Historical play to be staged from today

Madhapur: The students of Dr Pejjai Nagaraju, a theatre director and acting trainer, on behalf of Samahaara will be staging a play, 'Maa Bhoomi,' at Phoenix Arena at Madhapur on August 3-4.

The play is written by Sunkara Satyanarayana and Vaasireddy Bhaskar Rao. It deals with atrocities of the Zamindars and the autocratic rule of the Nizam of Hyderabad. Written in 1947 this political drama gives us a glimpse of life in rural Telangana and how people suffered under the burden of taxation and the exploitation of the Deshmukhs.

As many as 125 groups were formed to perform Maa Bhoomi in 1947 and within a year they had completed thousand performances and around 20 lakh people watched the play. Still now, it is performed more than 12,000 shows.

The play was written to support the armed struggle taken up by the peasants across Telangana. The main targets of attack were the forced grain levy, the practice of veth begar, illegal exaction's and illegal seizures of land. The play also demonstrates the unity and diversity of Hindu and Mulslims.