Class nine student Masum moves Rajshahi audience to tears with his jatra performance

Ninth-grade student Masum is stepping onto the stage. His father, Shahadul Islam, is whispering into his ear how to deliver his first dialogue. A little later, Shahadul himself will take the stage as Churamani Thakur. With them is his younger brother Anarul Islam, who will play Hossain Khan.

The social jatra "Goriber Artonad" was staged late on Thursday night (November 5) in Amarpur village of Bagha upazila in Rajshahi. The previous night featured "Apon Dulal". The two-night jatra was organised by the villagers, and no ticket was needed to watch it. The event was open to everyone.

In "Goriber Artonad", the two brothers won the audience’s hearts in their respective roles. And watching Masum play the poor man’s son, many in the audience could not hold back their tears. There was no payment. The two brothers came to perform with their son purely for the joy of acting.

Jatra is no longer held in the area as it once was. But many who used to perform regularly in the past are still around. They returned to the stage for this event. Although local artistes performed, costumes, musicians, female artistes and a make-up artiste had to be hired from outside.

Make-up artiste Moklesur Rahman was busy in the dressing room. With the stroke of his colours, someone became a king, someone a commander, someone a hero or heroine, someone a priest. The 66-year-old Moklesur came from Akkelpur in Joypurhat. He said he has been doing this work since he was 30. With so many years of experience, he has memorised the dialogues of many jhumur jatra plays. For dressing up the artistes over the two nights, he will receive 1,400 taka.

The female artistes from outside had not rehearsed properly with the local performers, and it showed on stage. Sometimes an entrance went wrong, sometimes one person spoke another’s dialogue. The prompter had to shout from time to time to feed the lines. But the audience did not mind any of this. Men and women packed the area around the stage, and the inconsistencies in the performance seemed to become part of their enjoyment.

In one scene of the play, commander Kalketu faces the judgement of King Uday Singh on the charge of trying to assault Shibani, a poor man’s daughter. The king’s younger brother, Bijoy Singh, saved the girl from Kalketu. But the king does not believe him. At this point, Queen Dayabati is supposed to enter the stage.

But the queen is nowhere to be seen. She cannot be found even behind the stage. At one point, several members of the audience themselves rushed to the dressing room to look for her. Meanwhile, the king is fuming with anger on stage, cracking his whip again and again. Kalketu is pacing about. Bijoy Singh stands firm. The audience is silent. The search for the queen itself seems to become part of the play. After a few minutes, Dayabati rushes in. As soon as the prompter feeds her the dialogue, the story moves forward again.

In another scene, Churamani Thakur sits holding Shibani’s hand after asking her for water to drink. Seeing this, a young Muslim man named Soleman approaches with an axe in hand. He rescues Shibani from the priest.

Shahadul Islam portrayed the priest’s helplessness in front of Soleman so well in his acting that the audience burst into laughter. In the middle of it, the fold of his dhoti came undone and the handle of his umbrella broke. These were unintentional. But the experienced actor handled them in character, which made the scene even more enjoyable for the audience.

Seating for women viewers was arranged on the eastern side of the stage. Many came carrying children in their arms. The presence of elderly women was also noticeable. One of them, Hafiza Begum, aged about 60, said, "I have no chance to go outside to watch jatra or cinema. The boys organised it near home, so I could watch it. I liked it very much."

The main organiser was Rezaul Karim, a resident of Amarpur village. He also sat beside the stage and took on the prompter’s role. Rezaul said four female artistes, four musicians and one make-up artiste had to be brought from Joypurhat. They had to be paid a total of 25,000 taka for the two plays, with transport costs separate. Local artistes collected the money through subscriptions.

Their initiative was to bring back a tradition that is being lost. Rezaul said, "We organised this only to bring back our lost heritage. That is why no ticket system was arranged. The plays were open to everyone."