Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 4: In reiteration to its mandate in providing interactive platform to contemporary creative individuals in different field of literature, the inaugural assembly of ‘Baithak’, Jammu’s recently formed ‘Forum of Literary Arts’ was marked with recitation of latest play by Dr Atamjit Singh, Punjab’s noted Dramatist and Theatre-Director, at K L Saigal Hall, here today.
Today’s ‘Biathak’, organized under the patronage of Pandit Vidya Rattan, Jammu’s leading Urdu poet, in collaboration with Doordarshan Kendra, Jammu, was like a gush of fresh air for winter capital’s leading writers, poets, playwrights, theatre directors, actors and littérateurs, who listened with rapt attention to one and half hour recitation of play ‘Eah Mahabharat Da Yug Nahin’ by Sahitya Akademi and Sangeet Akademi awardee Dr Atamjit Singh.
The play set in present times, emerged as an scathing comment on age-old sexual exploitation of female gender as well as a clarion call for daughters and sisters to break free from the socio-political and historic moulds. Instead of silently suffering from physical and mental agony and feeling helpless, they should boldly confront the perpetrators of heinous crime like that of rape.
Structured in number of scenes that open with a chorus, the play, uses a pair of dogs-the so called lower life form, who while living in the house of Nina, the protagonist, through their conversation on the happenings-provides a counterpoint that how humans are worst than animals especially when it comes to their predatory sexual behaivour. With allusions to different prominent female characters from Hindu mythology, who took their sexual exploitation as fait accompali, the play ends with the message that the present generation should not only break shackles of old values but confront the exploiters fearlessly.
Earlier Liaqat Jafari, well known young Urdu poet, welcomed the audience, while Deepak Kumar, eminent theatre personality, threw light on the scope of Baithak. Gasha Kapoor, read the vote of thanks on behalf of Pandit Vidya Rattan Aasi.
Prominent among the audience were Prof Nilamber Dev Sharma, Khalid Hussain, Balwant Thakur, Prof Rita Jatinder, Anjali Sharma, Director Doordarshan, Arvinder Aman, Additional Secretary, Cultural Academy, A V Gupta, Senior Advocate, Vijaya Thakur, Aruna Sharma, Swami Antarneerav and M K Santoshi.