A moment from Pichal Manuh. Picture by H. Shatananda Sharma

The carefree mind of a child burdened with present education system and pressure from parents to excel — was the message Pichal Manuh (Slippery Man), an Assamese play, conveyed to its audience at the sixth Northeast Children Theatre Festival 2009 held in Imphal.

Written and directed by Hemanta Gogoi, the play, which deals with parental expectations faced by today’s children, was staged by a group from Assam — We The People — on January 31 at Rupmahal Theatre in Imphal.

In the play, a young boy is forced to stay inside his house and study by his well-established parents — his mother is a doctor while father is an officer. During school holidays, while other children played outside, his parents insisted that he remained focussed on his studies and worked hard.

The boy, however, conjures up imaginary figures and one of them is Pichal Manuh, the slippery man. The boy feels that only Pichal Manuh could take him out of the four-walled room.

The boy did not have a free mind, he lived inside the cage built by his parents like Sita, who had to stay inside a boundary line drawn by Lord Ram and Lakshman.

One day, an old male servant took the boy to market. After returning from the market, he fell asleep and dreamt of his Pichal Manuh who took him on a tour of the world outside which had people toiling hard in the fields to earn their living and other crowded places.

The underlying message of the play — only academic education is not enough for the development of young minds — all round education is important for the present generation to grow.

Pichal Manuh was able to convey it message of the present day problem successfully to its audience.

Skilful acting by the child actor, Priyobarta Bora, and his slippery man, Jyotishman Bordoloi, could draw a picture of conflict between the boy’s dreams and real life with few dialogues.

Other artistes such as Jayasmita Deka, Jyotismriti Bordoloi, Manashi Goswami, Debojyoti Saikia and Pollov Hazarika also did justice to their characters.

The writer kept the Assamese cultural elements out of the play.