Bhookhe Navik!

Theatre Group – Mask
Venue – India Habitat Center
Partners – AS, KJ, BCM
Title – Bhookhe Navik
Genre- Social Satire

Bhookhe Navik starts off with a situation in which three persons Mota, Manjhla and Patla are asail on a ship which is devoid of any navigation devices with no shores in sight. They are the only 3 people aboard and have totally run out of any food supplies and are starving of hunger. Interestingly, the sea all around is assumed not to have any fish, on second thoughts.

The grave situation leads them to the extreme possibility of cannibalism. They finally decide that in the greater good of the society, one of them has to sacrifice himself and offer himself to be the food of the other two. But that gives rise to a debate on who will be the sacrificial lamb.

They decide to make chits and pick on from a hat. The Patla then argues that democratic procedure should be followed in selecting the candidate. The other two see the merit in his point and agree. Each one of them gets a chance to carve out a case of his importance to the society and thus plead for his survival. The target here is rejection and not selection.

The Patla, and the audience quickly sense a collusion between the Manjhla and the Mota as they openly support each other in their arguments. Votes are caste and the Patla comes out to be the dubious winner. It clearly is a case of might wins against the right as the colluding duo manage to justify Patla's selection on the basis of the fact that his Mother is dead and he doesn’t have any reason to live any longer.

A little drama unfolds as the postman swimming across the sea to deliver the letter from Patla’s mother. Patla is relieved of the tension as is now on equal footing with the other two. After a little flashback on Patla’s poverty-stricken struggle, when is mother used to roam about in the street trying in vain to sell the paintings of his artist son, Patla still finds himself the most suitable candidate for execution. He cries but only in vain as there is no one to console himself as the sea streches far out on all sides.

Amidst excellent depiction of fear of death, as the Manjhla sharpens his knives to get ready to massacre the Patla, the latter finally musters the courage to stop the injustice. And as there can be no civilized way of doing this, he stabs the Mota and the Manjhla to death and takes revenge for the torture he was subjected to by them.

There are intermediate periods when the dialogues on democracy get a bit to pedantic but kudos to Patla who manages to draw the sympathy of the audience quite early on.All in all, a slightly over dramatized depiction of the orwellian message,” All people are equal, but some people are more equal than others”. The play carries a good message with the Mota, Manjhla and the Patla, representing the affluent class, the middle class and the lower class respectively. The play reaffirms the sad truth of the Indian society that the power of the democratic institutions is dwarfed against that of the rich and the mighty. And, the most plausible way for the lower class to rectify this inequity is to “take the law in their own hands”. Sadly, the end fizzles out as populist one and avoids a constructive solution.

Rating : 6/10