Reflective blog- RANG MOHAN

Welcome Readers,

                          This blog is made on the grounds of a task assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad Sir to reflect our literary and critical skills on the events which we had attended in Youth Festival 2019-

“RANG MOHAN” 

                    

                     The Mammoth of Middle Adulthood, the Grand Intercollege Event – YOUTH Festival every year becomes a medium for the annual gathering for youth and it is the only place where students’ art meets talent. Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University had organized a four-day youth festival on

25-26-27-28 SEPTEMBER 2019

wherein students from various colleges and departments were able to showcase their skills in various competitive fields. 

                       This year (2019) the theme of YOUTH FEST was “RANG MOHAN” attributed to the 150^th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Remembering Mahatma Gandhi and reevaluating his journey from being “Mohan” to “Mahatma” was the prime subject of the four-days-splendid event.

Click here to view photos and videos of Youth Festival with event details. 

The points to be pondered upon and discussed here are-

   1. Themes represented in various tableaux of Kala-Yatra - 25/9/2019 - From Samaldas Arts College to Law College, Sardarnagar.

Click here to view the youtube video of Kala yatra.

                Kala Yatra is one of the best art form where innovative ideas are presented from different perspectives in a very lively way. Though the theme represented in various tableaux of Kala Yatra from Shamaldas Arts College to Law College contained the same subject –GANDHI, obviously it would as the festival is attributed to his life and journey but the novelty was in the presentation. Each and every college had a different thing to express on the life of Gandhi; there were different episodes from Gandhi’s life narrated through this Kala yatra. There were almost new ways of looking at Gandhi from a 21st-century perspective.

                 The KPES College presented the theme of Gandhi with his journey- “From Mohan to Mahatma” and presented the episodes in an artistic way. The episodes included the struggle of his younger days, the South African episode with the symbol of Train, the Sabarmati ashram scene with the spinning wheel and cotton and Kasturba sitting beside him supporting Gandhi with the hymn playing in the background-

Vaishnav Jan To, Tene Kahiye Je
Peed Paraaye Jaane Re
Par Dukkhe Upkaar Kare Toye
Man Abhiman Na Anne Re
Vaishnav Jan To, Tene Kahiye Je
Peed Paraaye Jaane Re

With music of

“Maaru jeevan aj maro sandesh,

Maaru jeevan aj mari vaani”

                 Another tableau with the same theme had “Simon Go Back” posters and students were standing there as if they were revolting and the whole replica recreated the very ‘Simon Go Back’ movement.

             Sahajanand College of Commerce and Management presented the theme with a unique style by presenting all religions as equal which actually reflected the thought of Gandhi that whether you are a Hindu or Muslim or Christian or Sikh, you shall perform your duty in serving the land.

            Shamaldas Arts College presented “Where am I?” a perfect satire on the hypocrisy of Gandhian thoughts. 

• If you are celebrating the 150^th birth anniversary of Gandhi than where is the relevance of Gandhi in the 21^st century? 
• 
  
• Where are the values of truth, of unconditional love, how far corruption, bribe, cruelty and all evil things will continue to creep in this society?

• How far the principles of Satya, prem, and Ahimsa (truth, love and non-violence) are followed in the real world?

The presentation of students of Law College was different as they raised their voice against the rape culture of India.

MBA department came up with posters of Unity, Peace and various current issues of contemporary time.  

2. Major themes in dramatic events like One Act Play (एकांकी), Skit (लघु नाटक), Mime (मूक अभिनय), Mono-acting (एक पात्रीय अभिनय).

                        The major themes of all the drama performances contained a common theme- 21st-century view towards age-old concepts. Almost all performances were from a modern perspective and some of the plays were based on current themes while other plays followed the script of great dramatists or short story writers.

                         Firstly, discussing about One Act Play (एकांकी), I would like to describe the themes of two plays here in detail-

                 Like, there was a play based on Bhasa’s “Urubhangam” wherein the theme, characters and the script was largely based on the original play but the dialogues were in normal language that it could easily be understood and the performance was strong enough to support the dialogues, the sentiments were revealed with expression and voice. The overall performance can be regarded as good, as it tried to dig deep into the miseries and pain of Duryodhan and by revealing it, it created a new image of Duryodhan as “Suyodhan” in our mind, so it can be said that by giving a modern touch to the age-old narrative it provided a new and different perspective.

