Socio-political satires by youth
By J.P. Garg

A FESTIVAL of 13 plays is rare. Such an opportunity was provided recently by Sambhang — a Chandigarh-based society of performing arts — at Natyotsav-2000. This drama competition is held every year in memory of Prabhat Gupta, a theatre artiste and director, who was snatched away by the cruel hands of destiny on August 5, 1987, while saving a child. The first festival was held in 1989 and since then there has been no looking back.

This fiesta featured plays staged by schools and colleges of Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula. Most productions mirrored the socio-political decadence that has set in the very fabric of Indian society.

“Andher Nagri Chaupat Raja”, as the name itself reveals, is a comic satire. Staged by D.A.V. Public School, Sector 8, it depicts the misrule of an idiotic king in whose kingdom everything is topsy-turvy. It is not difficult to draw parallels with some of our modern-day rulers and their antics.

“Samaj”, presented by both Harkishan Public School and Government College, Mohali, though rhetorical and didactic in dialogues and essence, draws attention to the prevalent Indian mindset which engenders gender discrimination in our homes, bride-burning and exploitation of women in many other ways. The playwright finally foresees emancipation and empowerment of women to usher in a new social dispensation.

Futility of a rotten education system, favouritism and nepotism in employment, youth disgust and violence and the vicious circle of social evils from which even the most daring cannot escape — forms the central idea of “Chakkarvayuh”, skilfully presented by S.G.G.S. College.

DAV English Medium School, Sector 8, Panchkula, employed chorus technique in their presentation “Ved Se Ved Ki Or”. It focuses on religious hypocrisy, fanaticism and Hindu-Muslim-Sikh-Christian divide in our society. The salvation lies in following the teachings of great souls like Swami Dayanand who preached return to the pristine and glorious values of the Vedas and the ancient Vedic culture.

“Pinjar”, enacted by Government College for Girls, Sector 42, seeks to bring to light the travails of a young girl who is kidnapped, one day before her marriage, by a youth of a rival community and forced to enter into wedlock with him during the communally charged days of Partition. Shuttling between her twin roles of a Hindu girl Puro and a Muslim bride Hamida, she is excommunicated both by her Hindu parents and the Muslim community of her in-laws.

St Stephen’s School’s presentation “Antim Samadhan”, which was adjudged the best in schools category, also portrays our degrading scenario of poverty, misery, rampant corruption, hunger for wealth and power etc. Set in a lunatic asylum, its inmates express their emotions and ideas on burning issues and appeal for restructuring the society on the basis of Gandhian principles. There is indeed a method in their madness.

Human emotions are all alike; territories and geographical boundaries are only superficial; soldiers kill each other as a matter of duty rather than conviction; basic aspiration of the whole of mankind is to live in peace. This theme was conveyed in a convincing manner in “Mitti ka Bawa” staged by S.D. College.

The play that won the Natyotsav Trophy and outclassed others in terms of its enactment, thematic and other production values was staged by DAV College. “Maharakshash ka Shishay” is the story of a righteous king displaced by a scheming priest who dethrones the king to live out his evil plans. The quest of the son of the slaughtered king leads him to the magic world of Maharakshash, who equips the young prince to fight against the injustice of the self-proclaimed king. The lawful heir returns and punishes the evil-doer. Thus, the play portrays the eternal theme of the forces of good ultimately winning over those of evil.

Some other plays in the festival also focused on the maladies afflicting our society.

Coming as these plays are from the students of schools and colleges, they reflect the heightened consciousness and awareness of the Indian youth about the burning socio-cultural problems of our society. Implicitly, these plays show the impatience, anger and disgust of the younger generation towards the powers that-be which sustain and perpetuate an unjust social system. The message is loud and clear: our leaders must take note of this angst and sincerely endeavour to set things right before the bubble bursts.

Dr D.S. Gupt and his associates deserve credit for organising a drama festival of this scale year after year.

Khajuraho tourist graph ‘satisfactory’
By Vanita Srivastava

WEATHERING the non-salubrious tourist climate enveloping the country last year, the Khajuraho millennium has reaped returns by charting a “modest” rise in tourist graph.

Despite complexities of the general elections, the Kargil war and the Kandahar hijacking episode, the overall tourist trajectory to Khajuraho showed a “satisfactory” growth.

