Lalit Gupta
The latest edition of Annual Jammu District Drama Festival, a 14-day bonanza (7th-20th December, 2015) staged in the refurbished Abhinav Theatre, was an undoubtedly a delightful affair. Marked by enthusiastic participation of more than 500 stage actors, directors, scripts writers, music composers, singers, light, sound, set and costume designers, make-up artists and backstage personals, the annual drama festival 2015, witnessed by almost full house audiences, can be labeled as an important event in winter capital’s cultural calendar.
Amongst all art forms, theatre, by its unique character of challenging current values and ways of thinking, has been proven to be an effective medium for social commentary. Along with age old folk theater forms like Haran, Bhand Pather and Parsi style Ramleela performance tradition, a modern theatre practice has also evolved on national lines in the state. Today, Jammu, where theatre as compared to other performing arts enjoys more visibility, is happily reckoned as one of important regional centers in the country.
All thanks to J&K Cultural Academy which under its mandate has laid a strong foundation of modern theatre practice in Jammu and Kashmir through holding theatre workshops, repertoires and above all district drama festivals since mid 1960s—which in glaring absence of any pedagogical initiatives by State Universities for Performing Arts—have emerged as a focus for amateur activity.
Erroneously labeled as district drama festivals these are in fact annual competitions in which local theatre groups not only showcase the state of contemporary theatre practice but also vie with each other for awards in different categories.
Other than some well designed productions supported by brilliant performances by actors, one of the highlights of annual drama festival 2015 was that along with adaptations/translations of well known modern Indian as well as Greek writers, a record number of original scripts by local playwrights were also staged.
With the result in conjunction to plays like Shanker Sesh’s Fandi, Mahesh Elkunchwar’s Pratibimbh, Yogesh Tripathi’s Keshavleela Ramrangeela, the scripts by local playwrights which were performed. These included three plays in Dogri: Mohan Singh’s Dana Socho Te Sehi, Kumar A Bharti’s Blood & Beauty (based on folk tale of Kunju Chainchalo), and Dr Sudhir Mahajan’s translation of Sophocle’s Antigone.
The five plays in Hindi/Hindustani by local writers were Vikram Sharma’s Hadsa & Haqiqat and Paishach Yatra, Rajneesh Kumar Gupta’s The Thar Express, Shashi Bhushan and Pankaj Shah’s Mein Zinda Hoon, Rakesh Roshan Bhat’s Ek Aur Birbal, and Padma Sachdev’s Kala Suraj-a translation of Mohan Singh’s original Dogri play. The lone entry in Kashmiri was Makhan Lal Saraf’s ‘Ram’ while one in Punjabi, Pagal Lok was by non-local Kapoor Singh Ghumman.
The range of subjects which merited the creative indulgence by local writers included man-woman conflict in search of their real identity as well as the illegal relations of so called civilized persons (Hadsa Haqiqat), socio-political questions about people in terrible condition of their surroundings (Kala Suraj), true love held hostage by man-made divisions of religion and countries (The Thar Express), conflict of values between old and new generations (Dana Socho Te Sehi), revisiting folk love tale of Kunju Chainchalo (Blood & Beauty), enumerating of degeneration of values by listing social maladies and contentious issues plaguing the contemporary India (Mein Zinda Hoon), highlighting life and sacrifice of Pandit Birbal Dhar of Kashmir to resurrect him as a hero and role model for younger generations (Ek Aur Birbal), raising questions about male dominated conventions while giving expression to inner yearnings and psychological reflections of female gender who given opportunity can open up new frontiers in life (Pishach Yatra), critique of social ills (Pagal Lok).
Makhan Lal Saraf’s ‘Ram’ in Kashmiri was a bold take to present a counterpoint to the accepted narrative of Ramayana, especially through the characters like Sumatra, Kekayi and Kaushalya.
The festival also saw young directors like young directors like Abhishek Bharti, Ifra Kak, Ravinder Sharma, Sourav Sharma, Rohit Bhat, Aditya Bhanu competing with well known senior theatre directors like Makhan Lal Saraf, Mushtaq Kak, Vikram Sharma, T. S Premi, Umesh Singh, Shashi Bhushan, Javed Gill and Rajneesh Kumar Gupta.
Through eclectic application of varied dramatic techniques and treatments, the participating teams of actors, directors and technical experts succeeded in creating umpteen specific moments in which the connection between the actor, the performance, the play, and the audience became a living breathing experience. The audiences were taken on a journey that was not film, TV, etc, but the living growing life of the theatre.
The very fact that, despite the unfortunate past decades of militancy in the state, the art of theatre continues to thrive as a healthy creative expression for youth to actively engage with social-cultural and political realities of our times, calls for a reshaping of official cultural policy to make arts as integral to education system and make provisions for training and appointing requisite human resource in schools, colleges all over the State along with suitable infrastructure.
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