Many among the audience were trying hard to hold their emotions while a few wiped tears with a handkerchief as Lucky Gupta, a theatre actor from Jammu, ended his one-hour-long solo performance, Maa Mujhe Tagore Bana De, at Bhoomi Rangamane in Sagar on June 18. It took a few seconds for the spectators to realise that they had to convey their appreciation with a round of applause.
It was the 1,171st show of the Hindi play, inspired by a Punjabi story by Mohan Bhandari. Mr. Gupta has travelled across India with his solo performance. In Sagar, the show was organised by Prathibha M.V. and Raghavendra Sagar of Spandana troupe.
The play deals with the story of a boy who wrote poetry as a student and wanted to become Rabindranath Tagore. Unfortunate events in his life forced him to cut short his education and end up as a labourer.
The actor starts as a labourer and enacts different characters, including his employer, teacher, village chieftain, and student, among others.
Interestingly, he has crafted his show so that the audience also becomes an integral part of the play. At one point, he chooses one member of the audience as his classmate while narrating the story of the protagonist’s early childhood. Later, when he plays the role of village chieftain, he selects another member of the audience to be his grandson.
With minimal changes in his attire, the actor shifts from one character to another, leaving no room for confusion among the spectators. At the end, he lands at the feet of a senior lady amidst the audience and calls her his mother. He made use of the available space intelligently, criss-crossing the audience. At one stage, he went out of the hall to prepare himself for the character of an old man, keeping the audience connected with his expressions.
During the interaction with the audience, Mr. Gupta identified himself as an actor in street theatre. With no special arrangements, he would perform at any place with hardly any expectation. At the end, he appeals to the audience to contribute from their pocket, as true street artists do.
Lucky Gupta has five solo plays. Altogether, he has presented over 1,500 shows across the country. Along the way, he met many people who invited him to their place and requested a performance.
“I happened to meet a theatre lover during my train journey. He invited me to his village. I disembarked with him and spent a month presenting my play at 30 different locations around that village,” he said.
On making the audience a part of his performance, Lucky Gupta said he would begin every show with a prayer, seeking a few good performers in the course of his show. “I pick some from the audience for the conversation as part of the play, and improvise based on the responses I get. During a show in a school, a boy whom I engaged as a student, outperformed me, and I had to admit that he was a better actor than me,” he said.
