“Chamatkar” play authored by Lalit Mohan Thapliyal enacted in New Delhi

AN interesting play titled CHAMATKAR ( Miracle) authored by renowned writer, theatrist and director late Lalit Mohan Thapliyal was enacted in the Little Theatre Group, Mandi house by the High Hillers Group , directed by his talented Mumbai based young grandson Kaizaad Shikhar Gandhi.

The play originally enacted in Hindi by late Lalit Mohan Thapliyal in Geneva, UNO where he was posted for a long duration was titled as CHIMTE WALA BABA, lauded and acclaimed by the Hindi speaking audience which was later on translated in the Garhwali dialect played by The high Hillers Group during 1999 in New Delhi.

This was its second show in Delhi after 18 years having acknowledged a good response from the audience gathered in large numbers from different nooks and corners of the capital.

Though the play CHAMATKAR was able to keep the entire audience attracted towards the play for full two hours it did had some of the flaws like lack of the comedy part and the play becoming slow and too serious at times not able to portray the real life of hilly character. The title Chamatkar could not do full justice with the storyline of the play.

It could also not portray the CHIMTE WALA BABA character prominently as the central theme of the play. However, the characters of the LALA, his servant, the female character of the widow, professors wife, the professor, the Chimte wala Baba, the photographer tourist etc were quite interesting.

All the artists tried their best to impress the audience by their outstanding acting despite the fact that majority of them are not the full time professional actors.

Our heartiest congratulations to Khushal Singh Bisht, Brijmohan Vedwal, Girdhari Rawat, Manju Bahuguna Kusum Chouhan, Darshan Singh Rawat, Dhiraj Kothial, Kusum Bisht etc.

The performance of Kusum Chouhan, Manju Bahuguna, Brijmohan Vedwal and Khushal Rawat was indeed outstanding.

The play, though was interesting but from the point of view of late Lalit Mohan Thapliyal’s reputation and prestige it did lacked something and could not come true to the peoples’ expectation.

There were two major flaws in the play’s storyline. One, the professor’s wife Malti (Manju Bahuguna) was not able to react as a traumatised, anguished or grief striken women after her husband’s sad demise who commits suicide, as the hilly women genuinely react after such a grave tragedy.

Secondly, right after her husband’s death she was shown performing bhajans to welcome the Chimte Wala Baba in a hillarious mood not expected of a widow who’s husband has died just a day or two before, by committing suicide.

Late Lalit Mohan Thapliyal was a celebrated script writer, theatrist, director and a literary personality of Uttarakhand who is credited with staging good number of Garhwali and Hindi plays in Uttarakhand, Delhi and various parts of the country including abroad. His several plays particularly KHAADU LAAPATA and CHIMTE WALA BABA etc were quite popular having been staged good number of times inviting all round acclaim in Uttarakhand and the country. However, late Thapliyal’s Mumbai based young grandson Kaizaad Shikher Gandhi deserves to congratulated for directing the play once scripted and directed by his late grandfather.

It may be recalled that Late Thapliyal was posted in Geneva, UNO for a long spell where he wrote number of plays and CHIMTE WALA BABA was one of them.

After returning back to India and retiring from job he dedicated his entire life for promoting and preserving the Garhwali dialect through his impressive plays enacted all over India lauded by one and all.