Aatmahathya

As part of the International Theater Festival of Kerala, a play from Maharashtra was played on 27/12/2008 at Vijay Tendulkar Nagar. A play that speaks about the suicide of farmers in a small village in Maharashtra. Its a story about the failure of crop harvests and the farmers committing suicides because of pressure from the landlords to return the money. But if we take a 360 degree look at the farmer's situation, we see not only the landlords but also the depression of the farmer who is the sole breadwinner in the family, the loss of confidence as he is unable to cope with the fact that his source of income has failed him and a situation reaches where his belief in God is also lost. He starts loosing hope in life and the future looks bleak to him. The only hope left in life is to end it. When he sees the same situation among his fellow farmers and also see that the family's are recieving money when these farmers commit suicide, the mental compelssion to do such an act increases, he feels that this money would save his family from debt even if it costs it his life. He forgets the fact that the journey of life for his family doesnt end at here and even if he dies his family has to live with this humiliation and the main fact that the sole breadwinner is dead and now his children will have to enter child labour or his wife will have to find a way to live...
A situation is created by the money given by the government where the farmer is blind from the larger picture of life and death and his main aim becomes just to get the money for the family...
This drama is a message to the Govt and the media to decrease the hype surrounding the suicides and especially around some Minister giving money to these families.
Sadly, this drama was not appreciated by the local people of the place since it was never meant for a town like this...if this was to be played somewhere in Mangalore, Kannur and areas suurounding that, I am sure that the people would be able to understand
Also, i feel the people today have very much become used to films and the fictions surrounding it that they are no longer in a mood to accept reality, be it in the movies or in drama