2002-2003 Plays   

Badi Buaji
Kissa Hakim Saheb Ka
Jaanch Padtal
The Perfect Murder

BADI BUAJI

2002 Long length                                                                          

Directed by - Bodhaditya Bhattacharya (B.Tech. IV Electrical)

The Play...

This play was staged before in 1995 as long length

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KISSA HAKIM SAHEB KA

2003 Thomso Stage                                                                                                   _ Manoj Mitra 

Directed by - Vaibhav Jain (B.Arch. III)

The Play...

          Should indulgence over results guide your actions? Or Karmanya Vadhikaraste Ma phaleshu Kadachan  ("Do your work without caring for the results") still holds true? And if so, then why do good people are always entrapped in the selfish whirl pool created by others? Shouldn’t they be awarded for the good they have done to humanity without even a tinge of selfishness in it? These are the questions that you'll yourself ask as the play unfolds and are still unanswered as it ends.

           The play opens with the 'Fakir' paying homage to Hakim of Nawabganj at his grave, a man who lived 150 years back. The play runs into flashback as he narrates the tragic story of humane and benevolent 'Hakim'.

           'Nawabganj' and 'Palashpur' are two provinces on the opposite banks of a river ruled by 'Wali Khan' and 'Pashupati Poddar' respectively. Wali Khan , a 70 year old voluptuous man engrossed in his prodigal ways of living and unbothered about his subjects and duties towards his province, is just worried about tax collecting. Bakar, Takiya and Chuara are the persons close to Wali Khan in his Darbar to just lead an extravagant and carefree life, while Maulvi is the only unbiased advisor.

    Pashupati Poddar is a 35 year old young counterpart of Wali Khan in Palashpur with Jugi as his advisor. Pashupati, to save his position as a landlord wants Hakim of Nawabganj to come to Palashpur by hook or by crook and sends Mohar Bai, a dancer and singer by profession and Phuphi , her caretaker, as a part of the plot he has made to entrap Hakim and to force him to come to Palashpur.

 Hakim, around whom the story revolves, is a humble person full of love for humanity and passion for his profession. Apart from his, routine work of going to the people and curing them, he is busy in invention of a medicine for a dreadful disease. Gangamani,Hakim's servant is wife of Bhandool, who is Wali Khan’s dacoit. Sayam , a beggar, is a person very close to Hakim and cares for him.

           Mohar Bai takes over the Rose Garden of Wali Khan, from where otherwise, Hakim used to get roses an important ingredient of his medicines so as to force Hakim to go to Palashpur for roses that he badly needed for his new medicine. On the failure of this trick, she plays other tricks taking undue advantage of Wali Khan's soft corner and Hakim's innocence until she gets caught by the same dreadful disease that Hakim was inventing medicine for. Wali Khan on knowing the reality of Mohar, throws her back to Palashpur and reopens his Rose Garden for Hakim. On inventing the medicine Hakim goes to Palashpur to cure Mohar. Seeing this as an opportunity Pashupati requests Hakim to stay in Palashpur for a month and look after the people of a village caught in an epidemic. Due to his selfless and caring nature he gets entrapped in the vicious circle of patients and diseases and is not able to return back to Nawabganj. On the passage of two years, when his subjects raise their voices against Pashupati, blaming Hakim for all forces him to do work other than curing people. Even on being beaten ,Hakim keeps going to the patients until the people themselves send him back to Nawabganj.

           On returning to Nawabganj he finds it in a deteriorated condition and even Wali Khan is caught by the same dreadful disease. But now Hakim neither has the medicine nor the procedure of making it. Knowing this Wali Khan calls him a traitor and discards him. All these proceedings shattered Hakim physically and psychologically so much so that it cost him nothing less than his life.

           In this way, for all the goods Hakim did for everyone, for humanity as a whole he got nothing but pain, disgrace, and a self surrounded by numbness.

          Overall, Kissa Hakim Saheb Ka is a perfect drama embellished with love, comedy, passion, pain, tragedy, betrayal and all which takes the toll of a paragon.

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JAANCH PADTAL

2003 Thomso Street                                                                                                           _ Sanjay Sahay

Directed by - Nikhil  Mishra (B.Tech. III Civil)

The Play...

