Matsyaganddhi

The play Matsyaganddhi a solo performance of SajithaM , directed and scripted by her is going to be presented at Calicut Town Hall on 8th June. All are Welcome!

Duration-50min

Language-Malayalam

Music- Umesh Sudhakar

Light-Sreekanth

On Stage-Sajitha

Why This Play

The play Matsyaganddhi relates directly to thesustainability in fishing community and the role ofthis life sustaining industry in small costal communities around the world. The script of this playdeveloped through the interaction with fishingcommunity at Kerala costal area. It narrates how theimpact of globalization became a strong reason forloosing their deep knowledge on sea and crushedlivelihood of fisher folks. Matsyaganddhi reveals the pic ture of a marginalized society changing their selfunder the compulsion of the mainstream. Apart fromcaste related anomalies they had to face occupationrelated discrimination. The question of fish stinking is specter for the mainstream society whose obsessionwith a fragrant body odor keeps the fisherwomen always as a problematic one. The mainstream culturalartifacts like cinema, novel and other popular artform has represented fisherwomen as sex starred womanseeking always the attention of the visible man, thisimage of women as vulnerable to corrupt the moral andethical codes of mainstream Malayalee society.Interestingly the text developed around the issue offish stink and it became a theme image of the text.The solo play was scripted on the occasion of the Earth Summit, Johannesburg in South Africa.

Synopsis of Matsyagandi

Matsyaganddhi, literally 'the one who smells of fish'is a play that looks at the life and times of thefishing community in the context of globalization. Narrated in the form of a monologue by a fish-vending woman, the play brings to life various issues relating to the ecology and economy of fishing. It looks at the community life of the fisher folk from inside – a life that is being increasingly marginalized and livelihood made more and more impossible by the spread of the disastrous technology and oppressive economic and social relations. Weaving several contemporary incidents and insights into the narrative, the play throws up several dualities that map her and her folks' marginality - between fish-stink and upper class concerns about body odor,sea water and fresh water, low life on the streets versus safe compartmentalized life of the high, the lives of women versus men etc.

In the end, she realizes that the malaise runs much deeper and wider. She mourns "Look, this stench does not come from my basket. It's the stench of the sea decaying. It's the stench of the little fishes being slaughtered by the trawler nets. It's the stench of the decaying dreams of Matsyaganddhis.