by  Sunayana Panda

The first thing to be said about Kali Theatre’s play “Zameen” is that it takes you straight to the heart of the real India. This in itself is something noteworthy because the general view that one gets of India from Britain is the Bollywood version where everything is clean, colour-coordinated and cute and where everyone is singing and dancing. This play is about the villages where the vast majority of the Indian population lives and where life is still strongly bonded to the land and the forces of nature. By looking at the poster outside the Arts Theatre one might think that this is just a sad story about a farmer who kills himself because he can’t pay back his loan but actually this play is also about the place of women in Indian society, the average uneducated man’s obsession of migrating to the West by any means, the question of the marriage market and about relationships too.

It makes sense to draw the attention of the audience to a problem that even in India hardly disturbs anybody. Somewhere deep underneath the avalanche of stories about the fabulously wealthy Indians in the world, about the financial empires of the Mittals, the Tatas and the Ambanis is buried the tragic tale of the Indian farmers who are crushed under the burden of debts and finding no other escape route take their own lives. This is something that takes place every single day but few seem to be bothered. After all, why talk about these sad subjects when we can talk about the millions spent on the latest movies and the shopping malls coming up everywhere?

The story is set in rural Punjab where an old farmer dreams of the next crop of his cotton field. Having spent large amounts of money on the genetically modified seeds and chemical pesticides he already has a heavy loan to pay back. When the crop fails, destroyed by pests, he loses everything, even the piece of land which is his only wealth. Interwoven into this background is the plot of his loving daughter who supports her father in every way but who is also in love with a young man who has just returned from America and who also happens to be the son of the upstart money-lender her father is tormented by. Her disillusioned brother, who has turned to alcohol, dreams of going to America and can’t stop envying those who have become rich by leaving the country. Nothing seems to dissuade him, not even the revelations made by his friend, the man his sister is in love with, about the dark reality of the illegal immigrant’s life.

The success of this production comes as much from the insight and the skill of the playwright, Satinder Kaur Chohan, as from the taut pace of the action created by the director, Janet Steel. The narrative holds many threads deftly together and creates that emotional tension which makes it all the more poignant when everything falls apart at the end. The director, who worked with the cast for four weeks on an intense full-time rehearsal schedule, has succeeded in getting the same level of perfection from all the actors – no one falls below the mark. A special mention must be made of the only woman in the cast, Goldy Notay, who gradually builds up her moving performance from a low-keyed beginning to the emotional crescendo of the last scene.

The grim reality which the play pulls us into is relieved by many bright elements. Visually, the imaginative set design adds a poetic touch while the lighting is very effective in creating the right mood. The affection of the daughter for her old father, the genuine expression of friendship between the two young men, the humour which is always present in spite of the hardships and the bitterness, all keep the audience’s interest alive.

The one jarring note that comes to mind is the fact that none of the actors, except Bhaskar Patel, actually speak like an Indian. Their accent gives them away and breaks the illusion. While everyone is talking about “Amrica”, the land of plenty, even Suraj, the young man who is flaunting his money earned there doesn’t have an American accent. Had he spoken more like an America-returned youth he would have brought the crass commercial, globalising presence of the USA more convincingly into the picture. Among the minor flaws is the neem tree which looks more like a cherry tree with its bare branches and large blossoms. A neem tree never loses its very bushy clumps of leaves and produces tiny white flowers.

“Zameen” deserves our appreciation because it shows us what lies in the shadows, the heart-rending details of those lives which are sacrificed as globalisation brings prosperity to some. Satinder Chohan has herself said that these lives are linked to ours in ways that we are not even aware of. Her play will touch different people in different ways. Some might see shades of “King Lear” in it while others may simply be reminded of the smell of wet earth “back home”.