Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, Mar 31:Four-day long Theatre Festival 2013, organized by North Zone Cultural Centre, Patiala in collaboration with Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art Culture and Languages, concluded here with Natrang performing Baba Jitto, here today.
Dogri’s iconic drama ‘Baba Jitto’ the longest running play since it was first staged on September 5, 1986, is written by Late Ram Nath Shastri and directed by Balwant Thakur. The play which has emerged as symbol of high values of Dogra culture on Jammu region’s folk lore about the saga of landlords exploiting landless farmers. Baba Jitto, a hard working, farm-less farmer is forced to leave his native village due to the constant pressures of relatives, with a piece of land as bone of contention. Accompanied by his nine year old daughter, he takes shelter in the house of afriend in a nearby village Shama Chak. The efforts of his friend Rullo result in a land grantfrom a landlord in Shamachak and one- fourth of the produce is fixed as land revenue. Jitto’ssweat and toil makes barren land yield prolific treasure. This leads the greedy landlord to goback on his word and demand a measure share of the crop. Helpless Jitto, unable to endure theinjustice chooses to kills himself in protest. The agony reaches a point beyond endurance when his little daughter Gauri immolates on the pyre.
Today’s engrossing performance Baba Jitto’s, showing an excellent combination of elements of folk theatre and body theatre along with rendering of Baba Jitto’s ‘karak’—ballad by folk singers ‘yogis ’ serving as ‘sutradhar’—all succeeded in presenting a kind of ensemble of visual poetry unfolding in well knit sequences.
The cast of the play included Arvind Anand as Baba Jitto, Juhi Singh as Bua Gauri, Anil Tickoo in twin roles of Chaachi Jojaan and Malli, Rahul Singh as Isso, Suresh Kumar As Mehta, Neeraj Kant as Sarpanch and Rullo. Other members of cast were Dimple Sahrma, Sajra Qadir, Subhash Jamwal, Mohmmad Yaseen, Aarti Rajput, Anita Dhar, Subha Rajput, Shivika Verma, Vineet Sahrma, Uplaksh Singh Kotwal, Ankush Lakhotra, Ashwani Bali, Shusheel Raina, Vishal Sahrma, Karan dev Singh, Shekhar Sahrma, Gardhari Lal and Harbans Lal as Jogis.
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