This Sunday Natrang staged a dramatic presentation of Saadat Hassan Manto’s popular story ‘Baanj’ in its Sunday Theatre Series. The performance was dramatized and directed by Bipan Gupta. Creative use of space, sets and aesthetically dramatization of text enhanced the impact of already very well composed story and the same was appreciated by the audience.aaj ki satta

The story begins featuring Manto himself in a situation where he meets a stranger at a location of sea-shore. He finds that person nice but weird who appears to be broken from within because of some deep emotional trauma. They both discuss about the feeling of love and also narrate their take on the same. In the ensuing discussions, Manto very metaphorically describes that not only those who cannot give birth to baby are infertile but all those who are incapable of love are also infertile in real sense.  This statement touches the heart of the stranger who appeared to be broken in love. They both have few more such unplanned meetings at the seashore and one day Manto invites that person (Naeem) to his house where they continued their discussion about love. Turned very emotional on getting some sensitive stimulus, Naeem narrates a very tragic love story in which he was the hero. In the story, he was a driver who started loving the daughter of his Master which was equally reciprocated by her.  They ran away and got married and started living happily but God had different plans for them, the girl (Jora) suddenly died because of an unknown disease, leaving Naeem shattered and hopeless. This story touches heart of Manto. They did not have any further meeting after that and one day Manto received a letter sent by Naeem that the story he narrated about ‘Jora’ was a fabricated story just to prove that he is not incapable of love but soon after the creation of that story he started feeling ‘Jora’ around him and now is going to end his life in her quest. This turns writer sad and emotional.

The actors who performed in the play included Bipan Gupta, Goutam Sharma, Gautam Kumar, Ashley Mehta and Shashank Singh Charak. Lights were operated by Brijesh Avtar Sharma whereas the music was rendered by Raheel Sharma. Shivam Singh did the presentations and the show was coordinated by Mohd.Yaseen.