A lot has been said about the Partition in literature, art and cinema. Even in theatre, the ghosts of a troubled Punjab continue to haunt the stage time and again, bringing to fore a different facet of the partition each time. ‘Chidiyon Ka Pinjra’ or Cage of Sparrows that premiered at Ranga Shankara, Bangalore, is one such play that is culled from a strange of set of circumstances belonging tothe uneasy era of the partition.
Written and directed by Ramneek Singh, the play has already won the ‘Toto Funds the Arts Creative Writing Award’ for the best play and the ‘Shyamanand Jalan National Youth Theatre Award’.
Stories of migrants charged with a desire to seek better fortunes in Europe, the organised scam of agents or ‘donkers’ who set up dubious transits, state-sponsored ‘sarkaari’ officials and infrastructure that keep a corrupt system breathing, the hunger for money and the dream of freedom in the small village of Garhi Mahasingh in Punjab- all of these were partof Ramneek’s thought process.
Quest for freedomThe play tells the story of Rulda (Swetanshu Bora) and Rinku (Kafeel Jaffri) who, separated by a generation, are desperately trying to escape the reality of their traumatic lives. In the emotionally unsettling landscape of the village of Garhi Mansingh, that the play is set in, everyone including Avtaar (Akshay Gandhi) and an expert ‘Donker’ (Mayuresh Nirhali) falls into the trap in their quest for freedom. What stands out, however, arethe stories of women and how they have had to live thankless lives dealing with the scars left behind from a violent period. For example, the relentlessly hopeful Sanvli (Parvathi Om) who is willing to submit herself to an agent’s lust to find out her husband’s whereabouts and Rinku’s mother Tarsem who reels in painful nostalgia embody the issues surrounding women at that time.. Through the course of the play, these various stories intersect and a Punjab with a different face emerges.
However, one felt that talented actors like Mayuresh Nirhali, Akshay Gandhi, Swetanshu Bora, Kafeel Jaffri and Parvathi Om, were under-utilized.
While the freshness of the story can be appreciated, the director is yet to master the art of stagecraft. What worked in the original script seems clearly lost in inconsistent translation while directing. One or two long winding scenes, intrusive and feeble set design,melodramatic excess in patches of acting, negligent costuming and stereotypical music overruled the ambitious play. With some thoughtful redesigning, the director could have staged a more effective play .
While Ramneek Singh is certainly one of the talented young directors to watch out for in the coming years, for now, he has a long way to go in understanding the demands of a script’s transition to the stage.