A flashback to turbulent times

The year is 1964, Markand Trivedi meets an unrecognisable and ailing Batukeshwar Dutt at Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital.

Ridden with cancer, Batukeshwar Dutt can’t be recognised as one of the men who had worked alongside the legendary Sardar Bhagat Singh. The two meet decades after Bhagat Singh was given the death sentence. And along with them, the audience at Lamakaan is taken back in time, when India was still under British rule.

City-based theatre group, The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, put together a musical play, Gagan Damama Bajyo. The play followed events from the Jallianwala Bagh massacre to the hanging of Bhagat Singh along with other freedom fighters Sukhdev Thapar and Raj Guru, kept the audience hooked for two hours.

The play also focused on Bhagat Singh’s love life
“We had met Piyush Mishra, the writer of the play, three years ago and it was then that we decided to work on it,” says Riyaz Usman the director. With over 12 actors and more than 20 characters, Riyaz made sure that the actors delivered their best. And whether it was Chandra Shekhar Azad whose fiery persona brought the feeling of patriotism alive or Sukhdev Thapar’s no-nonsense persona or Bhagat Singh’s fearless attitude, the performances were great.

But getting the 12 actors to rehearse together was quite a task as all of them are working professionals.

Few scenes from the two-hour long play
“We would practise either early in the morning or late after work,” says Utkarsh Dixit, who played Sukhdev. A fair amount of research also went in as the actors had to remain in character. “I found that Sukhdev was this young man of 21-22 years. He had all this anger in him…  I’m an easy-going guy and the challenge was to unleash all this anger on stage,” adds Utkarsh.

Gagan Damama Bajyo had dance, drama and even 15 songs that were written and sung by Alok Keswani for the play.