Review of Garhwali play Apnu_Apnu_Sarg,Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Outstanding)
I had the privilege of watching the second Garhwali play of my life- #Apnu_Apnu_Sarg (LTG auditorium @ Copernicus Marg)
(The first one was in 1982 and it was a play called ‘Kauthik’ that was staged at Mawlankar Hall)
The play titled #Apnu_Apnu_Sarg , which roughly translates to ‘each one’s own piece of sky’ is written by Suresh Nautiyal सुरेश नौटियाल and Dinesh Bijalwan
It is directed by Hari Semwal who is one of the most cerebral and celebrated directors of Garwhwali plays.
The story line revolves around a journalist (Achlanand Sati) who in spite of his undyeing love for his village #Udayar in Uttarakhand (UK) is not able to go back to his village after his retirement.
Sati’s wife (Annapoorna Sati) is a retired Class I officer, born and brought up in Delhi and has disdain for the village life in UK.
Some of her revulsion for village life
is due to her husband’s activist-like behaviour that makes him highly unpopular among the villagers.
The issue of large scale exodus of educated people from UK to plains in search of jobs and the fact that they never return to the villages even after they have retired, even though they have regular pension, is brought to the light in the play.
There are a few other important characters in the play. A famous Professor (Prof Ram Singh Rawat) who is a friend of the Sati is shown as a double faced man. He speaks of gender rights and women liberation but is so much in awe of his wife that he refuses to support his own daughter when the latter wants to marry a budding entrepreneur (Sampoornanand) from Uttarakhand.
That the budding entrepreneur is the nephew of his journalist friend who is a Brahmin, while the Professor is a Rajput, is NOT the sticking point.
The problem is that the suitor of the Professor’s daughter lives in UK and hence is considered a good-for-nothing young man.
The Professor’s wife (Kusumlata Rawat) is shown as a big hypocrite who claims to be liberal of sorts and a great lover of Uttarakhand. She however quickly backtracks when her own daughter wants to marry Sampoornanad.
Why? Because Sampoornanand doesn’t have a ‘stable government’ job. The fact that Sampoornanand is smart, educated, works in a private college and is an ambitious startup entrepreneur, holds no significance for Kusumlata.
The play talks about a few issues like the main causes behind steady stream of migration from UK hills to the plains of Northern India. It also deals with all that ails the UK villages- lack of willingness to invest by the UK government because of the villages turning thinner and thinner in terms of population.
The play also deals with the pathos of those activists who fought for the separate state of UK. The protagonist, Achlanand Sati,had courted arrest during the movement for separate UK, and had never hankered for any monetary benefits like pension or even recognition. His frustration at being unable to relocate to his village and for the general ridicule that he gets from his wife at home and from his own brother who lives in Udayar village in UK, has been brought to light wonderfully well in the play.
The story of Achlanand Sati may be a reflection of many of our UK brothers (and sisters) who may be living in Delhi but their hearts are entrenched in their villages where they were born and where they grew up in their formative years.
That Achlanand is finally able to break all the shackles and leaves for his village May be a bit too utopian to be true.
But who doesn’t want to live in his/ her own utopia!
Kudos to all the brilliant actors:
Standout performance(s) by Brij Mohan Vedwal Savita Pant, Ravindra Gauri Rawat, Mamta Karnatak, Ramesh Thangriyal, Kusum Bisht, Darshan Singh Rawat, Muskan Bhandari
Block nainidanda,Puri Grahwal Sunil Negi Rajendra Raturi Rajendra Prasad Uttaranchal Patrika
Umakant Lakhera PAURI पौड़ी DOON mangazine
Vyomesh Jugran Pradeep Singh Sajwan
