Showcase: Muktidham, a theatre performance that dissects different societies in two eras

Majumdar tries to dissect why all of the fascist movements eventually became anti intellectual, especially focusing on the right wing movement. “The time when I began conceptualising the play was when a series of intolerant events were taking place in our country. The entire JNU incident, the FTII fiasco and there was a huge discussion going on about the repercussions of having a right wing government. A critical observation was that a lot universities and educational institutions were being attacked and a sense of anti-intellectualism prevailed. At this point, as a writer I felt if I don’t respond to this, I will question myself later for not doing so. I wanted to take the conversation beyond the social media clutter,” says Majumdar. The play will be held as part of the Vinod Doshi Theatre Festival, to be held from February to March 3. The play is a production of Bangalore-based Indian Ensemble.

Muktidham dwells on a debate between two priests who reside in a temple surrounded by Buddhists. “At a time when everybody is slowly turning to Buddhism, the head of the Matha will be taking Samadhi (attain salvation). A successor needs to be chosen, both of whom hold opposing views on how the conversion can be mitigated. Yuyutsu believes inclusion of the lower caste is the solution where as Agnivesh believes in the creation of a radical group against the Buddhists. We see that during the course of the play the intellectual root diminishes and that sets the premise,” explains Majumdar.

Despite the fact that conceptualising a play set in the eighth century was an “exciting challenge” for the writer-director, it stemmed from bringing forth ideologies which existed in that time period. “During this time, Hindu believers were questioning their own religion and the upper caste did not approve of this. There would be debates in places like Taxila and Pataliputra amongst the urban middle class, a rise of the same category we see in today’s time as well,” asks Majumdar.

An atheist harbouring within, Majumdar found it extremely hard to write the play as a believer, “I had to make sure I wrote it as a believer, only then would it answer the hard-hitting question- what is the role of a believer who does not see himself as a fundamentalist? The play is not an argument between atheists and followers.”