Drama - Ki Kumar Jailma Ki Kumar Railma

Drunk Jester and his Disciple are chasing evil spirits and demons from the city of Darshan Abhagi with the help of a pheri (a ceremonial musical instrument made from animal bone). Drunk Jester hears a party inside the police station and decides with his Disciple to go inside, disguised as rats. There, they meet Kumar, a 15-year-old boy who dreams of opening a dance training center named after his dead mother. He used to work as a conductor on the city bus. Kumar and his friend Samir, a 19-year-old boy, are in police custody on charges of stealing a mobile phone. Disciple strikes a friendship with Kumar. A night of drunken stupor continues inside the police station, and Kumar is killed in a drunken rage by the head of the police station. But his death is framed as a suicide and taken for post-mortem in a government hospital. The body of Kumar gets dissected by Mortician. Jester starts singing about death being only a dream and urges Kumar to wake up. With a stitched and hollow body, Kumar awakes. He has two options: return to jail or catch the train to run away to a faraway place where he will be safe. Meanwhile, the police summon the father of Kumar, Ramesh (also known as Jhilke Master, who works as a tailor and lives in a nearby slum), to sign the paper accepting the death of Kumar as by suicide. They bring out the old incident of his wife’s death two years ago, which was by suicide, and tell Ramesh they can easily show it as murder and put him in jail instead. With no hope of justice, Ramesh gives up and signs the paper. After running from the mortuary, planning to catch a train and run to a faraway place, Kumar goes to his house to fetch the money he has saved. There, he meets his dead mother, who is hiding inside a tank (a steel container for clothes). He finds out from his mother that his drug-addicted brother has stolen the money he has kept. Exploring the city's underbelly, he finds his brother, who is slowly turning into the lizard. With no money to run, he meets Darshan Abhagi, a little man who is a celebrity. Darshan Abhagi, with a bag full of cash, has just returned to the city after getting disillusioned with money and fame. Together, they wait for the train. In the train station, Disciple, along with Mother Samir, lover of Kumar and the city's angels, come to stop Kumar from running away and remind him about his dream of opening a Dance Center. But Kumar’s fear of the police remains intact. Will Kumar be able to perform his last dance?

The play is written in memory of Kiran Karki Dholi, a 15-year-old Dalit boy who died on April 14, 2019, in the custody of the Biratnagar Area Police Office. Though the play is informed by many real life incidents surrounding Kiran’s death, it is a work of fiction set in a fictional city. The play is divided into two parts. The first realistic part is set in a police station and a mortuary. It deals with the power dynamics of Nepali society that include caste and class, the nature of violence, and masculinity. The second fantastical part is an ode to Kiran's short-lived life and dreams. This part acts against the reality of senseless death with a celebration of life. Like Kumar, Kiran also dreamed of becoming a dancer. The play uses some elements of Nepali folk theater like the use of Sutradhar/Bidushak and pheri. Sutradahar/Bidushak is a jester-like character who joins the thread of the story within the play and can address the audience directly and talk about the play and other real-life issues. We have used this element to achieve the distancing effect. Even though the play is fictional and has fantastical elements, the use of Sutradhar helps to root the audience for the horrible misuse of power happening in their society. The play also uses a custom of pheri. It is a ritual done by Yogi/Jogi at midnight in Kartik and Shrawan, where they go around villages chanting mantras and blowing pheri to ward off evil spirits. It is believed to be done for the welfare of the animals reared in the household and for the overall protection of the household from different types of spirits roaming around the village. Nightmarish aspects of play can be achieved successfully by this element. As the sound of pheri is connected with dead spirits and is only heard during midnights, when the play is opened with this custom, the audience will be transported to the time and space of dead souls. According to the report of the online Indian Portal, the Wire, 18 people have died in police custody in Nepal from June 2015 to June 2020. Also, according to the report by the Center for Center Investigative Journalism, "The figure, based on news reports published in various media, doesn’t include 'murders under control'. The figure, adjusted for population size, is far more than that reported in neighboring India during the same period." It is important to note the number of people who have died from such circumstances are from the Dalit community. The caste system, which designates the power hierarchy from time immemorial, still dictates the life of the Dalit community in Nepal. The lack of enough representation in government organizations and Nepal being a country where you are weak when your keen members are not in an economically and politically powerful position can make the life of a Dalit family very hard. Also, communal trauma gets transferred to modern times and can take a new form of mental trauma. Our play aims to address these issues in the form of an entertaining play. Rather than flag raising the issue, our play aims to celebrate the life of the people who died without the opportunity of justice, thus generating empathy among the audience members.