LAHORE, April 3: The agony of a Kashmiri woman, portrayed by an artiste from Chandigarh, moved the audience at Alhamra on Monday.

The performance of Malika Singh, the daughter of Rajinder Rozy who played lead in Dukh dariya, was ‘like mother, like daughter’.

Written by Shahid Nadeem and directed by his better half Madeeha Gauhar for Ajoka, Dukh dariya was the second performance on the fourth day of the third Panj Pani Indo-Pak Theatre Festival at Hall No II.

It is about a Kashmiri woman, Shahnaz, who after being taunted and tormented for having no child, jumps into the river dividing the two parts of the disputed territory. Shahnaz ends up on the other side of the border in India where she is arrested, interrogated and eventually raped.

Shahnaz is now pregnant, a proof of the horror of rape in custody, but it also belies the allegations of infertility. She gives birth to a beautiful girl, Mobeen, who is brought up in Jammu jail until Shahnaz is released and arrangements are made for her repatriation.

But another shock is awaiting her. According to the laws governing the two countries, she, as a Pakistani Kashmiri, can return to her country but not her daughter —- an Indian-born citizen with an Indian father. Officials of the two governments haggle over rules regarding the citizenship and identity of the hapless mother and daughter.

The play is more than a dramatic presentation of Shahnaz’s story as it also depicts the sufferings of women during partition, especially those forcibly repatriated, leaving their children behind.

Other roles in the two-hour play were performed by veteran Uzra Butt, Sarfraz Ansari, Farhan Malik, Furqan Majeed, Razia Malik, Faizi, Iqbal Naqvi, Yaqoob Masih, Aamir Masih, Wasim Looka, Nadeem Abbas, Avaes and Sumaira Siddiqui.

The play will be staged again on Tuesday (today) at Hall No II at 6.30pm.

“Ajoka has plans to stage it in the Indian Kashmir as well,” said Madeeha Gauher.

Earlier, the open air performance by New Jhok, Nawey patar was staged.

It is the story of children like Guddu whose years of freedom, play and learning are wasted in the rigours of child labour. The play was a good effort to reflect the issues of poverty, overpopulation, low educational budget, poor infrastructure and the negative behaviour of teachers besides injudicious distribution of resources and opportunities.

Written and directed by Probir Guha for the Alternative Living Theatre, Chandigarh, Trittya juddha (third war) inspires folks to celebrate the rituals of harvest, while a marriage is taking place.

The cast of the 60-minute play was Goutam Kumar Sen, Suman Das, Abhijit Halder, Tapan Das, Probir Guha, Subhadeep Guha, Sayantani Indu, Ashima Das and Soma Das.

The open air performance of ‘We promise’ by Alternative Living Theatre, will begin at 5pm while ‘Natak Munshi Khan Da’ by Chandigarh School of Drama will be staged at 8:30pm at Hall No I on Tuesday.