Vasant Deo’s Play: Sudama ke Chawal

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Playwright: Vasant Deo
Director: Jagdish Sharma
Group: Anveshan Theatre Group, Sagar (M. P.)
Language: Hindi & Bundeli
Duration: 1 hr 10 mins

The Play
Lord Krishna’s friend Sudama Sharma and his wife Savitri are living a difficult life of poverty. Sudama’s wife urges him to go to Dwarka and seek Krishna’s help. Sudama goes to Dwarka. On hearing of Sudama’s arrival, Krishna leaves his throne and runs towards his friend and embraces him. Sudama receives great hospitality in Dwarka and after a while Krishna bids him farewell but without offering any help. Angry Sudama gets back home to find that his hut is transformed into a palace now and his house is filled with riches. On asking his wife as to how this happened, she tells him that Lord Krishna appeared himself and gave them this prosperity. Sudama has many doubts and expresses his distrust. What next…?
The purpose of this play is to convey a contemporary version of the legendary tale, and not to undermine the pleasure that it is supposed to bring you.

Director’s Note
Sudama Ke Chawal is a narrative of the contemporary human situation and is a satire on today’s man, his double standards and polluted mind. The age old tale and its characters have been used only as reference. The protagonist of the play is Krishna who cries at the sight of poor Sudama, his childhood friend. Krishna is an epitome of friendship and his love for Sudama is exemplary. Krishna does not appear on stage but he pervades the play throughout. Sudama of this play is used as a medium to convey the hypocritical human of today. The language of the play is Hindi, blended with Bundeli, and the performance is made richer with the blend of Bundeli folk songs and Dhimaryai, a traditional folk dance.

The Director
Born on 20 Jun 1965, Jagdish Sharma has been active in theatre for more than 25 years. He formed Anveshan Theatre Group in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh in 1992. He has been an actor and director of this group. Some of his popular productions are Andha Yug, Sudama Ke Chawal, Bhagam-Bhag, Aadhe-Adhure etc. Jagdish has worked with the famous film director Shyam Benegal. He has acted in many TV serials and written scripts for a few street plays and the film Acharya.

The Playwright
Prof. Vasant Deo was a teacher by profession and had taught for many years at Bundelkhand University, Jhansi. During this period he wrote scripts in Hindi blended with Bundeli. Sudama Ke Chawal was written sometime in the 90s. Strangely enough, even after a lot of search, his whereabouts today are not known.

The Group
Anveshan Theatre Group was established in Sagar (M.P.) in 1992. In the past 26 years Anveshan has not only produced plays but has also organised many theatre festivals, workshops, seminars and conferences. It has organised production based workshops with renowned thespians like B.V. Karanth, Habib Tanvir, Govind Namdeo, Sunil Sinha, Mukesh Tiwari and Ishtiaq Arif Khan. The group has performed in numerous theatre festivals at Bhopal, Jabalpur, Balaghat, Indore, Ujjain, Khajuraho, Delhi, Chandigarh etc. The artists of Anveshan are now serving in prestigious institutions in different parts of the country. Many of them have established themselves in films, journalism, theatre and other fields.

Cast & Credits
Sudama                            Jagdish Sharma
Savitri                                Deepganga Sahu
Dwarpal 1                         Atul Shrivastava
Dwarpal 2                         Manoj Soni
Dwarpal 3                         Kapil Nahar

Shadow Play                     Nitin Dubey, Rishabh Saini
Folk Songs
& Dance                             Liladhar Raikvaar
Instrumentalists                  Amar Raikvaar, Khemchand Sen, Ranjeet Raikvaar
Scenography                      Rajeev Jat, Satish Sahu
Lights                                 Santosh Dangi, Akash Vishwakarma
Sound                                Praveen Kaimya
Make-up                            Karishma Gupta

Playwright                          Vasant Deo
Direction                            Jagdish Sharma

Contacts:
Anveshan Theatre Group
Sagar (M.P.)
M: +91 9818324311
E: mayamaze@gmail.com

