Dark secrets of being a woman in India

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Scenes from Jug Jug Jiyo being performed at Stein Auditorium, Indian Habitat Centre, in New Delhi.

The inaugural performance of the Hinglish theatre Jug Jug Jiyo — a dark comedy with sharp, witty intensity, revolving around the lives of two childhood friends, Samyukta and Simran, living and sharing a small house in a small town — took place recently at Stein Auditorium, Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

Scripted and directed by Smita Bharti, with Dolly Ahluwalia Tewari, Swaroopa Ghosh, Jyotsna Sharma and Rachit Behl in the lead roles, this 70-minute play is a story that unfolds shaping the future for all unborn girls, over one night, and unravels dark secrets hidden for over three decades.
Speaking with this correspondent, Ms Bharti, the director, says: “The play in the first place came up in my mind because I am a woman. Being a woman, I knew women-centric issues are something we never talk about. I think theatre is a big medium of changing this mainstream thought. The idea behind making this play was to help people talk about women-centric issues more openly.”
Though the idea of a play was in her mind since November 2012, the project took a backstage after the Delhi gangrape. But Ms Bharti never lost hope and she finished up the writing by January 2013. “I thought about making this play in November while I was flying from Raipur to Delhi. I crafted the story sitting back in the flight. But after the Delhi gangrape, as we got busy protesting, the project took a backstage. However, since mid-December, I resumed my writing and wrapped up everything by January,” says the director of Jug Jug Jiyo. Samyukta runs a morgue, and Simran runs her son’s life. Samyukta’s daughter Sia and Simran’s son Siraj, who are childhood sweethearts, are in a live-in relationship unknown to their mothers. They visit their respective mothers from Mumbai on one night. As the night unfolds, one small confrontation between Sia and Siraj starts unravelling the lives of the two women across the last four decades, and soon the shards of broken relationships litter the stage. When it seems as if there is no resolution to this devastation, love and hope raise their tiny heads tentatively and invite trust back into the fold.
Speaking about selecting Dolly Ahluwalia and Swaroopa Ghosh as main cast in her play, Ms Bharti says she chose Dolly because she knew no one was better than her to play the character of Simran. “While scripting the story, I was sure about Swaroopa to play the character of Samyukta, however I was not sure about whom to take as Simran. When I narrated the story to Swaroopa, she instantly said the only person who can do justice to the character of Simran is Dolly. When I narrated the story to Dolly, she was so touched to hear the story that her eyes were wet with tears. She committed to me that howsoever busy she may be but she will definitely be a part of this play,” says Ms Bharti.
Speaking about the significance of this play in her life, Ms Bharti says, “I don’t think there is any women who has not faced gender violence in her life. In December, everyone came out to support the 23-year-old girl because they felt it happened in their life too. Being stayed in India, no women can say that she has never faced gender violence. This is the emotional connect I have with this play,” Ms Ahluwalia wanted to be a part of this play because she liked the script very much and thought that this is the best platform to showcase the suffering women face in her life. “Theatre is in my blood and I had missed it in the past few years. However, when Bharti told me the story I immediately got hooked on to it. Moreover, after the Delhi gangrape, I thought it would be the best platform to showcase the suffering one face as a woman,” says Ms Ahluwalia.
Ms Ahluwalia feels that theatre is multi-dimensional and that there is much scope for improvement of theatre in India. “Theatre is not like dance and painting, which are one dimensional. It is one of the best mediums to express ourselves. Theatre has everything in it — emotion, dance etc — and people can easily relate to it. Everyone in this world is born with a role to do. You as journalist have the role to write and present day-to-day happenings before the world. Similarly we as artists have our own responsibility before the world.”
Be that as it may, Ms Ahluwalia is not happy with the present state of Indian theatre. She feels that theatre artists also need the same kind of money and respect that corporates give to filmstars. “Corporate houses and the government must come up with new theatre schools so that youngsters get attracted to it. They should take theatre as a more serious subject and not a nautanki.” Citing the example of the West, she says, “The Indian corporates should take a cue from the West, where theatre artists and filmstars are given equal respect. If corporate houses in India can pay say, for example, `10,000 to any filmstar for the opening ceremony of a shop, they should give the same remuneration to a theatre artist.”