Final deviation from a noble theme

Drama -KHELEN THOKCHOM

A scene from one of the plays at the festival. A Telegraph picture In Eikhoigei School (Our School) performed in this year’s Shumang Leela festival that ended last week, seasoned playwright Th. Kiran Meitei has dared to tread an unbeaten path. Shumang leela is a traditional performing art form of Manipur and literally means courtyard theatre. The play, presented by Lamjingba Artistes Association, won the Best Play award in the festival because it took up an issue that is considered the most important by parents in Manipur. Meitei’s Eikhoigei School (Our School) aimed at stressing the need for an educational revolution in the state to change its social and political system. Director Lai Ibotombi, a seasoned shumang leela artiste, infused life into the play. Another plus point was the performance by seasoned and well-known artistes.  Nearly a thousand students of Manipur go out to seek better education in other states every year. It is estimated that nearly Rs 5 crore is drained out of Manipur every month to finance the education of children. The playwright blames it on a lack of academic institutions that could impart world class education. The story is simple. Fed up with corruption and nepotism in the state’s education policy, Ibohal, a devoted government schoolteacher (played by the director himself), sets up a private institution named Eikhoigi School. He successfully runs the school with the help of his two younger brothers. The problem of the play, or rather the playwright, begins here. He moves back to a more common theme of shumang leela: problem within the family. The youngest brother of Ibohal Momocha (Danny) teams up with his brother-in-law Kerani, played by Loken, and tries to ruin the school. Ibohal, who has devoted his life to children’s education, is shot dead by Kerani after he refuses to meet his monetary demands. The playwright and the director made a good choice of the theme. But they failed to offer a solution to the problem. The other uninspiring aspect was the heavy and suffocating music by Dinamani Karam. Normally, shumang leela deals with social plays on family problems, corruption in politics, insurgency and the conflict between the haves and have-nots.