'Tukron tukron me Aurat', 'Aks' and 'Safar' staged in Patna by 'Kala Jagaran' on 27.7.2017

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Fair sex- the inevitable tragedy to remain divided 

(A review of drama by Hemant Das 'Him')

(इस समीक्षा के हिन्दी संस्करण के लिए यहाँ क्लिक कीजिये:  http://biharidhamaka.blogspot.in/2017/08/2772017.html )

       Mamta Mehrotra is a writer who predominantly concentrates on feminist issues through with a sight of null femininity. Most of the feminist revolution fails because of ultra-bias in favour of the fair sex. Mamata Mehrotra knows well that feminist issues are not against males in general. In reality, it is against the oppressors who might be males or females. 

      Her book 'Tukron tukron me aurat' (Women divided into pieces) depicts various pictures of not only 'aurat'(woman) but also of males. Out of the three stories staged in direction of Suman Kumar were 'Tukro tukron me aurat', Aks' (Image) and 'Safar' (Journey)., only first two deals mainly about women matters. Moreover the second story 'Aks' which the script-writer has  made beautifully to carry a thread of all the three stories, was a marvelous interpretative discourse on female psychology. In this a woman is seeing her face and figure in a mirror and thinking about different matters of herself and her surroundings. She blames others of being jealous of her beauty and profile though in reality she is herself jealous of other women who possess more charm in looks when compared with this woman. There is a factious character of her alter ego (another self) who asks questions to her and presents interpretations contrary to this woman. Ultimately she has to be convince that Gita, her neighbour who has a parofessional career does not do wrong if she converses with her male counterparts in a jovial manner. Also she looks her inner flaws like why she wears such a tight clothes even in this older age and why she chose to take advantage of her beauty for wrong reasons with the help of the pimps? Was she not selling out the honesty of her husband just for the sake of misguided passion and amorousness?  Her conscience asks her whether these activities are befitting to her self-proclaimed image of a devotee wife?

       The second part of play was the signature story 'Tukro tukro me aurat'. This is a story of a poor helpless woman having two little children. Her saree (wearing apparel) gets torn and the storm carries away the only other piece of sari. So she leaves the village and goes to the nearby city in search of a saree. Very symbolically the author has presented the saga of exploitation by the morally naked people of city. Also remarkably the exploitation is carried out by all of the employer (society), policemen (Executive), politician (Legislative) and judiciary. Only God can save a naton where all the three bodies of the system are indulged in corrupt practices and that too with full authority. The insensitivity of every class of the system and community for the poor lady stirred the conscience of the viewers to the utmost level. This high-pitched piece of drama revealed much more than it showed. 

      In the third play 'Safar' (Image) a middle-aged person has returned home and finds none of his wife or child there. When he asks the people tell him that they have gone to Kolakata as now the grown-up child has got a good service there. The thing what makes this happy news a tragedy is that the traveler man knows well that his son has gone to Kolkata without even intimating to him because he hates him too much. The reason behind this hatred of son is his father stayed away  from him and his mother for years because of his employment in Orissa where getting leave was impossible. Though he sent money regularly even though his sheer absence pinched the son very much. Actually his friends and other persons there used to ridicule him with numerous kind of biting remarks. One of the remarks that were unbearable for the child was 'your father lives far away since many years and even though your mother becomes pregnant'. But drawing attention of the viewers, the author has raised another issue too which is equally important. The son who loves his mother so much and who helps her  always when she is ill or when she needs money,  does not give any importance to the feelings of his mother. He never tries to understand that her mother still loves her husband and is fully convinced of the fact that  it's just the compulsions of employment and not lack of affection that her husband stays away for such a long period. Her wishes or feeling carry no weight even in the mind of such a caring son. What to ask about others?

      Aditi Singh, Mahesh, Nitish Kumar, Basanti, Sunil Bharti, Sarsij Kumar, Gunjan Kumar, Dr. Shankar Suman, Vibha Kumari, Mithilesh Kumar, Hare Krishna Singh, Munna, Rakesh Kumar, Abhishek Kumar, Tripti Kumari, Vibha Sinha and others acted in this play. Suman Kumar was the director of the play and Arvind Kumar was the script-writer.

      Suman Kumar of Kala jagaran is a proficient and experienced director who showed his good skills. The mirror was not made of glass with a purpose that the attention of viewers may be channelised towards the alter ego, the image charcacter in the play 'Aks'. The conversion of stories into drama-sequences as done by Arvind Kumar was fine. Most of the actors other than Aditi singh a few others were not regular actors, still their performance was up to the mark. The whole presentation of three stories capsuled into one single play by Suman Kumar and actors deserves a wide applause. The stories of Mamta Mehrotra were excessively sensitive ones which negotiated very delicate issues in 'Aks' were definitely very difficult to play and the actors delivered it.

        The first day of three-day Adi-Shakti Drama Festival in the memory of Prem Nath Khanna, father of renowned writer Mamta Mehrotra was a grand success. 

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Author of this article: Hemant Das 'Him'

E-mail: hemantdas_2001@yahoo.com

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Watch the whole play on video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvzcfoK2aEs&feature=youtu.be

Note: The names of many artists were not available. Please send the names through email so that those can also be added in this review. 

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