Manohar Khushalani

Manohar Khushalani

Prof. Manohar Khushalani is a former Visiting Faculty at Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi. The courses he taught were: Animation & Graphics, Non-Linear Editing for Film and Radio and Theatre Appreciation.  He has won a total of nine Excellence in Teaching awards for all the courses he has taught at IIITD Earlier he retired from Government of India as Director Environment Management, Central Water Commission and held many senior positions in the Government Based on a Belief that Culture and Environment are the two keys to global sustainability , Manohar Khushalani has launched two portals: A Portal on Environment and Water called One Vorld at url: www.onevorld.org and two Ezines on Culture called Stage Buzz at url: www.stagebuzz.in He has taught extensively in varied subjects such as Dam Safety, Instrumentation, CAD, IT, Animation, Theatre, Newspaper Editing. He has conducted Courses on Environment Management, Water Shed Development, Team Building and Personality Development. He was an Expert Member of Prasar Bharti’s Committee for Grading & Short listing Films for Telecast on all channels of Doordarshan.  He is a Radio Anchor for All India Radio and has moderated several programs for the Rajdhani Channel He is a well-known Theatre Actor/Director and Critic, has been involved in theatre since 1977. He has worked as an actor in over 50 plays with almost every leading director/Actor in the Country including Badal Sircar, Feisal Alkazi, Amal Allana, M.K. Raina, Anuradha Kapoor, Maya Rao, Manohar Singh, Prasanna, Rati Bartholomew and Sushmita Mukherji. He has been active in the social sector as a street theatre activist. As a member of Workshop Theatre, Theatre Union and Prayog, Khushalani has participated in street plays taking up major social issues such as dowry, bride burning, Sati, banned medicinal drugs and communalism. Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Can’t Pay Won’t Pay, both directed by him, received rave notices from critics and audiences alike. Other plays directed by him include Badal Sircar’s, Sagina Mahato and Boris Vian’s Empire Builders for Ruchika Theatre Group. Khushalani has also acted in a few films such as Sudhir Mishra's Hazaron Khwaishen Aisi , Shoojit Sircar’s Madras Café and Pradeep Krishan's Annie Gives Those Ones. He is an Animator & Graphics Designer and has directed a number of documentaries. He also held a number of Honorary positions and was President of North India Films Association, He was the Chairman of  Jury for UGC CEC Educational Films Competition and has been on their Preview Committee since last many years. He was on the preview committee of Door Darshan Channel 3, was a visiting Professor at National School of Drama, New Delhi, and Film & Television Institute of India, Pune, AJKMCRR, Jamia Milia Islamia and Professor in Media at FICT, Delhi  He has judged a large number of Drama Competitions and conducted a number of Theatre / Management Games Workshops with Institutions such as AIIMS, NTPC, CWPRS, NWA, Karve Nari Prakshishan Sansthan, FICT, IIT, MAMC, Gargi College, KNC, Tagore International School and Vivekananda School. He is a Theatre Critic for IIC Diary, has also been a Columnist with Midday and Pioneer Daily and wrote Column's Called Culture Cocktail and Footlights Respectively. He was also the Guest Editor for an issue on Folk Theatre of ICCR Journal Horizons. He has written for Times of Indian, Hindustan Times, Blitz, Hard News, Hindu Business Line, Theatre India & Art Times. He has designed dams and hydraulic structures for the Government. He is a programmer and has developed Engineering design software in Fortran. He is a co-author of Irrigation Practice & Design (Vol 1 to5 - 1500 pages) published by Oxford & IBH and sponsored by National Book Trust. He has been a Director, Environment and Sociology, at the National Water Academy, Khadakwasla and Director, Environment Management Directorate, Central Water Commission and Member Secretary, National Environmental Monitoring Committee for River Valley Projects. He was also Director of Instrumentation Directorate in the Dam Safety Organisation. He was Chief General Manager and Head of Water Resources at Scott Wilson and is an accredited consultant with numerous other organizations He is a Delhi Public School, BITS Pilani, IIT Delhi and FTI Pune Alumini. He was also the President of BITS Pilani Alumni Association, Pune.

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