“Prayog" is a well known
theatre group of Madhya Pradesh, the largest state of India. It was
established on the 15th August 1976, the Independence day of India,
by Prof. Satish Mehta and his wife Jyotsana Mehta.The very first
drama performed by "Prayog" was ‘Doosara darwaja’ and this amature
theatre group has never looked back since, It has gone from strenth
to strenth putting up 550 performances to date of
60 full length plays.
"Prayog" is a Hindi language
word and meaning of this word is experiment. As the meaning
indicates Prayog is different in that and it puts up mostly
experimental plays. New in format and presentation, The plays seek
to throw new and different light on social and political
problems. A fresh viewpoint "something new" is Satish Mehta's
endeavour, director of all the presentations of Prayog. According to
him awareness of certain social anomalies and shortcommings is our
main aim.
There is no doubt that,
although Satish Mehta is well impressed by the great and
revolutionary German dramatist Bertoed Brecht, But he has got his
own creative approach in the field of direction.He belteves that
Brecht derived the idea of symbolism from the east, mainly the
countries like India, China and Japan. That is the reason why Satish
Mehta takes many elements from the folk traditions of Indian drama.
India is a vast country and has got a variety of different cultures.
It has got a large number of folk drama styles. Satish Mehta derives
many things from them and mix them with the modern trend of theatre
and prepares an original and creative performance of his
own.
Jyotsna Mehta is a real
partner to Satish Mehta, not only in the life, but also in the field
of his creativity. She is an integral part of all the performances
of Prayog dramas. Jyotsana is a talented actress and played lead
role in many of the dramas and got many awards for her brilliant
acting. She was twice awarded as the best actress of the
state.
The remarkable factor in the
plays performed by "Prayog" is variety in form and way of
presantation. Folk style plays with a prepondence of music and dance
as in "Dulari Bai", "Bakri" and "Jadugar Jungle", Hilarious comedies
like "Saiya Bhaye Kotwal" and "Langdi Tang". Political and social
satire like "Andhon Ka Hathi", "Natak Nahin" and "Ala Afasar" Social
plays like "Pratibimb" "Mansukh Lal" and "Hastakshar and
Psyclo-physical theatre like "Bhoma".
With its liking for
purposeful drama, prayog has broken new grounds with street
plays."Julus" "Samarath", "Bharat Ke Lal" and "Kargil Ke Sher" were
performed to aware the public with different motives. The themes of
these plays were the patroism, non-violence, national intregation,
communal harmony and other social problems.These street plays
attracted a large number of people on the streets and
conveyed message smoothly to them..Prayog has got a remarkable
record of presenting its dramas in many metros, as well as in small
towns with a similar type of response.
Prayog is associated
with a good brigade of talented artistes,who
supports the cause for which Prayog is working.Some of them are
very nice actors ,well known for their memorable
performances.Among them Smit Mehta is an actor of
extraordinary calibre, well known for his accomplished
acting.Arvind Sharma ,Prem Shrivastav,Awadhesh
Shukla,JavaMehta,Vishawajeet Chatterji,Parimal Bhattacharya, and
many others have proved their acting talents in many of the dramas
and established their name.In fact Prayog is the name of
not only a good family of mature actors,but at the same time
good associates with each- other.
Some of the Prayog artistes ,who were
performing brilliantly, unfortunately are no more in the world.Among
them .Mahesh Tiwari and Anwar Deshmukh were gems of the
theatre.
Thus Prayog has established
a good name in the field of theatre and continue to rise to a
greater height.
