I watched the play, "KISSA MAUJPUR KA" day before yesterday, and it was heartening to see the breathtaking response from the crowd of audience. There is something about theatre that sets it apart from movies! It is ironical that a "Gangs of Wassayepur" gets so much publicity in the media, and with it, the fortunes of the star, Manoj Bajpai rise to stratospheric heights, whereas such a play would find no mention in the media.
Fundamentally, KISSA MAUJPUR KA has to do with the insensitivity that was palpable in India in general, with a mythical town Maujpur, that is a metaphor for any town, but can also be relevant to a metropolitan city, Delhi. Since many decades, In the 1990’s, when I was working in Chittaranjan Park, a posh colony in south Delhi, I was shocked to notice how many clinics openly brandished their pre-natal sex determination facilities, which is what is the chief theme of this play!
However, there is a series of issues concerning subjugation of women of which female foeticide is just one. The patriarchs of our society find it convenient to become the self-appointed arbiters of societal norms. Archaic custom abused by exploitative men, that has left the door open for attendant social evils of female foeticide. Our indoctrination that in an adulterous relationship between man and a woman, the latter’s culpability is a foregone conclusion by the society’s patriarchs, and not enough societal mechanisms to protect the woman’s vulnerability, whether it is the urban milieu of Delhi or the mofussil town, Maujpur of North India. In the case of latter, we saw the realisation had dawned on the evil by the village elder who saw to it that the entire village, along with the culpable doctor, Alright, redeemed their sins. In Delhi, such a catharsis should hopefully happen as hastily.