'Mahabhoj' staged by Bihar Art Theatre on 5.7.2018 in Patna

The gala dinner on the killing of an innocent

This is not sporadic this is perennial. The nefarious nexus of police, administration, media  and those in power have been more than obvious in our post-independence era. Bisesar a genuine social worker wants to awaken villagers against the injustice meted out to them and is so murdered by the landlords. Though one murder would have hardly been a significant matter in this great country but as the village Saroha where it happened, is to become an electoral battle-field in view of imminent election it gains importance. The ground becomes a hotbed when it is declared that the two contesting candidates will be the an ex-Chief Minister and a close relative of present Chief Minister. The presentation of this news is crucial so it must not be a murder this should be suicide. 

Dutta Saheb, the owner of ‘Mashal’ press requires ads to run his press and so acts like a sort of guided activist in support of the Chief Minister and propagates concocted stories in the name of news. The act of murder of Bisu is served as a suicide case. Not only the SHO (in-charge of Police station) even the DIG is also involved in misrepresenting the death of innocent Bisu. Binda, the friend of murdered When Bisu tries to take revenge from Jorawar he himself is implicated in the charge of murder. Rukma, the wife of Binda who could not stop her husband from fight for truth gets tired by running around for making her husband free and faints. So, in the end, the stage shows a corner where an innocent person is tortured and beaten in the police custody for no faults and on other corner the Da Sahab, is frolicking with his favoured beautiful woman. Also in other concurrent scenes Jorawar is seen tuning himself to the twists of a dancer and The DIG is conducting a party on his promotion. Saxena who endeavored to support Binda is suspended and Narottam is fired from the press for he tried to bring truth to public.

The presentation seemed crawling in the beginning though gained momentum gradually as the story proceeded and in the end it was awesome.  Dhiraj Kumar as Jorawar and Umesh Kumar as Thanedar stunned the audience with their thrashing performance. Kumar Uday Singh danced engagingly and Ujjwala Ganguli acted naturally in the role of Rukma. Arun Kr Sinha and Dr. Shankar Suman, Vishal Tiwari, Anita Verma and Shivangi Anand did justice with the characters. Vishwajit Kr Singh, Ajit Gujjar, Ravi Anand, Prahalad Kr, Sandip Kr, Raj Patel, Akanksha Srivastava, Ravi Kr, Abhishek Kr, Vishnudev Vishu, Firdaus Raj, Utsav Arun, Vikrant Kr, Umesh Kr, Satyapal, Kr Satyan, Shubham Kr, Manish Kr and others acted well. The director Ranvijay Singh should be appreciated for making a successful presentation with a colossal cast of nearly fifty people on stage. Off-stage support was also flawless. And above all I must not flinch to say that the story of the original novelist Mannu Bhandari rules the roost.

It was a pleasant surprise to know that most of the actors were either present or past disciples of theatre school run by Bihar Art Theatre. The selection of the story signifies its commitment to justice in society and the protest against the Khoonti (Jharkhand) gang-rape of the theatre-artists gives a fit backdrop to it. 

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Review - Hemant Das 'Him' / Samir Parimal

Photographs - Binay Kumar

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