NEVER ENDING WAIT

The hard-hitting story of the family of those citizens who have disappeared during Nepal's insurgency has been brought to stage through a new play titled Paaniphoto. Being staged at Gurukul, director and play- wright Khagendra Lamich- hane has come up with a strong directorial overture on a serious issue.It is the story of an aged couple Kushbahadur and Chhalimaya, who have been waiting for their only son Hari to come home.
Hari had disappeared from his home during the insur- gency. They have a single photograph of their beloved son, which they have kept on the door of house. This only photograph becomes a medium for them to keep his memory alive and also to express love for their son.
Tired of waiting for her brother, Hari's sister Kamala puts tika on the photograph on Tihar.
The play also has charac- ters like political leaders and media persons who try to cash in on the couple's tragedy under pretension of helping them. The only per- son who genuinely wants to help them is Radha, Hari's childhood love. Then all of sudden the photo vanishes and the parents don't even have the negative (paa- niphoto) to print another photograph.
Rajkumar Pudasaini has given an amazing perfor- mance as Kushbahadur, while Aruna Karki as Chhal- imaya has performed her part well. Radha, Hari's silent lover, performed by Pashupati Rai too is able to retain the attention of audi- ence. Prabin Khatiwada as director, Kamalmani Nepal as the cameraman, Bholaraj Sapkota as a political leader and Maniram Pokharel playing his secretary will make everyone laugh with their humorous act.
Meanwhile Sarita Giri, Rabindra Sing Baniya, Sajan Thapa Magar have done justice to their roles.
The set and dialogues give a true image of a typical village in western Nepal.
Despite being a tragic story, the director has successfully inserted the element of hu- mour between the scenes that prevents the play from being overly melodramatic and monotonous, and makes it more alive.
Lamichhane, who has earlier directed two solo performances, has tried his hands at direction with multiple characters for the first time. Sharing his expe- rience he said, "I had ac- cepted the risk of working with more than one charac- ter and Paaniphoto is the outcome of it."