“AASUON KE SANG HANSE KE RANG”

Dhoop Chaoon’s Fifth annual show

With a tradition of keeping the promise of providing an entertainment evening; full of great performances and fresh ideas; Dhoop Chaoon the Hindi drama group (also known as Hindi Natya Sandhthan) has presented its filth annual show titled “Aasuon ke sang hanse ke rang” on May 7th at IACA Hall in Smyrna, GA. This group is an oasis of South Asian culture to those who feel there is an urgent need of an institution to promote Hindi language and our South Asian Culture. This program attracted audience from different groups and walks of life. Audience turned out in great numbers, which seemed to be an overwhelming award of consecutive previous successes. For three hours audience, remained glued to their chairs, to witness a fantastic show that had various flavors of our culture and Highs and Lows of a common man’s life i.e Dhoop- Chaoon of life. More than 60 passionate artists from a surprisingly wide age group of 3 to 74 led by highly motivating group-leader Sandhya Bhagat, worked tirelessly to prepare for this show.

In the beginning a tribute was paid two of its past stars, who left for their final journey last year ( Kumar Govind and Rehan Khan). This was followed by video presentation and slide show by Gandharv Bhagat showing glimpses of last year’s event.
The next item can be considered as the main event by many. It brought back the memories of the India- Pakistan partition. The heart-wrenching play “Ek Batwara Eisa Bhee” shook the audience, especially the octogenarians present there. It showed how partition of India and Pakistan affected two childhood friends –Champa (played by Rita Kapahi) and Bano (played by Sadaf Farooki). After the partition in 1947, Bano had to move to Pakistan with her family; yet their friendship, flourishes, after a long gap of silence and endures the separation, through letters. Both read letters aloud; virtually living theirs past memories, strengthening their friendship for each other. In an emotional conclusion, after more than 40 years of separation, Bano visits her childhood friend in India, unites with Champa. The cast was supported by Erum Alvi, Hana Dalwai, Maha Farooki, Nafees Bano, Navin Tyagi, Shaveta Jain, Umair Farooki, Veena Kathdare and Vijay Tandon. Play was written and directed by Sandhya Bhagat.

After the first act, suddenly there were a lot of animals seen on the stage. These were actually kids dressed in Animal costumes and were part of the play “Inse Dosti Karo – Make them your friends”. Children wearing animal costumes, played the roles of various animals and hunters. Sandhya Bhagat, has been very successful to introduce Hindi Language and our proud heritage to these budding citizens of the new world, through ideas like these. The act conveyed the message of living in harmony with Nature and to be kind towards animals. This play was directed by Lakshmi Kant Pandya and played by: Ananya Jain, Avani Mukkar, Erum Alvi, Eshan Jain, Hana Dalwai, Kanav Ahuja, Kavya Ahuja, Lance Cody, Manasvi Reddy, Nikita Jain, Saumya Khanna Sydney Cody, Tanishq Jain and Zuni Hussain,,

Next item was a bollywood comedy play called “Gabbar! Kuch Lete Kyun Nahin?” It was based on Sholay’s character Gabbar Singh; being old, sick and helpless, while his other companions keep making fun of him. This act was produced by Gopal Menon, played by Chander Mani, Madhav Katdare, Paresh Naik, Shree Kant Iyer, Sanjiv Desai, Shyam Kadle, Vaidya Iyer and was directed by Amul Zaraparkar.

Next item was a short classroom comedy drama “Natkhat Rangshala” written and directed by Sandhya Bhagat. In a classroom, a Hindi teacher (played by Sandhya Bhagat) tries to teach Hindi to two of her students, desperately trying not to use any English words; while the peon (played by Anil Bhagat) kept interrupting; often with his own broken English. The word by word translation of “Twinkle Twinkle little star” in Hindi results in a funny situation that made audience laugh. Brittney Cody and Shymara Henderson played the roles of students. This translation of English poem to Hindi, while Hindi, blended with English to make hilarious concoctions; echoed the hall with tons of laughter.
 

A husband wife situational comedy “Jukam Jaree Hai” served spicy and fresh entertainment to the audience. Sushi (played by Fazleen Sohani) catches common cold. She feels so miserable that she tells her husband (played by Anuj Jain) that she will not survive the cold and will die. Her husband takes the bad news lightly. Two, so called doctor friends, one hakim (played by Aslam Parvez) and a Vaidya (played by Laxmikant Pandya) prescribe desi remedies. In the end, Sushi gets a telegram that her Mother is coming to visit. Her condition changes suddenly, but it turns out it is her mother in law was arriving. Shankar Mahadevan played as Sushi's dance partner and Vandana Tantia as their maid. She, walks like as if she is swimming and hence named Starfish. Lakshmikant Pandya directed the play. Originally written by K.P.Saxena; this play was innovatively adopted by Sandhya Bhagat. There is a debate foxing on, whether this could be considered the main item of the show

Audience could not catch their breath and the next piece, a Bollywood dance item “Kal Aaj Aur Kal”; took us to a journey through Old Hindi Movie love song/dance to Present day Love song/dance scenes. The concept by Sandhya Bhagat was superbly choreographed by Rahim Hussain. “Main Ban ki Chidiya” a Golden Oldie was the first pick, in which love is expressed discretely, wrapped in slow beats. As the decades pass, the love/dance, expression becomes more physical, nurtured by electronic beats and visual effects, retrogressing in quality of expression and dominated by exciting body gyrations; straying far away from the actual meaning of love. The dance sequence ends with “Ek Tara bole” and a fakir ,warning audience of this changing trend in our culture; appears on stage. Impressive narration by Aslam Parvez and Kamlesh Chugh added meaning to the satire. Rita Kapahi-Madhav Katdare, Hema Jain-Shankar Mahadevan, Anuj Jain-Nishi Sharma, Ami Joshi-Udai Joshi, Venkat Ramma-Shaveta Jain, Adam Khan-Erum Alvi, Lakshmikant Pandya-Vandana Amin, Rahim Hussain-Brittney Cody-Nitika Ahuja, Renu Kumar andVijay Tandon let their dancing nerve free to relive old golden days and groove with the modern times.
Dhoop- Chaoon is a successful endeavor today because of its highly enthusiastic, dedicated back Stage crew and other supporters like Sudesh Sharma, Bimal Pathak, Hiral Hussain, Seema Saxena, Kartikay Bhagat, Meenakshi Iyer, Suparna Pathak,Tilakraj Sharma, Santosh Shally, Dr Naazneen Dalwai, Chinti Bali, Paresh Jain, Uzma Wahid, Neel Pathak, Asha Kumar, Hameed and Salim Panjwani.
The show was concluded with a vote of thanks by the founder, Sandhya Bhagat, with a promise to come back in 2012.
For other activities and information visit: www.dhoopchaoon.org