Amiser sitting on his hoard of treasures, ill-treating his children, has raised much laughter and you think one more play will be the same, but you are pleasantly surprised. Based on Moliere’s The Miser, the translated play Enai Lok Kato Dekha Nai, directed by Jyoti Narayan Nath, proved to be a novel experience. Adaptations of foreign plays in Assamese have constantly been happening and most of these attempts have been invigorating and bold attempts. This present play is also an attempt in that direction. The play The Miser has been adapted well and the setting, characters and dialect are placed in a rural background. The story revolves around the protagonist – a landlord with pots of money which he guards with feverish zeal. And on top of it, he is miserly and stories of his miserliness have spread far and wide through the mouths of the servants and his children. This raises bellyfuls of laughter.

The highlight of the play is the use of the Kamrupiya dialect. The use of the Kamrupiya dialect has always been mired in controversy, with people using it more for jest and for the nuances and the typical accent of this dialect. The particular accent of the Kamrupiya dialect has always been a source for mirth and laughter. In the context of the play, the Kamrupiya dialect fitted the play to the hilt. After the usual antics of the miserly landlord and his servants, who in turn flatter and pamper him in the hope of extracting a few extra coins, there is a twist in the tale – the landlord wants to marry a beautiful young girl of the neighbourhood. The twist is that the landlord’s MBBS (Mak Baapekar Bekar Soli) son is also in love with the same beautiful girl. From here on the play picks up and gains momentum. To add spice to the flavour, we have constant digs being made about the protagonist – the miserly landlord – by the retinue of servants in, of course, the Kamrupiya dialect. The exchange between the landlord and his servants and the landlord and his extravagant, unemployed son raises much laughter.

As a further twist in the tale, we have the miserly landord’s daughter losing her heart to one of the household helps in her house. As the two pairs of lovers – the son and his lady love and the daughter and the household help’s love blossom, the miserly landlord, their father has other plans for them. He wants to marry off his daughter to an old, wealthy landlord and he himself wants to marry the beautiful young lady love of his son (Sundari), all in the hope of getting a fat dowry. But, of course, his daughter vehemently opposes this marriage. But the landlord will not listen and decides to go forward with his plan. He even decides to arrange for a feast to impress Sundari and gives hilarious instructions to his servant as to how to prepare a feast by spending the least amount of money. But the son, along with his accomplice, steals his father’s trunk where he keeps his money. Realising the theft, the landlord goes crazy with grief. The ravings and the rantings of the landlord, driven crazy by grief for his lost treasure, leads to the climax of the play.

This particular scene gives much scope for comic display, the dialogues of the landlord keeps the audience in spilts. The actor deserves much applause for this. At this juncture, the landlord also gets to know of his son and daughter’s love interests. Anger and grief almost make him lose his sanity. At this point again the old landlord (Mohidhar), with whom the daughter’s marriage was fixed, arrives for his bride. Now all hell breaks loose and in the pandemonium, Mohidhar (the old landlord) who comes to marry the daughter, accidently discovers his own long lost son and daughter. They are none other than the love interests of the protagonist’s son and daughter. All’s well that ends well and the lovers are united.

This simple story by the famous dramatist Moliere is very well adapted into Assamese and the Kamrupiya dialect does justice to the plot. If one thinks that the Kamrupiya dialect can only be used for jest and mirth, it is equally potent a tool for depth and pathos. It goes to the credit of the director Jyoti Narayan Nath for giving a neat presentation. The use of chorus in a kind of circus fashion does give a colourful start to the play. Actors breaking down the dividing line between the performance and audience in between their dialogues comes as a refreshing change. This has been done seamlessly and for this, too, the credit goes to the director Jyoti Narayan Nath. All the actors enacted their parts with the vigour and ease necessary for their roles. The protagonist’s performance, especially when the money was stolen, had shades of Shakespeare’s Shylock. All in all, Enai Lok Kato Dekha Nai was an enjoyable experience.

Meenakshi Gautam