E-Paper
?Andher Nagari? vying for Guinness record
ALL 96 of them are sitting with their fingers crossed. And if all goes well then their artistic cornucopia 'Andher Nagari' will have its name registered in the most coveted Guinness Book of Records.
ALL 96 of them are sitting with their fingers crossed. And if all goes well then their artistic cornucopia 'Andher Nagari' will have its name registered in the most coveted Guinness Book of Records.
'Andher Nagari' is a nautanki, a form of traditional folk theatre, and a production of Swarg Repertory, a theatrical group located in the city. It was staged recently at North Central Zone Cultural Centre.
According to Atul Yaduvanshi, director, "We have sent the application to register ourselves as 'world's biggest theatrical presentation'. None of the plays have so far managed to gather a crowd of 96 artistes, including the technicians and thus the idea struck us to go for the Guinness records. We have also sent applications for entry into the Limca Book of Records and so far both the books have no such record registered with them".
'Andher Nagari' has been presented in the form of nautanki which has unfortunately now become a dying art. "There is also the purpose to revive this art which was quite popular in the beginning", said Atul.
Besides utilising the traditional art form, there has also been a good usage of new techniques such as scenes created through multimedia at the background in order to enhance the overall outlook of the presentation.
The international presentation of 'Andher Nagari' took place earlier at Lahore, Pakistan in "World Theatre Festival- 2004". "Swarg Repertory is committed towards reviving the traditional folk theatre of nautanki and for that the group has already given presentations in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Haryana, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttranchal, Goa, and other states", added Atul.
The story of 'Andher Nagari' has been written by Bhartendu Harishchandra and the nautanki adaptation has been done by Rajkumar Srivastav. The entire concept, designing and direction has been done by Atul Yaduvanshi.
The story revolves around the ruler of Andher Nagari who is famous for giving absurd judgements. Every commodity under his rule is sold at a fixed nominal price.
A saint and his two disciples on their visit to Andher Nagari find the situation fishy. But one of the disciples gets trapped in the situation due to his greed and is awarded death sentence by the ruler. He is bailed out of the situation by the saint. However, the funny situation leads to the death of the ruler at last.
"We are hopeful of making a record as it is the effort of 96 artistes which will surely not go waste," said Atul.
