Mangal Mukhi | A Solo Play on the life of Transgenders

Theater and cinema are not meant only for entertainment. They are a medium of portraying social issues, norms and customs in such a way that they strike a chord in the hearts of the audience and the real motive behind it gets home.

Mangal Mukhi is a play that harps on the issues related to transgenders and redefine the limbo in which a transgender finds himself. The play questions real life challenges that they go through. It tries to bring forth the heart wrenching journey of physical and psychological transition of a transgender and the attitude of people towards the transgender community.

The transgenders are often bewildered when they become aware of their sexuality and their search for their real identity. The inclination towards the feminine side starts developing gradually and when they do not show interest in doing things done by boys, people have all sorts of nasty comments to pass on. Every human being has the right and liberty to do things at his/her own accord. Just because a boy does not like playing cricket does not give people the liberty to comment on his personality.

MANGAL MUKHI is all about the effort to negate the superstitious beliefs of the people regarding the transgender community. It emphasizes on the pragmatic side of the lives of the transgenders instead of delving into the myths and superstitions that people have regarding them.

The play has some instances that define different stages of a boy’s life and his realization about his existence. The act focuses on real-life situations that the boy deals with in his early childhood,puberty, adulthood and thereafter. It somewhere also talks about the bad socio-economic condition of the transgender community which ultimately leave them with very less choices and helplessness. The play also talks about the ups and downs of a much hyped normal life. A life which is endangered and faces cruelty and double standards of people towards them. The play tries to bring forth the stark reality that the boy faces while he is going through a total inner transition resulting in conflicts and confusion. He is afraid because no one is ready to accept him the way he is. He tries to hanker onto his masculine side but is unable to control his feminine side, which starts developing eventually. His family is no more his own as they think that they would be boycotted if people come to know about their son. The character is unable to comprehend the victimization that he goes through. He keeps questioning himself about his identity time and again. 

The play questions the current situations of transgenders and try to clear out the air of confusion among the people with the hope that their outlook will evolve. The objective of the play is to project a clear picture of the present scenario of transgender community in such a way that it would inculcate some sense and sensibility into the people and they would become more sensitive in their treatment of the transgenders.

The main motive of the play is to make people aware of the ups and downs that the transgenders go through in their lives and the feeling of dejection on being rejected by the society. The play hopes to initiate a revolution that works towards the betterment of the transgender community. It also aims to highlight the socio-economic aspect of the community through the act. The issue is such that it is not confined to any region, state,country or continent and thus, the intention behind staging this play is to take this global issue to a world platform for international audiences as well.

Mangal Mukhi is to be directed by Abishek Chauhan, an artist and a writer who has written scripts for many NGOs. After showcasing his talents as a writer, he has donned the director’s cap this time and Mangal Mukhi is his first play as a director.

Yuvraj Kumar plays the protagonist. He got high praise after his role in the National Award winning film “Mithila Makaan”. Yuvraj has acted in several short films,ads and plays and also has a diploma in theater and acting.

“I believe that portraying the role of a transgender would give me the opportunity of making people understand the inner and outer turmoils that a transgender goes through as well as try to bring about a change in their perceptions towards the transgender community,” says Yuvraj.

One of the other motives of “Mangal Mukhi” that is to be held on 3rd Dec at Kalidas Rangalaya from 6pm onwards is to revive the theatrical culture of Bihar. Bihar is known as the land of art and culture and yet, the culture of theater over here is declining rapidly. When the term ‘theater’ is mentioned, people directly associate it with cinema or those cheap thrill at Sonepur Mela without even realizing the real meaning of this term. Through this play, the team of Mangal Mukhi attempts to rekindle the dimming flames of theater culture in Bihar.

The play  is being backed by Lions club and Bobis Entertainment and in association with PatnaBeats, an online media house that has always believed in motivating the youth and reconstructing the ideals of the society in order to take the status of Bihar a notch higher.

The team of Mangal Mukhi requests the audience to do a crowd funding. They believe that people would participate in crowd funding out of respect for the issue being addressed and not because of any expectations of some kind of a personal benefit out of it. The sole objective behind this funding is a wider reach of the play, to show the play in various international drama festivals thus taking a step towards eradicating the lack of awareness among people.

Please come and watch this play : Entry Free on passes only

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Quote of the day: “No one has the right to demand that your body be something other than what it is.” 
― Agnostic Zetetic