, Mera Rajhans, etc. Eklavya’s famous production Girish Karnad’s ‘Naagmandala’ was recently selected and performed in the 22nd Bharat Rang Mahotsav by the National School of Drama.
This bunch of talented artists keeps performing year after year, city after city, entertaining their discreet audiences by just following their passion. And the journey goes on.
I strongly urge everyone, especially the Doonites, to encourage and promote theatre groups like Eklavya so that they keep regaling us with their wonderful performances.
(Alok Joshi is former Director (HR & Marketing) PetroChina (CNPC); Head, HRD, GNPOC, Sudan; Head, HR, Mumbai High Asset, ONGC; Civil Services probationer; author of three books and has over a hundred published articles to his credit.)
