Mysore jail inmates at National drama festival

Mysore jail inmates at National drama festival
RAMU PATIL

BANGALORE, FEB 20: For the first time in the country, may be in the world, criminals will make their State and families proud. For a moment they will forget their past.

Thanks to reforms undertaken by the prison administration in the State, inmates of Mysore Central Jail will perform before an audience at Natakabharathi-2001, a national drama festival to be held at Kasargod, Kerala, from Feb 24 to March 2, 2001.

The Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Academy, which is conducting the festival, has invited the inmates of Mysore Central Jail and eight others released from jail to stage a play at the festival.

The group will stage a play Maranayaka, a Kannada translation of Shakespeare's Macbeth on Feb 25 at Kasargod's Municipal Town Hall. The audience will have literary and theatre personalties who are nationally and internationally renowned.

In a letter to the State Prison Department, Secretary of Kerala Sangeet Nataka Academy P Appukuttan said Maranayaka

a production of Karnataka State Prison department was singled out for the honour of being selected for the festival in view of the uniqueness of its production.

Nowhere in India or abroad have such theatrical experiments been held on such a scale, with prison inmates as actors.

The Academy has offered to pay a participation fee of Rs 15,000 to the group. Travelling expenses will be taken care of.

The troupe had performed in Mysore and other places. The audience found it hard to believe that the actors were not professionals, but prisoners. The play was a success wherever it was performed.

Director General of Police and Inspector General of Prisons L Revannassiddaiah said such occasions help give an opportunity to inmates to interact with socially-motivated people.

Regarding selection of inmates for such activities he said: Only long-term prisoners were selected for the purpose as it was difficult to judge the temperament of short-term prisoners. Long-term prisoners have accepted the reality that they have been convicted for crime they committed and would like to do some good work.

Eight of the 34-member group were released from the jail after serving the term. But they regularly come back for rehearsals. They will work with the inmates for the festival.

The family and relatives who do not wish to meet inmates in jails will see them on stage. Most of the group members have appealed to jail authorities to send word to their family about the play, so that they can see them in a different role, only if it is for a short while.

The group has been invited to stage a play by Pajaveer Seer at a new auditorium in Udupi which was recently inaugurated by Prime Minister Vajpayee.

The jail administration in Karnataka and the inmates in Mysore Jail have set an good example for jail administration in other States.

Inmates in Gulbarga Central Jail are quick to follow the suit. They are now practicing a Russian play