The one-year millennium festivities, which started with much hype and gusto in March, 1999, was given a further extension of nine months. The celebrations were to end on December 10.

While the foreign tourist inflow proliferated by 10 to 15 per cent, that of domestic tourism saw a roughly 20 per cent leap during the period, state Tourism Development Corporation Managing Director D.K. Samant Ray told UNI.

The graph had, however, not been exactly linear in the upward direction with several months registering a plummet in the figures. The numbers nosedived more in the lean seasons of April, May and June.

The sharp decline of domestic tourists in September, 1999, was attributed to the general elections. The inflow of foreign tourists had, however, increased. The hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane led to the decline in the months of December, 1999, and January, 2000.

“The millennium celebrations have been able to sustain the tourist ambience despite several impediments”.

Admitting that Khajuraho was not yet considered a major tourist destination for the domestic visitors, he said the millennium celebrations had helped the city bolster its image in the international arena.

Foreigners who visited the heritage comprised Europeans, Japanese and Americans, he said adding that the Europeans formed a major chunk because of their orientation towards different cultural festivals.

Besides boosting the tourist inflow, the millennium celebrations had helped in re-building an organisational structure to attract more tourists in years to come, Mr Ray noted.

Highlighting key features during the celebrations, he said a sound and light show had become a permanent feature. A tribal museum was set up which showcased different aspects of tribal lifestyles.

“These two have added a new momentum to the tourist environment”, he said.

The three-day Khajuraho music festival from October 29 last year with a galaxy of renowned artistes like Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Ustad Wassifuddin Dagar and Pandit Ram Narayan transformed the temples into a miasma of music and offered an opportunity to explore local talents as well.

The Khajuraho dance festival in February and March this year drew the best classical dancers in the country who performed against the spectacular backdrop of floodlit temples.

Other illustrious features of the celebrations included Millennium Mela, Midnight Hour, Christmas Eve dinner ball, Christmas lunch at Ajaygarh Fort and New Year’s traditional lunch and dinner.

The Madhya Pradesh Government had declared the period from March, 1999, to December, 2000, the Khajuraho Millennium Year to preserve the glorious heritage of this world famous temple town as it stepped into a new millennium. — UNI

Audioscan by ASC
Unforgettable Jagjit Singh

UNFORGETTABLE (Sony): Jagjit Singh came to the ghazal scene with ‘‘The Unforgettables’’ in 1976. Some 40 albums later, he is the uncrowned king of the Indian ghazal kingdom. The cassette under review has an almost similar title, but shows the strides he has made in these past 24 years.

It is a compilation of some of his finest ghazals. Among them are Haath chhoote bhi to …, Ek parvaz dikhai … and Shaam se aankh mein namee si hai … from ‘‘Marasim’’, which brought him and Gulzar together for the very first time.

Then there are also Kaise kaise haadse … (Wajida Tabassum), La pila de sharaab… and Badi haseen raat thi … (Sudarshan Fakir) and Aaj phir unka saamna … (Saba Sikari). All these sound all the greater during this revisit because their tunes are well grooved in one’s mind by now.

The recording quality is excellent. Sony has also featured Lata Mangeshkar and Gulzar in its Unforgettable series earlier.

HAI MERA DIL (Magna-sound): At a time when even established artistes only recycle their film-reject songs while bringing out private albums, Saapna has done well to steer clear of the Bollywood influence in this pop album. What makes this separation all the more creditable is the fact that the lyrics are by hardcore film lyricists like Sameer and Dev Kohli while music has been set by Rajesh Roshan and L.L. Raj (Leslie Lewis).

Most of these are mood songs presented in a slow sensuous style. Saapna has a promising voice despite some beginner’s hiccups here and there. She should groom into an excellent singer.

Somehow, she is not that convincing in fast-beat songs like Beliyon dholki bajaa….

PYAR KAR LE (Tips): So many decades on the music scene of Punjab and yet, Gurdas Maan refuses to get stale. Perhaps it is because of his strong folk base that he manages to win over the votaries of convention as well as change.

The lyrics he writes are also close to real-life situations. Take for instance Pyare bapuji …. It is such an endearing commentary on the changing norms in today’s society.

In this album Gurdas has included at least three slow-beat songs also. All of these are ‘‘hidden’’ on the B side. Incidentally, one of them is in Hindi, Gham kahan tak …, which has been penned by Sai Ghulam of Nakodar. The rest, as usual, have been written by Gurdas himself.

