Usha Ganguly's Hum Mukhtara, staged in the State capital on Wednesday marked the conclusion of the five-day long Theatre Fest, 2013. Despite the rain, after the venue became chock-a-block, people did not shy away from sitting on the aisle floor to enjoy the show.
The subject was sensitive, and its treatment was responsible. In depicting the real-life story of a Pakistani village woman gang-raped as a way to get even for an alleged unproven indiscretion committed by her minor brother, and her subsequent fight for justice, Ganguly eschewed sensationalism.
In the director's own words, “I have never meant for Hum Mukhtara to be a poster play. It is therefore not a 'realistic play' in the sense of representation; rather I have attempted to use metaphors. For instance, the scene of high-caste men gang-raping the protagonist is shown much like the cold smoky mist that rises into the air when a slab of ice is sawed!” While the entire band of artists from Ganguly's theatre group Rangkarmee deserve praise for their acting, special commendation must be conferred to the 20-year old Manjari, who played the protagonist, for her riveting performance.
The college second-year student brought alive the many complex emotions of a woman ripped off her dignity for no fault of her own. The shame, the agony, the fierce rebellion to fight for justice coexisting in a meek broken young woman afraid of even her own shadows — Manjari carried the intense role with aplomb.
Adapting Mukhtara's autobiography In The Name of Honour, Ganguly transcended the text. She blended accurate visuals with abstract imagery to highlight the disturbing issues of sexual crimes against women across the world, the following societal stigma and lack of justice for the victims.
Relating it to rape cases that rocked India not so long ago, Ganguly touched an emotional chord with viewers. She also praised Dehradun audience for their sensibility for art, stating that despite having performed across the world, it is at very few places that she got a mature viewership like she did in Doon. “People of Dehradun are well-oriented to theatre. I am amazed that people clapped right when it was befitting, while maintaining silence in scenes where it was expected," Ganguly told The Pioneer.
The play enacted the real-life story of Mukhtara, a Pakistani woman was allegedly gang-raped by six men on the orders of a village council convened by the local Mastoi tribe, in the impoverished village of Meerwala (Muzaffargarh district of Pakistan), for indiscretions allegedly committed by her brother, in 2002.
Instead of committing suicide, which was the 'custom', Mukhtar Mai chose to fight back and in the process, single-handedly changed the course of the feminist movement in Pakistan. Broken after the rape, she saw hope in the first school for women that she opened in her village. She spoke up and filed a complaint and pursued the case, which was reported by both domestic and international media. On September 1, 2002, an anti-terrorism court sentenced the six men to death. The lahore High Court,
however, cited "insufficient evidence" and acquitted five of the six convicted, and reduced the punishment for the sixth man to a life sentence in 2005. Mukhtar and the Government then approached the Supreme Court, which suspended the acquittal and held appeal hearings. In 2011, the Supreme Court, too, acquitted the accused.