Director cum playwright Yumnam Rajen of ‘Panthoibi Natya Mandir, Imphal’ is perhaps one of the many person who believed in destiny of life by fate and not by efforts as it had always been depicted by the ancient Greek philosophers. At one of his play, “Taramdai Korou” (The setting Sun) he pictured human destiny as an unchangeable journey. At that play he tried to show that a born unfortunate is always unfortunate till his end. The series of events that is assigned to him will continues as unchanged, though he tried to change that with all his effort. Being experienced for more than 20 or more years in the field of theatre as artist, playwright and director, his simple presentation of arguing his ideological theory at his production “Taramdai Korou” (The Setting Sun) is strong enough to persuade the viewers. What made him different from Greek writer is that his production carried some kind of humors along with the serious story line.
In his production “Taramdai Korou” he depicted about the life of an innocent who was falsely charge for criminal activities and went underground despite being innocent. The male protagonist of his play Thoiba and the female protagonist Leipaklotpi were highly professionals enough to persuade the audiences on what the director want to convey. The story of the play is very simple; some forty years back a robbery occurred at the family owned by one Koireng Apabi of a village called Awangkhul. It was spread that the robbery was masterminded and lead by Thoiba who in reality was innocent. A complaint was lodged against him, and Thoiba had to go underground as police started looking for him at every nook and corner. Hawker by profession, Thoiba was not afraid of any consequences, however, he thought that he had to remain underground and somehow proved his innocence. For that purposed, he took shelter at one of a Hotel at Khwairam bazaar. The Hotel which name was “Popular Hotel” was one of the most popular hotels of those days and the name itself signifies. It was owned by one Khoidongsana and Leipaklotpi; an unfortunate spouse who has failed to conceive even once, though both wishes and tried many times. Both the husband and wife treated Thoiba as one of their family members. His sincerity and hard works was empathized by Leipaklotpee and started worrying about his health. Sometimes she comforts him by serving tea or talking to him even at late hours as she did not have any bad feelings towards him. Their relation was like brother and sister. Thoiba’s presence at the Hotel, and his proximity with Leipaklotpi made suspicious to Koidonsana. As the much talk about ‘illicit relationship” between his wife and Thoiba reached his ear. Koidongsana has reason to believe. His wife was eager to conceive which had failed for many times. At one unfortunate day, Koidongsana happen to encounter both his wife and Thoiba in a suspicious manner. The reality was Leipaklotpi was simply trying to help Thoiba on brotherly sense but their closeness assure Koidongsana of the talk about relationship. That was the moment Thoiba was expelled from the hotel. Since, then Thoiba remained hidden at a far away village to escape from his disastrous fate. On the other hand Leipaklotpi was also drop out by her husband on the charge of being an unfaithful wife. She had to live; however, she was not welcome to anywhere. At last while struggling for survival she started living a life of prostitution. The young and beauty was so attracted that it did not take long for the buyers to rush for her. But youthful age didn’t last long. Her beautiful body became shrunken as time passes and no sooner she was thrown as a rotten commodity.
Thoiba had stayed long at a village where nobody knows. He even stayed far from the village in solitary cantonment. His place was where travelers sometime used to shelter for a night or so. And the villagers felt respect for this old man who had an extraordinarily different character. They don’t have the gut to question about his life.
However, one day destiny had brought Leipaklei to his place in awful condition. She was so changed that people treated her as mad women, above all people tried to throw her out on the filty smell carried by her. With all short of pick up wastages she too took shelter for a night at the hut of Thoiba. After long conversation both began to know about one another. The happy moment at the wee hour cheers them for a while. However their fate is somewhat different. The sun was yet to set and a team of police came. Thoiba was identified and arrested by the team. Leipaklotpi along with the villagers waited for his return but again the setting sun symbolized that he is no longer to come back again.
The story is simple; one would certainly wonder how this could be shown at a proscenium stage. However, that too seems not a hindrance for director Yumnam Rajen. His concept of establishing a scene that would persuade others of what he thought of life was indeed worth praising. After all, both the male and female protagonist who were caste by K. Kuber Singh and G. Kalpana Devi were highly train. Just their few minutes glimpse with the audience would not let anyone escaped from their show. Other artist like H. Jyenta, Bhagirath Ningthouja, Dr. A Shyam, Sunand Yambem, Y. Mohendro, G, Bonny Sharma, Th, Chandraban, H. Gourakishwor, Bapin, Tolentompok, Gobin, Iboyaima Romen, Shilleima Chanu, Y. Shachibala Devi and Anju Devi had performed to their best level. It was there integration that had made the play a successful one. However, if we go a little deeper these artists still need a lot of homework. For example in the first scene, when the villagers came to present some gift to Thoiba something uncomfortable form of language was used. It was understood that the director wanted them to pronounce in that way so as to make sure that they are villagers. However, there is lack of authenticity. It would have been much better if they spend at Kakching or Andro or Sekmai if they did want to use such form of language.
Though the production was not bad sometime it is confused why the director cum playwright wanted to persuade others on his ideology that fate cannot be change. It would certainly discourage the youth to try hard for their future. It was very unfortunate that the well known playwright who had already wrote more than hundreds of play didn’t think of that impact. May be it might be true but sometime it is necessary for scholars to remain silence on certain matters which would not do any good for the society.
No comments:
Post a Comment