Rangchor: Story of a visually impaired girl who makes a demon like colours 

Credit: Gillo Repertory Theatre 

Rangchor (Colour Thief), a children’s play, celebrated friendship and demonstrated how a visually impaired girl made a demon like and appreciate colours.

Gillo Repertory Theatre presented the play, Rangchor, Ek Rakshas Ki Anokhi Kahani (The Colour Thief, an unusual tale of a demon) at the Prithvi Theatre on May 12.

The story is set in a fairytale-like place where a monster lived in a cave and hated colours. So, one day she snatched away the colours from everything in the world.

Everyone would get scared of the demon, but a little visually impaired girl helped her see the world in a new light.

She described the colours to the demon and said, “ Jab hawa jungle se baat karti hai toh woh hota hai hara rang; Jab paani dhaudta hai toh woh hota hai neela rang; laal— jaisey bhoopu; aur gulabi, gulab ki mehek jaisa” (Green colour is like the wind talking to the forest, blue colour is like the water gushing, red is like a siren and pink is like the fragrance of a rose).

The girl told the demon, “Colours are very good and make everyone very happy” which made the latter return the colours back to nature. The 50-minute play, through its refreshing story, spreads positivity.

The play is a Hindi adaptation of a story book, The Colour Thief by Stephen Aitken and Sylvia Sikundar and the illustration is by Sandhya Prabhat. The book is published by Tulika Publishers. The adaptation is done by Preeti Aher and the lyrics of the three songs are written by Brijesh.

Talking about the play, director Shaili Sathyu said, “Last year, the team had adapted Rangchor in Marathi. The script was slightly different from the one performed at Prithvi, but it got a great response. We added songs and made it longer. With plays like these, we want to arouse curiosity in the minds of children and make them ask questions.”