Migration Story On The Stage by ESKI

: Rajmi Hikaka , an imaginary little tribal girl from Kondh community of Sunaput , an imaginary village in Koraput district died in the laps of her father Bursa Hikaka while asking him to go back to the village from his workplace in Hyderabad . This scene from the play “Dangar Sepakhe” brought down the screens on the stage and had launched the beginning of the state level “Panchamali Natya Mahotsav” being inaugurated by Gopal Krushna Behera , ED, NALCO on Thursday night .

The play based on a migration story , being written and directed by Girija Choudhury , an eminent dramatist from the region had enough material for the audience not to move their eyes off the stage . Thanks to the extra ordinary performance of Ananya Choudhury , the little girl who had played the role of Rajmi . While she was successful in expressing the childhood emotion in refusing her mother Sitme’s request to visit “Mandia Parab” , the village festival without her father , the writer was successful in exposing the plight of the families who were left behind in the village when the male folk from the tribal communities went haunting for work elsewhere in far off places out of their ‘Dangar’ , the mountainous boarders of Koraput region .

Further Rajmi was the example of courage and dedication that the children especially girls of the region could possess when it comes to bringing their families together . Depiction of the loving character presented in the Banzaran couple who had rescued Rajmi while she was searching her father somewhere away from the village which she had left long . The dryness in the hungry child and the joyful acceptance in the face of the childless Banzara mother to accept her as her own child had compelled the audience to rethink before blaming the Banzarans in general as child lifters .

Even though Rajmi was offered enormous amount of love and affection by her new parents her searching eyes were longing for her dearest father Bursa even after reaching Hyderabad . The play taking the audience out of the newspaper headlines to the brick making dens of the far off places had tried to bring the experience of the tribal innocent labourers to the fore front where they were tortured like slaves including Bursa , the father of Rajmi . While she was in search of her father the entry of an elderly mad person into the picture , had forced the audience to cross their fingers to remind the famous saying that a child , a mad person and a super conscious being were the happiest ones in the world . The characters of Rajmi and Diudu , the mad person that were exhibited in the play would be remembered for long for the exploration of the highest possible simplicity in the relation that one could develop while finding someone talking in one’s own language.

However the writer was harsh on the emotion of the audience when he had to go further to show the hard reality of the torture that the migrated labourers had to face from the employers . While the little child had found her new friend talking in her own language , Rajmi comes in contact with her father . But it was hard for her to bear the suffering of her father who had to receive canes from the master. She had to face the hitting of the cane while holding him firm in her arms asking him to go back to the village .Before she could accompany her father to the village keeping her promise to re unite her family , she received a hard stroke from the cane that was to fall on her father and died in the laps of her father .

While plays bringing dramatic impact and response were used in the recent times to attract the interest of the audience, the play exhibiting the real life of the communities in places the audience lived too was no way less in creating a deep impact in their minds , Girija Choudhury , the script writer and director of the play added.