Jail inmates to stage English play

The inmates of city correctional homes would stage an English play, one of the first such initiative in the country.
'Begum Samroo', written by playwright Partap Sharma, is being directed by Rohit Pombra, the Director of Stagecraft, one of Kolkata's prominent English language theatre groups.
Pombra, who has been training 25 inmates in the craft of speech and drama, said last evening four inmates from the Alipore Women's Correctional Home, one from Presidency Correctional Home and 21 from Alipore Central Correctional Home had been undergoing rehearsal and the play deals with the life and times of Begum Sumroo.
Sumroo was the wife of Walter Rhinehardt Sombre, a Swiss German mercenary during the 18th century, when Shah Alam was the Mughal emperor and Mir Jafar and Robert Clive were contemporaries.

IG, Correctional services, Bengal, Ranvir Kumar, said, "It will be the first ever English play in India to be staged by the inmates of a correctional home."
"The way they have picked up English pronunciation is commendable," he said.
Begum Sumroo was one of India's little known historical personalities looked with awe and respect by her contemporaries.