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Bringing back a classic

ROMESH CHANDER

The universality of “Fiddler on the Roof” made the audience identify with the play.



Powerful performance From the play

Dramatech is now 24-years-old with 28 plays in English and Hindi to its credit. But a few years back it suddenly went into hibernation. However, about a fortnight ago it suddenly reappeared to our surprise with “Fiddler On the Roof” in Hindi directed by Ravi Raj Sagar.
Popular play

As a stage musical, we are told, the play has been seen by for more than 3 million people throughout the world and thanks to its film version many more are familiar with its beautiful songs.

No wonder the hall was packed to capacity and also had a lot of young people in the audience. Thanks to the subject of the play and also the universality of its main character Tevye, the audience wherever they belong to, finds a Tevye amongst them. The remarkable significance of Tevye in the Jewish folklore and his appeal is universal. Rakesh’s Tevye in Dramatech’s “Fiddler On the Roof” struck a rapport with the audience almost instantaneously and so did Pooja Shankar as Tevye’s wife.

Rest of the 30 young new actors mostly drawn from the University and schools as also the young professionals appearing on the stage for the first time acted with immense confidence.

But the life and colour of the presentation were the 10 songs in Hindi set to original tunes and rendered beautifully. The presentation, I hope, will be kept alive for it is important to give birth to something new and different, especially for the new young actors on the Delhi stage.