HYDERABAD: Is motherhood a universal feeling? A debatable and yet often agreed upon topic that explores certain emotions buried deep in the psyche. And when children encounter this it gets deep-seated in their thoughts. It’s at this point that extreme of love transmutes into hatred. Hatred which is also an expression of love because it’s in human nature to lambaste that very person whom s/he hates. An 11-year-old portrayed this emotion in the play ‘I Hate You’ staged at Lamakaan recently. Produced by city-based theatre organisation Nishumbita was a 40-minute long monologue delivered solely by the child artiste.
The play began with the scene of an eleven-year-old child in her bed-room. She depicts the scene of her everyday life talking about her parents and how she’s the apple of their eye. The child artiste Nishtha Mehra voiced both the mother and the father in the play. She through her dialogues talks about her school life, her stomach-ache that’s just an alibi not to go and attend school. The small narratives show that she is much closer to her mother than her father. The mother-daughter bond is strengthened more when the child jumps from an auto-rickshaw and hurts her knees badly. The monologue continues with the child ‘s sobs mixed with whining of the mother. The child-artiste mumbles amid cries, “Sab meri galti hai. Meri chanda. Meri gudiya, tujhey kya ho gya?”
The guilt shifts entirely on the mother who blames herself for the misfortune of her child. The story progresses and the monologue focuses on the child’s birthday. The narrator tells that the mother goes to buy a box of paints for the daughter to a shop by the roadside and while returning home she is run over by a lorry on the spot.
The happy background changes into that of mourning. The child sobs and sobs pointing to the b’day caps and decorations on the stage. The lights dim and in the background we hear other voices shouting at the child saying, “You are the killer. You have killed your mother. Because of you she lost her life.”
The child cries and cries and begs innocence, but the accusations continue leaving her broken. She falls on the ground and in moments of agony says that it’s because of her mother that she has to face so much hatred from the world. She says that even her own father doesn’t bother to cast a glance at her and instead a nanny has been appointed to take care of her needs. In a heated moment of despair the child says, “Mother, I hate you. I hate you mother.” The play ends with the child sobbing, mourning and accusing the mother of leaving her alone in this big bad world.
The sole strength of the play rests on the shoulders of the eleven year old artiste. Her flawless monologue is commendable. She doesn’t falter even once during those 40 minutes. On being asked how she managed she told us. “I was forbidden to eat ice-creams, chocolates and even sweets while I practised.”
Her acting supports otherwise a very weak and insipid plot. The death and its aftermath could have been highlighted for prolonged minutes for the audience’s mind to soak in the grief and its effect that the child went through. It was kept very brief and hence doesn’t make the desired effect as it was presumed to have made. She could justify her emotions with a word as heavy as ‘hate’ when associated with mother.
An eleven-year-old’s mind still can’t grasp how a word like ‘hate’ can find its root in a figure that’s so loving. When asked the director Dr. Ram Mohan Holagundi replied, “Such emotions move away and children understand such emotions very well. When we are very close to a person s/he is target of our anger.”