Raag Darbari is a play directed by Amitesh Grover. The story is written by Shri Lal Shukla. It has a set up in the eastern U.P of the late 1950s. It depicts the period when the nation had become newly independent.
Raag Darbari brings you to foresee the gap that existed between the grand Nehruvian vision of a developing India and miserable,'Cheekat' India of the villages. The three institutions, cooperative union, gaaon panchayat and educational body were fundamental to the development of rural India. They were gradually in the shambles, at the hands of Vaidyaji, the local leader in the guise of an ayurvedic doctor. It is from his darbar that dissonant raag arises, which sneeringly echoes the failure of all bids to overthrow institutionalized corruption.
The narrator is Rangana, the urban, educated, female figure, who visits the village of Shivpalganj after recovering from her illness. What ensues her is the growing disillusionment with the rural world that she had once believed. She believed it to be a model of peace, health and simplicity. The play ends in Rangana's mounting desire to escape from Shivpalganj. It suggests a powerful comment on how education, ironically, places the educated elite at the greatest distance from issues of national import.