‘Karan Kumar...’ tickles with light hearted humour

NAGPUR: Laughter, intrigue and amusement; Stagecraft’s Hindi play ‘Karan Kumar Khanna Ke Khatarnak Karname’ evoked all this and much more on Saturday afternoon.

Staged at

Chitnavis Centre

, the presentation was much in line, in terms of acting and content, with many previous plays that the theatre group has staged in recent times.

Inspired from one of

Oscar Wilde

’s popular short stories Lord

Arthur Saville

’s Crime, the play revolves around the impending marriage of Karan and Dimple which gets into a limbo due to a god woman’s prophecy.

Karan Khanna

must commit a murder before he ties the knot and from here begins a chain of events which are more amusing than dangerous. The Indian setting, that too in a Punjabi household, added an extra touch of robust humour to the presentation.

Stagecraft has a fine pool of talented actors and the play draws on them to make for a good watch. Vivek Daga as Karan Khanna is convincing with his body language and expression but needs to work more on his dialogues to avoid mixing them.

The other character who impressed and was convincing was Shubhankar Mishra in the role of a constipated terrorist Al Kabzz. Not once does he falter on his improvised diction as he plays the part of an Afghan. Radhika Joshi in the role of Dimple’s mother gives a polished act in terms of spontaneity and ease.

The play also gets its sheen and glaze from the aesthetically designed set, the repeated change of costumes by the cast and direction by

Vikash Khurana

. The rest of the cast like N.V. Sharma as Karan’s manager Natwar, Sonali Trivedi Malkan as chachi and Urmi Chakravorty as Bhua chip in with their seasoned performance.

But what works most for this light entertainer is its fresh look and realistic everyday life humour. Two more shows of the play will be held at Chitnavis Centre on Sunday.