A way out of the trap
SHUJAAT BUKHARI
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Theatre in Jammu and Kashmir is increasingly becoming an avenue for giving a vent to the feelings of the common people.
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There could be no better way of communicating how corrupt the system is and how vested interests have taken root in Kashmir. Without referring to the ongoing situation being the best boon for people who thrive on it, "Tchal" (The Trap), a play staged recently by Mehboob Cultural Society, Baramulla, meticulously reflects the manipulation of the official system. It was the last play of a weeklong theatre festival organised by Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages.
The play drew large crowds to Tagore Hall in Srinagar, which for the first time included Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman, Yasin Malik. Many people present in the hall had an interesting reason to watch the play. Three days before it was staged, Munir Ahmad Bhat, the 35-year-old younger brother of its director and writer Mohammad Amin Bhat, was killed in a grenade explosion in Baramulla. Said Khalid Ahmad, a student, "We were otherwise keen to watch this, but this time we made it a point to come because it will be a tribute to Munir who fell victim to a situation which is nothing but the outcome of similar manipulations and vested interests."
Central figure
In the jam-packed hall the audience was spellbound, nodding and clapping in agreement with what was being said. Revolving round a rat and a cat, the play has a central figure in a Sectional Officer working in the government department. While he gets grains to feed a rat in the record room which leads to damage to a portion of government records, the cycle of fighting back the rate of course "in the interest" of the Section Officer and his boss is unending. He suggests getting a cat to tackle the problem, which leads to procuring a cow, as the cat needs to be fed. But as it happens in most of the cases, the milk is mostly diverted to the house of the Section Officer and his bosses. Besides, the post of cow keeper is also created, and a young boy is appointed for the job, that too against a bribe. An honest official in the department makes desperate attempts to highlight that the whole process was useless and also suggests a means to trap the rat, but nobody listens to him till the day of retirement.
Analysts draw different interpretations from the theme. While some simply see it as reflection of a corrupt system, some link it to the political problem in Jammu and Kashmir. But the way Bhat, an eminent playwright and director, has played with the theme as well as words is brilliant. "Whatever the inference, it reflects what is happening in our state. This may be true somewhere else as well, but we have no reason not to identify it with our plight," says Suhail Ahmad, a media critic.
In fact in the last 17 years vested interests in Kashmir have made such deep roots that there is little space left for those who could raise their voices. From government officials to security forces and businessmen to politicians and media, there is not a single sphere of life not rotten with this menace.
"It was my humble effort to highlight how planning takes place in our system and what is the extent of accountability," says Bhat, who is yet to come out of the shock of his young brother's death. In fact the incident in which he was killed again exposed the "level of unaccountability" as the police simply said that Muneer was a grenade thrower, while the charge was strongly refuted by the family and residents. But none in the government bothered to cross check the facts or order an inquiry and punish those who misled the whole world and put a stigma on a young science graduate who was killed for no fault of his.
Mehboob Cultural Society has earlier won laurels for staging plays like "Naad" (Call) which again reflected the situation in a bold manner. Theatre in the recent past has become the only source to give vent to the feelings of people in general.
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