Vasant Deo’s Play: Sudama ke Chawal

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