Upcoming Plays Nataks in New Delhi

Ek Machine Kabadi Ki - Play. Direction: Dinesh Ahlawat. Music: Lok Nath.

On Stage - Kamaal Mirza/ Kishan Bhardwaj (Kallan), Dr. Supriya (Husnara), Shasha
Madan / Seema Ratnakar (Kulsum), Nadeem Khan/ Vijay Sharma(Azeem), Lucky
Kataria / Dinesh Ahlawat. Ram Bharose), Prosun/ Dinesh Yadav (Scientist), Rajeev
Oberoi/ Sanjay Dhaundhiyal (Photographer), Roshan Preet/ Praveen Sitara (Reporter-1),
Sahil Arora/Arjun Rawat (Reporter-2), Rakesh Maurya/ Dinesh Sharma (Reporter-3).
Dolly Kandhara/ Anju Thakur (Reporter-4) & Baby Poonam (Baby Husna).

• May 09 2010 7:15 pm (Event duration: 1:30 hrs)

• Shri Ram Centre # 4, Safdar Hashmi Marg, New Delhi

S.N. Nautiyal's 'Ek Machine Kabadi Ki', which was mounted in Delhi recently, managed
to evoke a hearty laugh. Mask's 'Ek Machine Kabadi Ki' by S.S. Nautiyal was presented
this past week at LTG auditorium in New Delhi .

It is a hilarious comment on an attempt to transform an aged person into a youth. It tries

to address obliquely the complications cloning can create. The comedy intends to raise
issues that are very complicated but they are treated in a light-hearted manner. Directed
by Dinesh Ahlawat, the comedy is centered around the family of a kabadi,(scrap
merchant) and his hand-to-mouth existence.

With the purchase of a machine discarded by a scientist engaged in the experiment of

reducing the age of human beings, turns the life of the family upside-down. Obsessed
with the ambition to make the machine functional the scrap merchant spends day and
night to repair it, an irritated and harassed wife of the merchant enters the machine. Lo
and behold, comes out from the machine a young lady. The merchant and his young
daughter in love with a youth next door are flabbergasted to confront this young woman
before them. The experiment becomes successful at the hands of the merchant who
purchased it as a scrap. This strange situation leads to complications. This tension mounts
to the delight of the audience. There is another angle - the danger of the co modification
of scientific discoveries. This is illustrated through two characters - one is the young man
and a small time businessman, who has lent some money to the merchant. These two
characters are determined to exploit the machine by bringing customers desperate to
regain their youth. They act in an incongruous manner, evoking laughter. Director Dinesh
has considerable association with the late Panchanan Pathak, the doyen of Indian theatre
music. After passing out from Shri Ram Centre's Acting course in 1984, he joined
Roopantar as an actor & director. When it became inactive, he formed Mask four years
ago. It produces six plays a year with 15 performances. It mostly depends on its box-
office collections and contribution of its members. Over the years, it has been able to
build a sizable number of audiences.
Good timing

The entire action takes place in the room of the merchant. The exit and entry of
performers is smooth. They display a good sense of timing. The opening sequences are
slow. However, the tempo picks up, bringing comic element to the fore. At places the
production degenerates into a crude farce, resorting to excess slapsticks but on the whole
it is entertaining Sandeep Rajan as kabadi and Supriya as his wife give a good account of
themselves as comic actors .Atul Sharma as the youth next door who starts flirting with
the old woman when the machine transforms her into a young lady and Saumitra Verma,
as the greedy business man desperate to change his aging wife into a beautiful young
woman, could have become more effective if they had delivered their lines in an easy and
natural manner.