'Ghugghoo' is staged by Mithila Sanskriti aur Kala Manch on 1.12.2017 in Patna (मैथिली नाटक 'घुग्घू' का मंचन)

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Vulture culture of the hopeless society

गिद्ध संस्कृति में जीने को मजबूर लोग

(हिन्दी में कथासार अंग्रेजी टेक्स्ट के नीचे पढ़िये)

"My mother has gone to die" this is the reply of a little slum girl of 5 years when at midnight,  pestered with an unwelcome question as "where your mother has gone". She further elucidates that she has tried many times to get the answer of this from her mother but she angrily replied that she goes daily to die somewhere at midnight so that I should never have to die this way in the future". The play reaches the peak of poignancy at this answer of this little innocent girl leaving the questioners in an unfathomable shame. The plight of the slum area woman whose husband is also dying in some far away province toiling beyond his capacity for a petty income which is not enough even to protect his wife from serving her  body to others every night. The play goes deep into the issues of several forms of corruptions pervading all around the society.

A beggar woman died and there is nobody to arrange for her funeral. Four men gather, show good gestures and decide to arrange the funeral for the dead body. But it is not much longer when it is revealed that the real motive of the men are to get benefit  out of this and not to confer the dead beggar respectful last rites for which every citizen is entitled. The motive is starkly clear when the men leaves the body in isolation and try to amuse themselves with the puffs of hemp lifted from the belongings of the dead body. Not only this, they fight themselves for the money offered by public on the dead body. The sepoy is very punctual of course to register  his presence whenever it is needed and also whenever it is not. But his intention is not to protect someone rather only of getting his commission for letting the hell wrong things happen. 

The four men also pass loose remarks about the motherly woman which is resisted by the little girl who firmly proclaims that "mother is after all a mother and nobody should abuse her". The cowardice nature of citizens is also starkly clear when a person asks for their help to get justice for the body, nobody comes forward on this or that pretext.  

The climax reaches when the dead body awakes from the coma and comes to senses. The irony is that the woman beggar is seen to be more safe when she was dead as at least there was nobody to think for raping her. Once there is life in her body even a sepoy is irresistible to make sexual advances towards her with all ill intentions. And the dialogue uttered by the resuscitated woman is "don't kill me, I am a dead body". What a brilliant metaphor has been presented by the script writer. Really marvelous! Still the sepoy is adamant on getting the woman in full. She cries for help and again the biggest paradox on this earth is created by the characters of the play. Those who were claiming to intent on giving a respectful last rites to a dead body are not at all listening to cries of the same body when she comes into life and prays for saving her modesty. Surprisingly it is the innocent little girl who raises a sickle against the wrongdoer but no adult men could gather their nerves for that. This extremely unfortunate antilogy of the society leaves nothing to say further.

On a parallel track, a lunatic person was incarcerated into a room where he kept on his cry uttering each of his problems typical to a middle class family and one of the dialogues was "would I be able to marry  all of my four daughters off with my money of just 15 lakhs" and the reply was a big 'No'.

The script of Manoj Manuj ruled the play and it is no doubt one of the best scripts I have seen in recent days. The director Nitesh Kumar was best in using the space  of the floor fully and judiciously. The watchman, before asking for his share of puffs of hemp, proclaims his big sermon like statements in all the four directions making it clear that everywhere people are talking falsely about ideals. Ultimately all of their sermons boils down just to getting a little favour in a wrongful manner. 

The four actors showed good sychronisation and harmony in their gestures presenting a picturesque view to the audience. The credit for all these goes mainly to the director and then to actors. The actors were not speaking in chaste Maithili accent which is in fact a misnomer for the elite Maithili accent. This is a welcome step to get Maithili out of the narrow spheres of elite aura. Maithili as spoken by every class of society should be welcome. for it's fast development. Actors were faultless and especially the little girl (whose father told me she studies only in Std Two) won the hearts of every audience and clapping on each of her dialogues was the manifestation of applause for her. The four men, sepoy, the mad person and the dead body-cum-beggar woman performed their best piece of acting on the stage. They all were definitely impressive. The four men were Arvind Tiwari, Dhiraj Kumar, Vinay Kumar and Ajit Gujjar. The mad person was Samir Kumar and the Sepoy was Sanjiv Kumar Jha. The little girl was acted by Maithili and the dead body was lived by Tripti Kumari.

The set design with shady big tree, illuminated lamp post, a very modest hut were great. The innovative mind was applied by set designer in the room of the mad person. His room's wall facing the audience was like a spider net symbolising the net of all unsolved hundreds of problems faced by a middle class member. Set design was by Nishant Kr. Jha and set property was by Chandan Kumar. Kapil Mallick had provided good make up and costumes as per the needs of the characters. The sound effects of Nikhil Sharma worked well. Rajan Kr. Singh and Rahul Ravi were behind lights.

I am wondering how the banner of the play claims it to be an absurd play whereas I found it to be one of the most sensible play fully aligned with contemporary themes.

[कथा सार: एक भिखारन की मौत हो जाती है तो उसे जलानेवाला कोई नहीं रहता है. चार लोग उसे जलाने की व्यवस्था करने का बीड़ा उठाते हैं ताकि उसकी ससम्मान अंत्येष्टि की जा सके. परन्तु वे सभी दरअसल मुर्दे की अंत्येष्टि की बजाय अपना लाभ उठाने की ताक में रहते हैं चाहे वह नाम कमाने का हो या मुर्दे पर चढ़ाई गई राशि को लूटने का. यहाँ तक कि अर्धरात्रि गाँजा भी मुरदे के पास से लेकर खुद पीने लगते हैं. झुग्गी की लड़की को उनके द्वारा माँ के खिलाफ टिप्पणी पसंद नहीं आती है तो वह विरोध करती है. वे लोग उसके माँ के बारे में सवाल करते हैं कि वह इतनी रात गये कहाँ है? बच्ची कहती है कि वह हर रात मरने जाती है ताकि मैं पढ़-लिख सकूँ और मुझे जीते जी कभी मरना नहीं पड़े. सिपाही हर गलत काम में रोकने की बजाय सिर्फ अपना हिस्सा लेता है और धौंंस जमाता है. अंत में चौकीदार जब मुर्दा औरत का  चादर खींचने लगता है तो वह जी उठती है. तब सिपाही उसकी इज्जत लूटने लगता है. चारो लोग जो मुर्दा को ससम्मान जलाने की बात कर रहे थे उसके जी जाने पर उसके द्वारा लाख गुहार लगाने पर भी उसकी इज्जत की रक्षा करने नहीं आते हैं. लेकिन वह पांच साल की बच्ची हँसिया लेकर सिपाही को मारने दौड़्ती है.]

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Reviewer- Hemant Das 'Him'

Photographer - Hemant 'Him'

Email- hemantdas_2001@yahoo.com