The play ChukayengeIJ Nahi! raises contemporary issues of inflation and corruption that have infected the Indian economy. Director Arvind Gaur spoke to Trisha Mukherjee
You do not have to cut an onion these days to make you cry. The soaring prices will automatically send the tears rolling. Ask a middle class man what worries him the most, inflation is most likely to be the answer. ChukayengeIJ Nahi!, a play directed by Arvind Gaur, revolves around the issue of inflation and many other socio-political issues that affect the common man.
“It is a socio-political satire which is extremely relevant to the present scenario. It has a powerful contemporary resonance as it addresses several issues of utmost concern to our society,” says Arvind Gaur.
The play is a Hindi adaptation of Nobel laureate Dario Fo’s Italian play Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay. The original is a representation of the autoridusione or the self-reduction movement that took place in Italy in 1974. The movement, which was an outcome of a major economic crisis, witnessed consumers reducing the prices of products on their own at a collectively determined level. They took whatever they wished, paying only for what they could afford; something that a majority of the people wish to do. The play is a hypothetical portrayal of a situation where India faces a similar self-reduction revolution.
It is set in a working class man’s house. The lower middle class woman becomes a part of the spontaneous uprising at the local super market, from where she brings home things without paying for it. The rest follows as she anticipates her self-righteous husband’s reaction to it.
“The middle class man has been a perennial victim of the social and political vices of the Indian society. It is as if a vicious nexus involving the government, the judiciary and the bureaucracy works together towards increasing the plight of the common man,” says Gaur.
With a powerful theme, script and characters, the play is a comic satire that tends to mock the poor administration and governance in the country. It highlights India’s gradual drift towards the impending economic crisis, in which the breach between the rich and the poor only increases.
“The system does not work for the common man. The policies are not made keeping his needs in mind. They are formulated to satisfy the corporates, the result being, the rich become richer and the poor continue to be deprived. The economic crisis is not an issue of the future. It is already there. Only the fatal culmination is awaited,” says the director.
Commenting on the present scenario of the society, the director expressed a possibility of an auto-reduction movement taking place in India in the future. “If the existing economic disparity between different classes continues to persist, that day isn’t very far when the anger within the middle class Indian will erupt and he will fend for himself,” says he.
ChukayengeIJ Nahi! challenges the existing system of governance in India. In a country where the issues of health, education and women safety continue to remain a far cry, it calls for more accountability and responsibility within the judiciary and bureaucracy.
The play will be staged at Sri Ram Centre in Mandi House today at 7:30 pm.