August 26, 2016, at Shanti Devi Mittal Auditorium, LPU, the Abhinaya RangManch, Hisar staged a Hindi play ‘Patloon’. Written and directed by renowned theatre artist Manish Joshi Bismil, the play was an exploration of man’s materialistic desires and a commentary on his hopeless pursuit of the same.
The play began with introducing ‘Bhagwan’, the protagonist of the play. Bhagwan is a bonded labourer who somehow escapes to a big city where he starts work as a shoe-shine. While polishing the shoes, he invariably stains his customers’ pants with the boot polish and his angered customers curse him. They shout at Bhagwan, telling him what a pant is to a person and how it works as a ‘status symbol’ and is a possession of pride for every owner. All this makes Bhagwan decide to buy a pant. He finds out that a pair of pants costs Rs 1500 and begins to save for it. He is able to save Rs 500 but a tricky magician befools him and takes away his savings. Even after this Bhagwan does not lose hope but works harder to be able to get himself a pair of pants. After many comic and some heart rending episodes, Bhagwan is able to buy a pair of pants.
But, unfortunately he ends up mistakenly buying ladies’ pants. Realizing his error he gives the pair to a tailor to alter. But his stress keeps giving him nightmares of never getting the pants back from the tailor. In the concluding scene, Bhagwan is dying and his last wish is to wear pants. Even at this time, he is unable to fulfill his desire, as the pair he bought does not fit and Bhagwan dies with his wish unfulfilled.
The thought provoking storyline, mature performances and elements of magic and stage innovations made the play a joy to watch. LPU is now looking forward to August 29, when Vihan Drama, Bhopal will present ‘Amrita’ a play directed by Sudeep Sohni, based on the well known poetess Amrita Pritam’s autobiographical book ‘Rasidi Ticket’.
