CULTURE

Impressive Punjabi play
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Jan 11 — The angst, frustration and indignation of belonging to a lower caste was brought about impressively in a poignant Punjabi play titled Jooth, staged to a packed hall at the English Auditorium, of Panjab University this evening.

The play, based on Hindi writer Om Parkash Balmiki’s autobiography of the same title was presented by the Third Eye, a socio-cultural organisation which is holding a three-day theatre festival from today.

Directed and performed by Samuel, this one-character play had earlier been staged last year at the Punjab Kala Bhavan, Sector 16. It was a power packed performance in front of a highly receptive young audience of the university.

Samuel’s deep piercing eyes, his thin frame teamed with a bearded face seemed to define the character of Om Parkash Balmiki at the very onset of the production. It is about an individual who struggles with all his might to go against the oppressive societal norms and also to fight with his inner conflicts. It depicts the struggle to get education in a society ridden with caste hierarchies, or to survive in a land where matters of heart are ruled by caste one belongs to or also the struggle for one’s self-esteem while working in an organisation.

The gestures, loud movements and boisterously resonating dialogues worked well in Jooth.

What was also interesting to watch were the brisk changes in the expressions of Samuel that rapidly switched from anger to happiness to pure love and yearning.

The play was scripted by Balram. Later Gursharan Singh, grand old man of Indian theatre, said the last century was that of freedom and this century would be that of equality.