New Delhi (India), February 24: Packed at the double its capacity, the Versova-based performance studio, Lé Chakallas, was brimming with audiences at the staging of ‘Ghat Ghat Mein Panchi Bolta Hai’ on Wednesday. The play, written and directed by the award-winning playwright, Smita Bharti, is a series of interconnected letters in the form of monologues by 9 characters, set in one triggering night.

Produced under the ‘Stage For Change’ initiative of SBOX by Sakshi (Regd. NGO 1992), Ghat Ghat Mein Panchi Bolta Hai is an effort to support sustained engagement through social arts for Sakshi’s flagship programme – The Rakshin Project. The Rakshin Project aims to create a social tipping point to increase awareness, galvanise advocacy efforts and share knowledge and innovations to end VAWG once and for all.

Performed by the stellar ensemble cast, which included Sandip Soparrkar, Swaroopa Ghosh, Padma Damodaran, Tanranjit Kaur, Indu Sharma, Shruti Mishra, Harvinder Kaur, Mahima Mishra, Smiley Suri & Satchit Puranik, the play sought to examine unspoken and unaddressed truths which inform all our actions and reactions, until we drift away into our cages of denial, silence, shame, and the fear of stigma.

Speaking about the device, Smita Bharti states, “Writing letters to each other is a lost art, and a  powerful one that travels inwards and out; exposition conscious positions and subliminal fears. The play explores these notions buried deep in the recesses of our minds, which come alive when we give ourselves space and time. This series of letters tying isolated decisions taken by 9 characters over a lifetime into a cohesive whole traverses the stories they tell themselves and live out with others, with secrets that fester and gloom that corrodes.

Stories to cover up same-sex relationships, intimate partner violence, domestic violence, child sexual abuse, teenage sexuality and mental health. Stories that spice and underline the banal every day and yet are rarely spoken aloud with the nearest ones. The play seeks to examine the most critical questions surrounding VAWG: what if these stories were spoken out? What if there was no longer a need to keep them a secret? What would change? Will anything change?”

Sakshi

Founded as a rights-based capacity-building organization. Sakshi (Regd. NGO 1992) is a pioneer of the feminist movement in India and the force behind two landmark PILs which became the backbone for several existing laws, including POSH 2013. After spearheading a programme on Judicial Education on Gender Equality for the Judiciary of 5 countries, which came to be recognized as a ‘Best Practice’ Model by UN Women, Sakshi is currently working towards mainstreaming the practice of Everyday Equality.

SBOX by Sakshi

A Social Enterprise by Sakshi, SBOX enables individuals and institutions to be the architects of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Using the power of winning words, inspiring imagery and strategic storytelling, the creative agency aims to propel audiences towards action for real social change.

Stage For Change

Designed by SBOX, Stage for Change® is a sustained engagement initiative undertaken to bring to life the creative vision of our Executive Director, Smita Bharti. With the purpose of building and engaging a community to initiate much-needed dialogue, Stage for Change uses the performance lens to equip audiences to heuristically recognise and enact change.

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