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| Bawa Jitto’s Platinum Jubilee Today | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, Feb 23: The celebrated theatre group Natrang is celebrating platinum Jubilee of its highly acclaimed Dogri play 'Bawa Jitto' on Tuesday 24th of February at Abhinav Theatre, Jammu at 6 pm. Prof. Varun Sahini Vice Chancellor, University of Jammu will be the Chief Guest on the occasion in which all the participating artists will be conferred platinum Jubilee Trophies.
Giving details about the programme Natrang Director Balwant Thakur while addressing a press conference informed here today that the play Bawa Jitto has become the cultural identity of Dogras and is now being staged for 75th time only in Jammu. Scripted by Padamshree Prof. Ram Nath Shastri and designed and directed by Balwant Thakur, the play is credited for bringing Dogri and Jammu theatre to the National and International limelight. In addition to the seventy-four shows in Jammu, Bawa Jitto has been staged for over thirty times in all most all the major National Theatre festivals of India. It was first produced in the year 1986 for the North Zone Theatre Festival of Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi where it won the top position and was selected for the National Theatre Festival held at Delhi. With this play Dogri Theatre made its maiden entry in the National Theatre scene and afterwards there was no look back. Critically acclaimed as one of the most creative theatre work of the post-India Independence, the play traveled across the language barriers and created history by featuring in the prestigious theatre festivals of India including Bharat Rang Mahotsav, (New Delhi) organized by National School of Drama, Natya Utsav (Shimla) Ten Years of Bhart Bhawan (Bhopal) Nandikar National Theatre Festival (Kolkatta) Parvitya-Parv (Nanital) National Theatre Festival (Lucknow), Rang Sangam (Allahabad) Chandigarh Festival (Chandigarh) Kerala National Theatre Meet (Thiruvanthapuram), National Theatre Festival (Chennai), Rashtriya Natya Samaroh (Banglore), Manch-Rangmanch Fest (Amritsar). In Addition on special invitation Natrang has the credit of having traveled to two states with this play in Haryana and Rajasthan where it was staged in Kurushetra, Ambala, Hisssar, Panipat, Rohtak Fridabaad, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Bhilwara and Kota.
Natrang has also staged this place at Aghar Jitto- the birth place of Bawa Jitto and in Jhiri Festival repeatedly where lakhs of people have had the occasion to re-live the saga of supreme sacrifice.
Set in the rural backdrop, this 15th century Folk tale 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 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 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.
The play has been mounted in an attempt to evolve a new dramaturgy using highly innovative and imaginative visual poetics. All the Dogri performing traditions have been put to practice in such a creative manner that an independent theatre form has evolved which is rooted in the soil of Jammu.
Others who spoke on the occasion included Arvind Anand-the lead player of the play, and Suresh Kumar, senior artist of Natrang.
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