Ahmednagar corporation employee presents street plays on road safety

All the 50 street plays performed by Ahmednagar-based Anant Dravid Dahigaonkar and his troupe carried some message on road safety. Addressing topics like drunken driving, importance of seat belt, helmets, headlight position, sound pollution and so on, the street plays were a part of Maharashtra State Road Safety Campaign organised across the state from January 1 to January 15.

During this fortnight, 50 plays were performed in places like Pune, Aurangabad, Osmanabad, Parbhani, Kolhapur, Karad, Sangli, Ahmednagar and so on. Three out of 50 plays were performed in Pune.

Dahigaonkar, a class IV worker at the Ahmednagar Municipal Corporation, and his group of artistes, who were felicitated in Pune by the Highway Police, incorporated traditional folk art forms of Maharashtra like lavani and gondhal in the street plays to reach out to the audience. "It is very creditable how these people incorporate familiar art forms in their plays to spread a strong message of road safety. Since they used familiar methods and techniques, they were able to strike a chord with the audience," said Dilip Bhujbal, Superintendent of Police, Highway Traffic.

Describing the themes of the play, Dahigaonkar said, "Lyrics and dialogues used in the plays are very simple and yet aim to spread the message strongly. For instance, the lines —Karabhari zara damana, vahana chalva niyamana — is a dialogue by a woman who sits on a bike with a man. She tells him 'When I am sitting with you on a bike, you don't have to break rules and drive fast just to impress me'."

While the duration of all the plays was 30 minutes, on some occasions on public demand, the group presented it for an hour also. The performing artistes included visually-challenged Dadu Salve, Shreekant Sasane, a worker from Water Supply Department in Ahmednagar, Pune-based Kalyani Yogesh Deshpande, among other.

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