Bhana Ganganath

My play watching pursuits are so far restricted mostly to comedy plays for multiple reasons. First, they require the least effort to understand as compared to other moods which are not so readily grasped by my logical and professionally trained mind. Secondly , the language is relatively simple and the humour of the playwright is far more authentic then today’s tele-serial makers who just think that they can make people laugh by making characters cry, howl, squeal and react like animals and making them stand in a line in front of the camera.

This play would go down as the most forgettable play-watching activity from my side. I remember AS calling up and suggesting that we see this Comedy Play, atleast he thought so. I and DS (the guy, this time) did the tough ride from IIT to LTG banking on the information.

As it turned out, AS’s information was wrong. It was not a comedy play; it was not even a normal voice play. It was a dance drama. With small periods of voice interspersed by long and elaborate dance sequences, it was really tough to follow the story line. None of us three are such avid connoisseurs of art that we could decipher the messages hidden in the maneuvers of the ballet dancers.

The appearance of voice made our struggle even worse, as the language of the play was some remote cousin of Hindi, a very specific flavour of Kumaoni with full of archaic words. Still , our concerted efforts to latch on to little hints which were most often thrown in by a few precious common usage words or else by carefully studies eye movements, we could make a story out of the truly “modern” piece of performing art. Here goes what we could make out (wish I had the pamphlet with me at this point of time, it could have saved me some grace!!!)

It’s a love story set in the Kumaon. Ganganath is a something that closely resembled a wandering saint, or rather a peripatetic who sings eulogies to the regional deity. Bhana listen to her songs of devotion and falls in love with the singer in quick time. But the lovers face opposition from the society as Bhana belongs to an upper cast and Ganganath belongs to a lower one. Ganganath more or less accepts the society’s denial to there relationship and starts touring nearby villages doing his sacred duty. But, things turn around when he relieves the villagers of his parental village of some evil force and then the villagers are forced to change their opinion and they start seeing his as a God-send. The story finally ends with the happy reunion of Bhana and Ganganath.


Ratings: 4/10
(Not because the play was badly enacted, but because an audience having similar tastes and backgrounds would have a nightmare understanding the story line)