Sambalpuri/Koshali play ‘Istafa’ staged on day two of Canfest-2019

Surjit kumar Dhal, Paradip, March 21: A Sambalpuri/Koshali language play ‘Istafa'(Resignation) staged by ‘The Loo, Padampur group in the second evening on Wednesday of Canfest-2019 at Jayadev Sadan in Paradip.

The original story by Munsi Premchand and script by Kesha Ranjan Pradhan was directed by Jagannath Seth.

The play duration is 70 minutes.

‘Istafa’ dramatizes the theme of empowering the weak and the innocent by synthesizing a hundred year old classic by Premchand, a thousands of year old episode from the Panchatantra  and an antique ballad of our region.

Jai Chand, ironically, is used to defeats and darkness throughout his life. He is a very good man,and people take advantage of his goodness. He works hard in the office, but his officer keeps on making impossible demands even after the office hours. The British officer, drunk with power, abuses and even assaults him, and the timid Jai Chand suffers silently.

It is only when his wife comes to know of such humiliation and reacts vigorously, Jai Chand starts asserting himself. He rushes to his boss, offers his  resignation in style and proclaims himself a free man.

Set in the British period, the play shows an intricate power game in which the weak must find ways to live in dignity. Even the animals trained by the clever master react to inhuman atrocities in meaningful ways.

Jai Chand’s resignation is interpreted in the play as an allegory of India’s freedom movement.

The colonial strategy was to create a race of clerks,but Premchand, the writer, like many intellectuals of that time,had resigned from a lucrative government job to celebrate freedom.

The play, however, is not a historical documentation, it attempts to relate the old stories with our contemporary life by switching over from one time to another with the Sutradhar providing relevant clues for interpretations.