Inspired by Saiben Ghosh’s novel, Koushik Kar wrote Maa Aak Nirvik Soinik which as part of the recently concluded edition of Bharat Rang Mahotsav, was staged at LTG auditorium. It is a serious play which indicts warlords who wage war against vulnerable states to annex their kingdom. At another level, it depicts a mother’s sincere efforts to inculcate in his son the ideas of love and peace with a view to protect him from joining blood-thirsty army of warlords to kill others and in turn to get him killed. Imaginatively crafted, it is the distressed cry of anguished mother to save her son from becoming a cog in a killing machine.
The play is directed by Kaushik Kar with precision which was presented by Kolkata Rangeela, Kolkata, formed by young theatre enthusiasts with Koushik as its founder president. The locale and period of the play appear to be imaginary. So we assume that the playwright-director has set his play in a tribal region with two warlords engaged in bloody wars to establish their supremacy. The victims of their war games are children and women. One of the sufferers is a victim called Anaturi whose warrior husband is killed in the war. She has just delivered a male child. The enemies of her husband want to exploit her sexually and kill her infant. With arduous struggle and dare devil efforts she manages to escape and ironically reaches the very country who happens to be the arch enemy of her king. The king takes pity on the woman with infant. He is in a state of dilemma as to how he should treat a woman and her child from enemy country. The woman promises that her son will never take up arms to destroy another human being and follow the path of sanity, peace and universal brotherhood.
The narrative unfolds with twists and turns that grip our attention. There are three main characters — Anaturi, Kohen and Loman — who carry the story forward in a logical and cohesive manner. There is a brief sequence which is treated as a drama-within-the drama. It is about Anaturi’s efforts to keep away her son from violence. In the sequence she tells her son about the power of love by narrating a story of a prince and princess who love each other from the bottom of their hearts. Once the king discovers them, he becomes furious and gets ready to kill the prince. Finally, the king surrenders before the power of true love. It is enacted on a raised platform with the illusion of the bright moon in the sky. The subtle lighting effects and the soft offstage music evoke an atmosphere of serenity which presents stark contrast with the loud movements of soldiers accompanying the war-cry. She does everything possible to make her son abhor war.
Ironically, when Kohen grows up, he gets to know about his warrior father who fought for his king heroically and is killed by the forces of king who has given them refuge on the condition that the son would never take up weapon. Kohen disappears to become a fighter. Now the dramatic conflictshifts to the struggle of the mother and son, both of whom have divergent motives to pursue.
The set is designed to reflect a rugged region surrounded by dense forest. The music plays vital role in invoking a wide gamut of moods. The ramp style of wooden structure with raised platform in the centre is used for the march of soldiers and for the king to givecommand in a fierce tone. Below the structure, a space covered with plank is used for the purpose of camouflage. The way set and ramps are coloured creates the impression of military regiment on the march. The weapons employed in the war indicates tribal kind of warfare. The writer-director has evolved two characters — Griffin and Loman — to enrich his simple tale about warlords and sufferings of mothers with a metaphorical meaning. Griffin moves around frequently interacting with the warlord. He is in a peculiar costume symbolising the evil that plagues human society and destroys its moral fabric. In contrast with Griffin, the character of Loman asserts human dignity and power of creative people. He is an artist and sings often for his king. The soul stirring tunes provide soothing effect for war-fatigued king. In his spare time, he works with his hammer and chisel to act as a craftsman. In his interaction with Anaturi and Kohen, he tells them the life affirming power of arts. In a symbolic way it is suggested that the creativity of an artist and the warmth of a mother can save the world from destruction of war.
