Chronicle Reporter, Bhopal
PLAY titled ‘Agarbatti’ was staged on the fourth day of the five-day 17th Rang Alap National Theatre Festival on Monday at Shaheed Bhavan. The play was dramatized by Ashish Pathak and directed by Swati Dubey.
Around 18 artists including Swati Dubey, Sakshi Dubey, Khusbhu Chaubitkar, Jyotsana Katariya, Shivanjali Gajbhiyed, Mansi Rawat, Rishi Jain Sukkan, Shobha Verma, Nikita Srivas, Utsav Hande, Arpit Singh, Harsh Raj Tiwari, Neeraj Balmiki, Shivam Tiwari, Rituraj Malik, Shivkar Sare, and Shubham Mishra, from Samagam Rangmandal, Jabalpur, presented the entire act.
The play is an engrossing tale of class, caste, gender, conflicts, and politics. Agarbatti is based on the Behmai massacre delivered by Bandit queen, Phoolan Devi and her gang to take revenge from the upper caste Thakur men of Behmai for her gang rape.
In order to get their lives on track, for the widows of Thakur men who are massacred by Phoolan Devi, the government opens an incense stick factory in the village. One of the widows, Lala Ram Thakurain, reserves the last rites of her husband until Phoolan Devi is executed. The story begins after Phoolan’s death and explores its implications and consequences on a series and spectrum of events.