Be it cats or horses, as long they are black they will always have a place in Indian superstitions. A black cat running across the road can halt even a VIP convoy guarded by black cat commandos themselves. Similarly, rings made from a black horse’s shoe can find enough buyers to get television channels to sell them on air. Kaale Ghode ki Naal ki Angoothi, a play written by K.M. Mishra and produced by Kissago, is a story of Jeetlal who has similar beliefs and tries to solve all his problems with a ring made from a black horse’s shoe.
Directed by Jay Jha, the play is hilarious. The director presented the story as a spoof of the 70s era where characters mimic popular actors. This called for over-the-top acting and cheesy dialogues and it all worked brilliantly. The entire set up was just one laughter bomb waiting to explode; and explode it did. Jeetlal, played by Sanjeev, buys alleged magical rings in bulk and gives them to his family. Be it his wife Pushpa, played by Nidhi, or his younger brother Nandu played by Afaque, nobody’s fingers are spared. One wanted diamonds and the other a girlfriend, and all they got was a ring from Jeet. Nandu believes in the ring’s powers and goes to court his love of his life Kalavati, played by Anu, but ends up getting locked up by Kalavati’s cop- father. Jeet tries his best to put the ring to use by trying to get more clients. All this confusion takes place while the actors are sporting the 70s hairstyle.
Afaque stole the show. He had a natural attitude in his acting; the attitude which reassures a road side Romeo that he is cool but at the same time is the source of amusement for any sane by-stander. The unwarranted confidence, the comedy timing and more than ridiculous dialogues, everything made audiences roar with laughter at his every move.
Credit goes to the director for adding this twist to the story. However, some of the sequences looked like they were heavily influenced by the hit television series Office Office. Even in those cases, the director took those sequences and made them his own. The splash of beyond hilarious Bhojpuri songs in the middle of the play took it to a whole new level of absurdity and laughter for the audience. There could not have been a better start to Diwali than this explosive play.
