Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, May 23: The last day of the week long Tagore theatre festival at Radio Kashmir Auditorium in Srinagar saw the Kashmiri adaptation of Tagore’s famous short story ‘Live or Dead’ being staged at the venue.
Directed by Ayash Arif the story traces the last two days of a vexed Hindu widow, who has been unceremoniously cremated by her in-laws, but wakes up, gagged, bound and soot-covered. Undecided about whether she’s passed on or not, she meanders through a cavalcade of emotions – from fear at being dead, to joy at being ’empowered’ as a ghost, to depression about never seeing her beloved nephew anymore, through the dawning realisation that she really is alive and finally driven to distraction to prove that she isn’t dead.
Adapted from Rabindranath Tagore’s short story Jeebito o Mrito – Live or Dead and written by Dr Sohan Lal Koul, the play is a soliloquy given by the lead character as she grapples with liberation in a post-death state and the value of her life on this planet. Ace performance by the artists of Kalidas Theatre made ‘Marnue Chu Behtar’ a must watch play.
Organised by J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, the last day of the play festival saw deputy chairman, legislative council, Mohammed Yusuf Taing as the chief guest.
Airing his remarks on the occasion Taing said that Tagore was a towering personality and staging of his plays would allow people to understand him in a better manner both as a person and as a playwright.
Earlier in his welcome remarks, writer Dr Sohan Lal Koul said that the play is about the worth of ‘lesser’ lives as society deems. ‘It is really easy to ‘invisibilise’ people and that is what we’ve tried to portray’, Lal said.
The proceedings of the festival were conducted by chief editor, Urdu, Mohammed Ashraf Tak.
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