An earthy musical for Agra’s theatre lovers

A Hindi play '

Panchlight

' was recently staged at Sursadan in

Agra

. Based on a short story Renu by Hindi playwright

Phanishwar Nath

, the play was adapted into a musical with five songs by veteran writer-director

Ranjit Kapoor.

The play narrated the story of a small village Mahto Toli, where the Panch purchases the first

petromax

of the village, which is called panchlight by the villagers. Now that the village has its first panchlight, but no one knows how to use it, which becomes a laughing point for neighbouring villages. Villagers get to know that Godhan, a young man who has been ostracized by the village for falling in love with a girl Munri from the same village, is the only person in the village who knows how to operate the petromax. How the villagers decide to ask Godhan to help them and what Godhan does is what drives the story further.

The play was based on a short story Renu

Dimpy Mishra, who played the Panch in the play, said, “It was an honour for us to work with renowned writer-director Ranjit ji, who has also written dialogues for the

epic film

Jaane Bhi Do Yaron, among many other great works. He was here for a week-long

theatre

workshop. Almost 24 artists participated in the workshop and honed their skills under Ranjit ji’s guidance. Panchlight was the culmination of this workshop.”

The play was adapted into a musical with five songs by veteran writer-director Ranjit Kapoor