                        The themes of Skit (लघु नाटक) were innovative as it had to cover the central idea within 10 minutes which is the most challenging task. But all skits came up with something new. Some were based on current political themes, some were inspired by the idea of India as a fast developing nation involving Chandrayaan on one hand and abolishing triple talaq on the other hand. Some were full of lively sentiments.

The themes of Mono-acting (एक पात्रीय अभिनय) were unique. Largely they were emotional.

3. Can you apply dramatic literary theories propounded by Aristotle (Tragedy), Ben Jonson (Comedy of Humor), Dryden (Play), Martin Esslin (Absurd theatre), Irving Wardle (Comedy of Menace) on the dramatic events presented in Youth Festival?

Here, I will be discussing two one-act plays-

1. Urubhangam

This play marked the final event of the Mahabharata war. Three warriors were describing the battle scene. Bheema and Duryodhan were fighting with mace and as Bheema was so tired that he attacked Duryodhan on his thighs which is actually not allowed in mace fighting and Duryodhan is hurt badly and reveals his inner sorrow on stage, his sentiments give a touch of tragedy. Indeed the play was inspired by great dramatist of Sanskrit literature- Bhasa’s “Urubhangam”.

The performance by students highlighted the breaking of the thighs of Duryodhan and his tragic emotions aroused pity and terror among the audience. The main ‘Rasa’ of the play was ‘Karuna’ (tragic)(sorrow). It was well performed by the students of SSCCM.  

According to Aristotle, Plot, and action plays a vital role in tragedy performed on stage. His views can be applied to this tragedy. According to Aristotle, a tragic hero should be a person of great reputation or prosperity, he should be above common level. The tragic hero of the play is Duryodhan, he is a man of high rank. He is the king of a vast empire. As proposed by Aristotle,  the tragic character should be lifelike and true to type. The character of Duryodhan is a very lifelike character. The story must be one. There shouldn't be a double plot but in this play, it does not follow the unity of time and action. It had a diversion of image and twice they were showing the battlefield on one hand and the greatness of Krishna on another hand. Hence it can be said that it didn't completely follow Aristotle's theory but to some extent, it followed. 

2. Mahotu

The second was mahotu. The story was inspired by Ram Mori's short story of the same name. The play seems to be a replica of the short film of the same name. The style of dressing was the same. The play showed the mentality of villagers and it also provides strong notions of patriarchy. 

The play not only tried to show the reality but also satirized the mentality of village women, it is a matter of wonder how they easily accept the idea of oppressing a woman. The character of Bhavu in the play is tortured and brutally bitten and wounded. 


This play indeed tried to bring new as well as modern elements and also successfully applied it at the end of the play.

4. Can you categories One Act Play or other dramatic events as sentimental / anti-sentimental comedy, comedy of manners, classical tragedy, modern tragicomedy or bollywoodish theatre performance?

Urubhangam can be called a classical tragedy and a skit performed on modern nymphs and their performance on mere hypocrisy can be called an anti-sentimental comedy.

6. On last day, before or after valedictory, all art events like cartooning, painting, collage, poster making, clay-modelling, installation will be open for public display. You can study themes, satire, didacticism, aestheticism in all these artistic expressions.

All the creative events were held at the external department of the University campus. 

Clay modeling was very well shaped by participants. 

Satire was presented in Cartooning 

and Aestheticism was presented in Rangoli.

In on the spot painting, the most repeated theme or the most painted paintings were either on village scenery, Ganesh festival or War and Peace but not a single painting was there on the heritage of Bhavnagar. I preferred to go with ‘War and Peace’ the burning issue of the nuclear world wherein I tried to show the superpowers of the World and missiles dropping on European and Asian countries. How War can damage the family and how peace can restore the family was the prime objective of my painting. Though couldn’t perform well in the competition, I have learned so many things from my experience. This experience taught me that I should practice some scientific stuff like missiles and bombs with detailing and the most amazing skill which I lack is knife painting. The way knife painting catches the eye, the painting with poster color fails! The painting which I liked the most is as attached below-

7. Lastly, write on whichever other events you attend and along with it, the overall feeling of experiencing Youth Festival - ponder upon this - it is known as 'festival of youthfulness' - युवानी का महोत्सव.

Well, Youth Festival gives a platform to the youth to showcase their skills in their respective fields and it provides a space to them with innovative ideas and new subjects that engages them.

Youthfulness is a notion, it is a state of mind that is always ready to perform, to participate and to be able to win. The youth is always ready to learn. Learning attitude is innate in youths of today and so it can be called a festival of youthfulness. 

Thank you.