By S Datta

Drama has been defined as 'imitation of action'-since the days of Aristotle's 'Poetics'. That the definition still holds good is illustrated more convincingly than ever by 'Kalbela', a moving hourlong drama on Tripura's chrornic insurgency problem . It was the inaugural night of 'Chandan Sengupta memorial drama festival ' on January 16 when 'Kalbela'-a drama based on the travails of the life of a tribal militant - was staged to universal applause. Tripura's leading playwright and director Sanjay Kar has sought to convey a didactic message through his drama : the futility of life in th jungle and its self-destructive nature. The message went down well with the audience comprising people belonging to both the ethnic communities. The dramatic elements of 'Kalbela' revolves round the character of tribal teenager Nishit Debbarma who joins a banned militant outfit under the influence of a recruting agent Bipul .Soon Nishit discovers the sheer fruitlessness of life in the jungle and pursuing the 'mirage' called 'freedom struggle Bengali occupants'. In the meantime Bipul, the recuriting agent and 'tax' collector', entices Nishit's sister Laxmipati to elope with him . After committing the familiar misdeeds of sexual enjoyment he also duly ditches Laxmi who is forced to become a sex-worker. The moment of truth for Nishit arrives when he ,much to his horror , discovers his sister living a prostute's life in a tribal 'Jhum' hut . With his cup of woes now full to the brim Nishit reacts with sheer disgust to the abduction of a qualified doctor Ranjan Debarma who had been taken to the militant hide-out at gun-point to conduct an abortion on the paramour of the commander . The doctor was treated to fisticuffs when he sermonised his tormentors on the futility of chasing a utopia to Nishit's ever-rising anger . Finally Nishit helped the doctor flee the militant hide-out and himself went missing-the doctor could not say whether the young militant had been shot by police or his colleagues or simply died of illness. This new genre of drama seems to have taken off in Tripura since 1999 when leading Manipuri playwright and director Hirendra Sinha staged his award-wining play 'Apahriter Diary' (Diary of the abducted) in which he showed the travails of a school teacher who survived the torments of captivity in a militant hide-out only because the commander of the group happened to be his former student. While the dramas have made a positive impact a Bengali novel of calcutta's leading writer Samaresh Mazumder, evocatively titled 'Eto Rakta Keno" (why so much blood-letting ) from a line in Rabindra Nath Tagore's celebrated drama 'Bisarjan', based on an episode in erstwhile princely Tripura's history evoked adverse comments from literateurs here. Based on the partially correct but second-hand story of a doctor being abducted by banned ATTF militants and rescued by his journalist brother-in-law the novel captures little of the realities of the state . Worse, the novel has a rather surrealistic end with the doctor returning safely home after the militant leader's father is abducted by his gun-wielding brother-in-law. Fact has an unerring capacity for staying poles apart from fiction.