Paanch Rupaiya Baarah Aana is being staged as part of Natya Kumbh. A travelling festival that celebrates drama and the dramatist by staging the works of the playwright, Mrinal Mathur, performed by some of the prominent directors and theatre groups of India. A total of eight plays will be on view between the 4th ,10th and 11th of June, at LTG Auditorium, Delhi.
In Paanch Rupaiya Baarah Aana, the audience accompanies a TV reporter into the midst of a farmers’ dharna to try and figure out why farmers make five rupees on a kilogram of tomatoes that sell for thirty rupees. A satire follows on how middlemen, local leaders, experts and feudal lords make merry. On farmers’ ignorance, and their insouciance. This is a street play in a proscenium that has been devised by the actors themselves. Gurleen Kaur, Akhilesh Patel and others, who have been performing for more than five years now.