Gadha ke baraat

Scene from the play Gadha Ke Baraat

The play's plot revolves around the life of a potter - Kallu - who is poor and his only assests are his two donkeys. One fine day, he runs into a saint who is the master of 33 crore gods and he takes Kallu to a trip to heaven. There he watches Indra's favorite dancer - Rambha - being insulted by one of his courtiers. He then returns back to Earth. Seeing all this, an angry Indra curses this man - Chitrasen - to live life on Earth being a donkey. But on requests by the master, he asks him to marry the princess of Mithila to get rid of this curse.

Now Kallu, after returning finds one extra donkey tied in his courtyard, and it speaks human languages too! But he and his wife accept it. Meanwhile, in the royal palace, the king is worried about his daughter's marriage, when asked she puts forward a big condition. She says that she will marry the person who builds a bridge between the palace and the subject colonies in just one night. This is circulated everywhere and the donkey turned Chitrasen urges Kallu to accept the bet in front of the king. He surprisingly does so, and hence the bridge is built.

On the day of marriage with the princess, they all reach the palace with lots of people. As soon as the marriage gets over, the donkey turns into a handsome prince as the curse is lifted. He immediately forgets Kallu and urges king to expell him and destroy the bridge. They are happily married ever after.

The play is a sattire on the present mentality and raises questions on foul practices by the bureaucrats. The strong dialogues and straight forward scenes make it a strong comment on the society. It was orginally written by Haribhai Bharodkar in Marathi and was then translated to Hindi and then to Chhattisgarhi. The play was directed by NSD's Niraj Bahal.