Music this time is by Anand Raaj Anand. The injection of a bit of filmi touch is unavoidable.

Sight & Sound
by Amita Malik
Out of the mouths of babes

BY and large, children are given a very rough deal on those TV channels which do not specialise, like National Geographic. They are reduced to adult fare of the more filmi kind, which is why they do films songs and dances in music competitions modelled on these for adults. When they are chatted up by the likes of Anupam Kher, they have their legs pulled by being asked loaded questions like whom do you love more, mummy or papa, or do you have a girl friend? Then there are generation gap programmes when they flay mummy and papa with teacherji looking on and the anchor egging them on and one wonders what happens when they go home. As for holidays, the terrible chhutti, chhutti programmes, all ha-ha-ha and hee-hee-hee are hopefully ignored by children fleeing out of doors, except the poor ones who spend their holidays in the hot summer of the plains.

So I suppose one can thank UNICEF for reserving one day last week as Child Broadcasters’ Day and different channels tackled it in mostly predictable ways. DD lined up a battery of ministers of whom children asked very complicated, obviously planted and rehearsed, questions on the state of the nation — and occasionally on the state of the nation’s children. Lucky they had not read the UNICEF Report which rated Indian children below those of Bangladesh as regards health and other problems. Anyway, trust Star to have three programmes with children. First The Big Fight, with a hapless education Ministry official who seemed to have trouble pronouncing the very word education, which he called “Educay-sun”, then the Principal of Rishi Valley School, who was all hearty and accommodating and a very angry woman, parent-cum-critic. It is only in this discussion that I found original questions, very good arguments and a lot of debating skill from the children, mostly teenagers and, if I may say so, well educated. It was a feisty discussion and showed how alert modern children are about their problems. Then we had Amitabh Bachchan, in a question-answer session chaired by two school children, reasonably relaxed. The questions were predictable as were the answers, but the children were confident, Bachchan was a little formal but not patronising and it was a pleasant programme. Then came Rajat Sharma with an audience of children asking questions — very grown-up questions, of Arun Jaitly which he answered with his usual elan. However, the best part of the programme came when two street children, who had been victims of police high-handedness narrated their experiences and brought some much-needed reality into the day’s array of programmes.

However, if you were to ask me who came off best from among the adults, it was easily the Prime Minister after a long line-up of ministers who preceded him, answering grown-up, planted and rehearsed questions which the ministers were reduced to answering in formal terms. Sometimes one did not even know who the minister was, DD assuming that viewers, including children, were as familiar with them and there portfolios as DD’s officials. In between the chat session, there were highly contrived sessions of children doing various things and making all sorts of observations which cluttered up things.

If the PM’s session came off best, it was because he was so natural, relaxed and grand-fatherly, that the children responded in kind. They even asked some spontaneous questions, such as what the PM liked to eat, and he mentioned smilingly khitchri and malpua and other things he enjoyed in life.

I watched one of DD’s programmes on the North-East with increasing horror. It was on Meghalaya and to begin with the commentators pronounced it throughout as Megha-Liya. The script-writers outdid the Films Division in doing nothing but quote endless statistics from endless government reports. The first rule in radio and TV is to avoid statistics since they simply do not register. Then when the Director of Power Supply appeared, the magic letters IAS were put in brackets after his name and he read out a script loaded with more and more statistics. Messers Biswas and Co, who made this programme should take some lessons in film-making because it was such a poor programme that it destroyed a beautiful place and a beautiful people with its lack of imagination and film sense. No doubt a government-sponsored programme.

It was interesting to see Chhota Rajan’s airs with the two channels, Star News, for whom Sanjay Ahirwal, got a very spunky interview and DD, for whose Aaj Tak their reporter also got an interview. Because Chhota Rajan took away their tapes and only returned them at his pleasure from some unknown destination. So he is trying to control the media too.

TAIL-PIECE: Having copy-catted Kaun Banega Crorepati, Zee now has its eye on BBC’s Mastermind India. Its tentative revised programme cuts down participate from 21 to five (Mastermind has four) and they will choose a special subject on which to answer questions. Exactly what Mastermind does, a special subject of the choice of the participant and then general knowledge questions. It is really time Zee came up with some original ideas and programmes of their own and stopped this Tu Tu Main Main stuff.