NewZNew (Chandigarh – Kulbir Singh Kalsi) : Sandhya Chhaya is a story about an old couple, an aged couple who spent their lives in the upbringing of their children and they are the ones who live alone and long for the love, affection and togetherness of their children. It is a story about a man and woman fondly called Nana, Nani respectively and it deals with the emotional turmoil the parents have to go through. In spite of having being deprived of love from their children, they still have the courage to fight the melancholy and pathos of their lives.
They support and love each other and as the play unfolds, the audience also falls in love with them. Older people who are not so useful in today’s materialistic age bear the brunt of the changing values. They get lonelier and lonelier. This play is entertaining and simultaneously it tells us about old age and Loneliness. It is a great play, which can be very easily called a classic of Modern times. They have two sons, Deenu (the elder one) and Nandu (the younger one). Deenu is settled in USA and Nandi is in the Air Force. Deenu very rarely comes to meet his parents.
He just sends money at regular intervals, meanwhile as the play progresses, they get to know that Nandu has been killed in the war. The whole play revolves on the nuclear families’ concept where in the parents are left alone and their children are settled somewhere else. The whole play is poignant collective mixture of emotions portrayed by an old couple, be it happiness, loneliness, love for kids, their childhood etc. On the whole, the play stresses on the fact and asks the society a very straightforward question that parents who have been there for us the whole life, do they deserve such a lonely old age? Do they really? The concept of the fast emergence of nuclear families and the way the parents are forced to live alone is clearly highlighted in this gripping play.