NSD fest starts with plays on love, power

The annual NSD festival Bharat Rang Mahotsav began with two plays: one, a translation of Girish Karnad’s Agni Varsha in Kannada, translated by late professor Bhrgavi Rao in Telegu as Agni Varsham. The Telugu version was presented by Nishumbita Group at LTG Auditorium, directed by Dr Rammohan Holagundi. The play is a fictionalised version of the story of Aravasu, Paravasu, Yavakri, Vishakha and Nitilai from the Mahabharat. The play stresses on the social issues of casteism and that a dedicated art performance is equal to the yagna done by Brahmins to please the gods.

Aravasu and Paravasu are brothers and sons of sage Rabhya. Paravasu goes to the jungle to perform a yagna to appease the gods and bring rain to the drought-ridden lands. He forsakes his wife, Vishakha, who stays back and is the victim of Rabhya’s anger and lust. . Agony makes her the most vulnerable character in the play.

Rabhya is jealous of Paravasu who is being asked to conduct the yagna as a high priest by the king. Aravasu on the other hand is a simpleton. He is in love with Nitilai, a tribal girl.

Meanwhile Paravasu’s rival Yavakri, who was once demeaned by Rabhya and Paravasu returns from the jungle after a penance of ten years and being bestowed by Lord Indra with Vedic knowledge.

Yavakri and Vishakha were in love once and she still loves him, which is obvious when she encounters Yavakri after his return. They make love and he vows to kill Paravasu and Rabhya (but is later himself killed by a Brahmarakshasa unleashed upon him). Meanwhile, Paravasu returns to his house for a while to take a break from the yagna and ends up killing his father Rabhya by mistake, a crime for which he implicates Aravasu. Aravasu is then banned from being a Brahmin for Pitra hatya. As a result, he is unable to reach Nitilai’s place where her father with other tribal people is waiting to give consent to Aravasu to marry Nitilai. She is then married to another person but she runs away and decides to take care of the mentally disturbed Aravasu.

The yagna begins and so does the performance by the players who have employed Aravasu in the cast. Paravasu dies in the flames of the yagna because of his repression for being unfit for Indra’s benediction. At the peak of the play, being presented at the yagna, Nitilai is killed by her husband and left there. Aravasu mourns her death and then Indra, pleased with his performance, grants him any boon that he wishes. Aravasu asks for Nitilai to come back to life again.

In the meantime the Brahmarakshasa, the spirit that had been summoned by his father Rabhya to kill Yavakri, asks for moksha from Aravasu who is torn between himself and the good deed he can do. He sets the Brahmarakshasa free and sacrifices Nitilai. Pleased with his unselfishness and mercifulness, Indra grants him the moksha and as well as rain for the villagers. The end of the play gives a moral lesson on the success of dedicated, selfless artists against the selfish priest. It shows how the lower caste is closer to god than the upper caste.

The play was done in a realistic style with all its attendant music in the background and authentic costumes and actors playing in a melodramatic mode most of the time. The play holds because of the story, which is full of twists and turns. The group, Nishumbita has been in existence since 1995 and it has 80 members, made up of amateurs as well as professional artists. The group has staged children’s plays, ballets, Indian and Western plays at national and international festivals. Nishumbita has been using theatre as an attempt to fight for communal harmony and national integration, education and safety of the girl child, against child labour, nutrition and AIDS.

The next play at the Kamani Auditorium, was Antigone by Sophocles (c. 496 – c. 406 BCE). The play is translated into Bengali by Sisir Kumar Das (1936-2003), a poet, playwright and translator. Many of his tranlsations were performed by the famous theatre group, Bahuroopi. Kaushik Sen is the director of Antigone. Sen, a popular television film actor, started his own theatre group, Swapna Sandhani in 1992. He believes that man’s hunger for power will bring darkness even before sunset, which will be darker than any night. The lust for power marks Antigone. The play is about Anitigone and her two brothers, Etoecles and Polynices. While Etoecles is given a proper burial, Creon who inherited the throne issues a royal edict, banning the burial of Polynices who he believes to be a traitor. Antigone, who defies the law and buries her brother is caught and put into prison where she kills herself.

Not realising that Antigone has taken her own life, the blind prophet Teiresias, Cresons and Antigone’s fiance Heamon plead with Creon to release her. However, they find her dead inside the jail. Out of despair, Haemon and Creon’s wife kill themselves while Creon is left all alone in distress and sorrow.

This play was done with a lot of imagination with mummies wrapped in cloth and tape signifying dead bodies hanging above from the point in a linear structure and dead bodies below also. The citizens of the Thebes bring the dead bodies in a pile in front of the structure. These bodies are piled in front of the linear structure, then later lifted and wrapped in tulle net and then presented to Creon by a peace-loving force. It is under this pile that Creon finally is buried.

The anti-chorus led by four intellectuals wearing masks, are with Creon till just before the end when the villagers form a chorus of the peace-loving force and pile the dead bodies on Creonm who struggles to get out.

A defined Antigone fights and argues with Creon through the play but he is unmoved and logically answers her arguments from his point of view as the ruler of Thebes. Reshmi Sen as Antigone was very efficient and vocal in her speech. Creon played by the director, Kaushik Sen, maintained a flat tone throughout to counter Antigone’s loud voice. The young boy, played by Ridhi Sen was the eyes of Teiresias the blind prophet and he sang his words in a loud and clear voice, warning Creon of the ill results of his actions. The action was visually very powerful and the images very moving. The play was impressively conceived and directed by Kaushik Sen.