Mithila Sanskriti & kala Manch presented "Jhijhir Kona" on 25.9.2018 in Patna

The muggers between benefits and poor

"Jhijhir Kona" is a maze or better call it a mirage. This mirage is a the expectation of a poor man's right for a workable household under a government scheme. The story never attacks the government for the scheme rather it digs heavily at the implementation aspect of the scheme at its very grassroots level.

The village headman Mukhiya and his helper Ramkhelawan are standing as a barrier between the government welfare schemes and the legitimately eligible needy persons. For "Pradhanmantri Awas Yojna" they ask a bribe of Five thousand rupees from Gopiya. Gopiya, a pauper rejects to pay the bribe. Manoj from a comparatively good family and a social activist assures Gopiya to make it possible without bribe. He is educated and know to deal the artful persons like Mukhiya. He takes the signature of all illegally deprived people makes a written complain to the District Collector about the misdeed of Mukhiya.

Mukhiya comes to know about the step taken against him by Manojaba. He calls the Police Sub-inspector i.e. Daroga and greases his palm sumptuously. Now the Daroga is in a fit of favour for Mukhiya regardless of what is right or wrong. Manojaba is called here and is firstly requested very courteously by Mukhiya to get his complain application back from the District Collector. When Manojaba is not ready he is threatened by the Daroga that he would be implicated falsely in a dacoity case and would be put behind the bars. But Manojaba is not a greenhorn. He knows the rules of the game very well. He remains unbowed even more he reviles the Police officer mentioning that his name has already been given to  the SP office for collusion with Mukhiya and possible misdeed by him. The Daroga is now silent.

But the story is not meant for a Utopian fairy tale and the reality of our country is always more gruesome than one can save against. The Daroga says that yes he can't take action  against an educationally and economically sound person like Manojaba but he can definitely against a really really wretched and helpless person like Gopiya. After some days he goes with a written arrest warrant of Gopiya with a false charge of dacoity. Sunari cries that her husband is innocent but nobody can save her this time not even Manojaba because the Police officer is acting lawfully under his duty. Gopiya goes to jail and Mukhiya finds the opportunity to intrude into Gopiya's house and rape his  beautiful wife Sunari for whom he has been longing since long.

The  play says however alert you are, however you equip yourself with knowledge and experiences you can't save the life and dignity of a poor man in a depraved system. The statement of Mukhiya and Daroga seems to be more correct that they are not corrupt as much for themselves as to cater to the demands of the authorities at higher echelons. And surely an attempt to rein  in the lowermost corrupt people are destined to be failed thanks to the support of upper hierarchy thereon.

 Except Mukhiya and Ramkhelawan all other actors seemed to be very guided ones They need to feel more free like Mukhiya and Ramkhelawan who showed perfectly that acting goes far beyond mere dialogue delivery. Adarsh Vaibhav (Gopiya) and Saloni Mallick (Sunari) presented emotional acting as was required from them. Their mutual chemistry went well especially in persiflage dialogues and yet could be more witty. The typical Mithila style of talking in which a wife calls her husbby in third person amused the audience. Ajit Gujjar (Manoj) and Ugresh Thakur (Daroga) did justice with the characters. Dr. Shankar Suman (Mukhiya) and Ranjan Thakur (Ram Khelawan) played impressively though the Maithili tongue of Ram Khelawan was more chaste. Matsi Saran (Rajewali), Devakant Tandon ( Dukhiya) and Mrigank Kumar (villager) acted well. An actor playing the role of a dumb really stunned the whole auditorium with his wordless screams while Sunari was being raped inside the house. Actually he was presenting the live braodcast of Sunari's feelings at the worst time of a woman's life. The dancer made a happy start of the show.

Rabindra Babu Raju (make-up & costumes), Udit Kumar (Sound and musuc), Suman Saurabh (lights), Stage set-up- Prabodh Vishwkarma, Amlesh Anand & Gopal  were the artists behind the screen whom valuable jobs were truly aligned with the requirements of the play.

The script of Arvind Akku does not aim to present a story in this instance rather he likes to show a random single case of the implementation of government's welfare scheme. Very carefully he raises a character of Manoj who takes all necessary cares to take a face-off with corrupt Mukhiya and Police officer that seems to be working to the relief of the viewers. But all this is nothing more than a mirage and ultimately what is feared happens without any hindrance. The irony is that the SP office also looks to be seeing only the complaint application and the atrocities of police officer beyond that seems to be beyond the sphere of their duty.  And in the end while all the people say to Sunari "mari jo, mari jo" (kill yousrself, kill yourself) as the society will not let you live, her assertion to live for the right of her unborn child emerges very strongly like a miracle. Akku worths wholehearted acclamation for this symbolic script to let the people see through the acual state of matters.

The director was Nitesh Kumar. His talent is undoubtedly proven in getting the show move with good pace and taking good acting out from all the actors. The intermittent through prolonged assertion of Sunari that she has to live and not to die was a new improvisation by him that we susually don't see anywhere else. His experiment boomed at the climax.  He may also do well to give little bit more freedom to the actors on the stage. 

This drama festival must feel pride of this highly meaningful show.

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Review by - Hemant Das 'Him'
Photographs by - Binay Kumar & MSKM
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