DOGRA HERALD BUREAU
JAMMU, Nov 27
The most celebrated globally acclaimed Dogri play ‘Bawa Jitto’ mesmerised thousands of the audiences consecutively for the 2nd day here at the main stage of Jhiri Mela-2023. A presentation of NATRANG Jammu is written by Late Prof. Ram Nath Shastri and is innovatively devised, designed and creatively directed by Padamshree Balwant Thakur. This mind-blowing presentation of Natrang magically transported along the thousands of the devotees and the pilgrims to a six hundred fifty year old saga of supreme sacrifice of a farmer who gave his life in fight of justice and exploitation by the landlords.
The most noteworthy feature of the presentation was that it made the audience to relive 15th century tale exactly at the same place where it happened hundreds of years ago.
Giving details Natrang Director Balwant Thakur said that if such events are made a permanent feature, they will not only revive cultural life of the area but will also become the ultimate global cultural destination. No where on this earth one can have the occasion to see something out of the world happening which transports people to a live happening of 15th century. He expressed his heartiest gratitude to the District Administration, particularly the Deputy Commissioner Jammu, Mr. Sachin Vaishya and Mr. Manu Hansa, SDM Marh for supporting Natrang to make all this possible. Natrang has staged over two hundred shows of the play Bawa Jitto all-over India and as of now this play has become the longest living theatre production of the country which has again given a new cultural identity to this region.
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 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 most outstanding feature of the play was the performance by versatile actors on stage. The role of Bawa Jitto was played by Neeraj Kant who kept everyone spellbound through his electrifying performance. Kananpreet Kour as Jojan, Suresh Kumar as Mehta Beer Singh, Vijay Bhatt as Sarpanch & Ghaghi and Anil Tickoo & Subash Jamwal as Malli left the lasting impact on the audiences through their highly professional performances.
They were supported by senior actors like, Shivam Singh as Isso, Mohd Yaseen as Rullo and Palshi Dutta as Jeuni with full perfection. Another noteworthy performance was by young Prial Gupta as Bua Gauri who received the praise of all. Others who gave vibrant performances included Sunny Mujoo, Sachin Saini, Aadesh Dhar, Rishav Sharma, Vishal Sharma, Kananpreet Kaur, Aarti, Tarun Sharma, Sushant Singh Charak, Sonali Sharma, Uday Manhas, Priya Mehra, Shreya Raza, Anand Verma, Vansh Pandotra, Kushal Bhat, Sanket Bhagat, Abhimanyu Choudhary, Arun Sharma, Harshul Kaul, Sumit Bandaral, Arun Dev Verma, Amit Rana, Sahil Narwal, Mehak Singh, Mehak Chib, Kuldeep Angral, Chaitanaya Shekhar, Vrinda Gujral and Meenakshi Bhagat
The lights were designed and executed by Suraj Ganjoo and Shivam Singh and sound was professionally audio graphed by Tilak Raj.