          Jaanch Padtaal depicts the rampant corruption and mismanagement that is prevalent in the Indian bureaucracy.Gajju Babu, the Mayor of a small town (played by Nirjhar Shah) receives news that an important officer is being sent from Delhi to check on the situation in his town. The fact that this officer will arrive disguised and unannounced makes him even more nervous.

An emergency meeting is immediately called where his subordinates – The Civil Surgeon, the Judicial Magistrate and the School Inspector are present. These people being equally corrupt express their outrage at this interruption to their ‘pleasant’ lifestyles. In the midst of this chaos, the Mayor’s two sidekicks – Chilmachi Miyaan and Pandit Lota Prasad arrive with the news that they have spotted someone who is likely to be the officer. The Mayor immediately instructs the others to improve the conditions in their respective departments and hurriedly proceeds to the ‘officers’ hotel.

            Meanwhile it is revealed that the ‘officer’ is actually a youth from Delhi, named Kumar, who is only stuck in the town due to  lack of money. The Mayor who does not know this pays his respects to the surprised Kumar and offers him a bribe. Kumar quickly recovers his wits and accepts the bribe along with an invitation to stay at Gajju Babu’s home.

            At his house, the Mayor’s wife Imarti Devi and daughter, Baby are already making their own plans. Baby dreams of being married to the officer while Imarti is smitten by the power he holds. Both flatter him accordingly. Amidst all this flattery being showered on him, Kumar holds his own. He not only ensures his eventual marriage to Baby but also accepts thousands in bribe from all the other sub-ordinates who are anxious for their own well-being.

            The Mayor who now believes that he has a powerful officer for a future son-in –law begins dreaming of a life as an ambassador and then perhaps as the PM. On Kumar’s part, as soon as the money is in his hands, he immediately leaves the town.The rest of the cast is finally made aware of their folly by a letter that Kumar had written to his friends. It describes how he had to flee Delhi due to a blown affair with a girl. He goes on to describe how he played with people of this town, how he flirted with the women and finally how much he actually despised them.

            At this moment the Mayor receives news that an officer has arrived from CBI and has ordered them to report to him. The play ends with a plea from the cast to the audience to raise its voice against corruption.By revealing the inner workings of a corrupt administrative set up, the play starkly reveals the state of rot in the Indian system. The message at the end is aimed at finally awakening the audience to search for a better life.

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       The Perfect Murder

2003 Passing Out                                                                                                                   _ Jeffrey Archer

Directed by - Aurko Bhattacharya (B.Tech. IV Mech)

The Play...

Behind every successful man there is a woman but what about a murder ? What will you do if your closest deceives you ? ? A totally stunned audience at the end when the mystery unfolded, a perfect conspiracy planned by a woman, this is what A Perfect Murder was all about. The play revolves around the murder of Carla Moorland , a 32 year old beauty consultant. The play starts with John Hoskins, the accountant and his wife Elisabeth sitting in their living room. The everywhere in the radio, in the newspaper, there was news of murder of Carla Moorland. Then inspector D I Simmons very intelligent started the investigation, with interrogation of Maria Moorland's cleaner .Avoiding extraneous things he found some clues about a guy who was with her for along time before murder.

Fortuitous, John also saw that guy so he called up D I Simmons and now Paul Menzies was arrested. Now came the court scene when Scott Q C, counsel of defence of incipient with good record of Menzies but odds became against Mr. Menzies as Sir Humphrey, the counsel for prosecution, had many exhibits against Menzies such as his fingerprints on coffee mug, his photographs with Moorland in a bar and others.Till now John was thinking that he had murdered Moorland because he was having an affair with her and on the day of murder he was with her. They had a small conflict in which John pushed her hard to the wall and she got unconscious.

The twist came in the story when John was looking at the shopping receipts, he found that Elisabeth told him a spurious time about shopping , also when he was talking to, she knew that bus 19 ran down Beldon street he didn't..

Now the mystery gets unfolded that the real murderer was Elisabeth, John's wife. Also earlier she had given him a knife and had his fingerprints on that. This was the same knife with which she had killed Moorland. In this way, a Perfect Murder was planned by Elisabeth Hoskins and at last Menzies was put behind bars

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