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| Natrang to stage "Bawa Jitto' in Jhiri Mela | | |  Early Times Report
JAMMU, Nov 4: Natrang is going to organise a mega theatrical show on the supreme sacrifice of Dogra folk legend Bawa Jitto at Jhiri Mela-2022 on 8th and 9th of November, 2022 at the main stage of Jhiri. The show timings will be 6:30 pm on both of these days.
Natrang has been organising the shows of Bawa Jitto for the last sixteen years at Jhiri Mela which is visited by lakhs of people. The presentation of mega theatre shows of Bawa Jitto by Natrang are supported by District Administration, Jammu. This is a rarest opportunity for the audience to live through a six hundred year old saga in memory of which this festival is held every year since last over 600 years. The Director of the play Balwant Thakur sai that play 'Bawa Jitto' is the longest living contemporary theatre play of India and thanked Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board for providing sustenance support to this globally acclaimed play which is now being performed regularly since last 37 years and has now created the history for being a living treasure of the history and heritage of Jammu region in general and Dogri language and culture in particular.
In a virtual address from Mauritius, Balwant Thakur also thanked District Development Commissioner Jammu Avny Lavas and SDM Marh (Mela Officer) Rajeev Khajuria for extending full cooperation and logistic support for holding of this mega event of Natrang. Giving further details Balwant Thakur said that people from all over the North India throng to the venue and this most opportune moment has to be fully utilized by showcasing the rich cultural heritage of the region through the presentation of the masterly conceptualized play Bawa Jitto. Nowhere on this earth can one find this kind of devoted and captive audience, the kind of audience one gets for a theatre performance at Jhiri Mela. People out here are not aware out here that nowhere in India a theatre performance is witnessed by over 50,000 people. On the occasion Balwant Thakur said that Natrang has a mission to create Jhiri a global cultural destination through the presentation of this play and appealed to all the stakeholders to support this endeavour of Natrang wholeheartedly.
Based on the supreme sacrifice of a great Devotee of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, the current series was supported by Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board. A true representative of the traditional performing arts heritage, culture and folklore of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi hills, the play Bawa Jitto is based on a folk tale of Aghar Jitto/ Jhiri. The story of Bawa Jitto portrays the age-old saga of exploitation of landless farmers by landlords. Due to the constant and persistent pressures of relatives, with a piece of land as bone of contention, Bawa Jitto, a hard working, farm less farmer is forced to leave his native village. Accompanied by his nine-year-old daughter, he takes shelter in the house of a friend in Shamachak, a nearby village. The efforts of his friend Rullo result in a land grant from the landlord in Shamachak and one fourth of the produce is fixed as land revenue. The hard work put in by him, the sweat and toil of Jitto turns a barren land into prolific treasure. This makes avaricious landlord to back out on his word and ask for a major share of the crop. Helpless Jitto, unable to endure injustice, kills himself. The agony becomes boundless when Gauri, his little daughter, immolates herself on her father's pyre. |
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