Balwant Thakur’ Hindi play ‘Jaal’ staged by Natrang Jammu

Jammu, 31st December, 2023 :  Balwant Thakur’s hard hitting Hindi play ‘JAAL’ staged here today at Rani Park, Jammu under the direction of Neeraj Kant. At the very outset while addressing the gathering, Natrang Director Balwant Thakur said that while bidding farewell to 2023 and welcoming 2024 Natrang chose to present a play which addresses the biggest challenge of the contemporary times. The menace of drugs amongst youth is all set to take its toll. Before it becomes ‘Udta Jammu’, it becomes the responsibility of every one to come forward and fight out this growing menace before it grips every home. Natrang being a responsible cultural institution has volunteered by taking this message to every nook and corner of the region through the effective use of theatre. In a very effective manner this powerful play ‘Jaal’ innovatively  showcases as how the Drug-menace is ruining the generations like a rapid fire, crippling developing nations like India. The youth of the country, the largest energetic and most productive human resource of the country, sometimes unknowingly slip into this dangerous trap of drug menace.

The play ‘Jaal’ was not based on any one story-line but as an experiment Balwant Thakur has woven multiple stories in one theme focusing the spread of drug menace like a mesh, this taking the toll of the strongest workforce of the country. Jammu is no exception. We are a witness to lots of youth losing lives.  In a sequence a young boy is shown struggling for a good company after his passing of the school and entry in the college. He is isolated for not being the consumer of intoxications. All around him treat him like a child which really frustrates him and to prove that he has grown-up as a young man now, he finds the easiest way and demonstrates his coming of age by consuming a variety of intoxications. In another sequence a rural inhabitation particularly the men-folk are shown drowned in the menace of alcohol. All the miseries of the village like poverty, domestic violence, and other ailments are attributed to the constant growth of consumption of alcohol in the village. In a sequence the daily routine of a villager is shown who consumes the whole of his daily earnings in alcohol. Being drunk completely he has looses his way home. By the time a local escorts him to his place where in the middle of the night this drunken man starts beating his sleeping wife and kids for not receiving him on his arrival. When the escort intervenes to save the poor lady and children, he is blamed for having malicious intentions towards his wife. This fight further messes up when a drunken man after losing senses damages his household belongings as well. The play unfolds a series of incidents where people influenced by drugs, alcohol and other intoxications create hell for themselves as well as for others. Many precious lives are being charred in this fire of the growing drug menace which is to be fought unitedly to bring them out of the mesh of drugs menace. Through this play Balwant Thakur has tried to make an appeal to save mankind from this dragon who is extending its constituency day by day.
Actors who outshined in their respective performances and left an impact of their acting included Neeraj Kant, Aadesh Dhar, Kananpreet Kour, Vishal Sharma, Abhimanyu Choudhary, Sanket Bhagat, Kushal Bhat and Chaitanaya Shekhar. The show was ably conducted by senior actor of Jammu stage Rajinder Narang and coordinated by Mohd. Yaseen

#JaalPlay #DrugMenace #YouthAwareness #CulturalResponsibility #NatrangProduction #SocialIssues #FightAgainstDrugs #CommunityEngagement