DOGRA HERALD BUREAU
jammu, Nov 12
Natrang is going to organise a mega theatrical show on the supreme sacrifice of Dogra folk hero Bawa Jitto at Jhiri Mela-2024 on 14th & 15th of November, 2024 at the main stage of Jhiri. The show timings will be 7 pm on both of these days.
Natrang has been organising the shows of Bawa Jitto for the last twenty four years at Jhiri Mela which is visited by lakhs of people. The presentation of these mega theatre shows of Bawa Jitto by Natrang are supported by District Administration, Jammu. This is going to be a life-time opportunity for the audience to live through a Six hundred year old saga of supreme sacrifice which is admired and sung by generations in the entire North India since then. While addressing the media along with the senior artists of Natrang Arvind Anand and Subash Jamwal, the director and creator of this ultimate theatre show Padamshree Balwant Thakur said that play ‘Bawa Jitto’ is the longest living contemporary theatre play of India which is being staged all over regularly since last 39 years. Giving details he informed that this year’s shows are going to feature the most celebrated actors of Jammu stage, television and films. Citing few he told that the role of Bawa Jitto is being played by Arvind Anand who has the experience of acting on stage and films. The only National Academy Awardee actor from the UT of Jammu & Kashmir Anil Tickoo is also being featured as Malli. Other senior actors include Neeraj Kant, Mohd. Yaseen, Shivam Singh, and Meenakshi Bhagat who all are National fellowship/scholarship holders in theatre from Ministry of Culture Government of India. The role of Bua gauri is being played by Priyal Ashok Gupta who is also a National young scholar of the Ministry of Culture Government of India.
On the occasion Balwant Thakur also thanked District Development Commissioner Jammu Mr. Sachin Kumar and SDM Marh (Mela Officer) Mr. Athar Amin Zargar for extending full cooperation and logistic support for holding of the mega shows of Bawa Jitto by Natrang.People from all over the North India throng to the venue and this most opportune moment is being 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 for a theatre performance which we get at Jhiri Mela. People out here are not aware that nowhere in India and the world a theatre performance is witnessed by over 50,000 people.
Balwant Thakur further said that Natrang has a mission to create village 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 a greedy 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.
