For the freedom of the tongue
DIWAN SINGH BAJELI
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Natraj Art Theatre and Samgr mounted "Desil Vayana", a play in Maithili, at Poorva Sanskrtik Kendra this past week to popularise the language and its dramaturgy in the Capital.
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LANGUAGE MATTERS A scene from the play, "Desil Vayana"
`Desil Vayana' in Maithili (the language of Mithila, North-East Bihar) co-presented by Natraj Art Theatre and Samgr at Poorva Sanskrtik Kendra (PSK) in New Delhi this past week aims at popularising Maithili language and its dramaturgy in the Capital. The focal point of the play is Kokila Vidyapati, a great Maithili poet, who fought tooth and nail against forces opposed to the language of people. He wrote nearly 600 years ago to give voice to the suppressed, reminding that they must have a language of their own to have a dignified status in society.
Written and directed by Kumar Shailendra, a post-graduate in Maithili, Natraj has earlier presented the Hindi version of "Mashaal", which is originally written in Maithili, apart from staging Hindi plays at regular intervals.
Against Brahminical hold
The play unfolds through the device of a narrator, an elderly villager fondly called Kaka. Through his narration, we meet Vidyapati, known for the power of his poetry and its impact on the masses. To common man, he is the repository of spiritual and the temporal powers. His poetry includes elements of devotion and beauty, establishing lively rapport with the people.
We are introduced to a group of Brahmins who find in Vidyapati and his poetry a potent force to undermine their authority as the sole source of wisdom and knowledge as written in Sanskrit. The Brahmins are against the very idea of a language spoken and written by masses to challenge them and Sanskrit, the language of the elite. They also deny the people the right to know Sanskrit.
In his struggle against the Brahminical clique, Vidyapati is joined by deposed king Shiv Singh. Both believe that a language must emerge from the masses and it should be sensitive enough to reflect their aspirations and struggles.
The production appears to be inadequately rehearsed. It tends to end in an abrupt manner. The director's emphasis seems to be on stridency rather than on achieving artistic coherence. However, the sequences where Vidyapati's poems are sung redeemed the production.
The opening sequence itself is too loud and it is clumsily conceived. Pankaj Kumar Jha, in the role of Vidyapati and village uncle Kaka, Ashwani Kumar, as the village boy who goes on errands and Kisunma and Pawan Kumar Mishra, as the deposed king as a Brahmin conspirator act admirably.
The PSK management gave the auditorium and lighting facilities to the group for free. The group will repeat this show for PSK. Writer-director Sailendra has plans to stage it in Hindi after a few months.
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