|
The Question – ‘Is God Dead?’
 Cho’s
third play – ‘Is God Dead?’ – featured the
golden-jubilee-actor-director-playwright in the lively role of a
physician of questionable integrity. The Doc. Navaneethan
tumbles upon a wonder-cure for T.B., all thanks to a patient
who, in sheer desperation, mixes various ingredients to create a
potion, which cures him of his incurable ailment (TB)
miraculously.
The Doctor
tries it on eighteen slum-dwellers, as an “exemplary Samaritan”,
free of cost, at a medical camp organised with a lot of fanfare.
All the incurables get cured. The Doctor ‘earns’ nation-wide
acclaim and wins the coveted ‘Padma Bhushan’ award, as well.
But
then, all the villagers die after a few weeks in an inexplicable
manner and in the same fashion. The physician gets hauled up,
faces searching enquiry by the Medical Council. Undaunted, he
bullies them by questioning their own credibility factor, as
also professional etiquette. Result- the Doc. gets cleared
totally. Cho
towers over them all!.
Soosai, an
atheist-rowdy turned theist, tries his best to book the doctor
for his cruel fraudulence for personal gains, but gets
frustrated by the unholy non-cooperation from all concerned. The
local Christian priest, who had been instrumental in Soosai’s
transformation, is now unable to answer his forceful query, ‘Is
there God, or is He dead?’. Soosai also dies of the Doctor’s
killer-medicine to prove that the doctor is a crook who, all the
same, cannot be exposed by any means. If ignorance clouded the
existence of God in Soosai’s vision earlier, then selfish and
self-centered interests have done away with God now. That is
Soosai’s unaffirmed poser.
 This
time, Cho
takes a sharp dig at the unethical, and even criminal, practices
that mar the noble medical profession. Cho
excels as the unscrupulous Doctor who laughs, loudly and
cruelly, at the helpless machinery in all related fields. He has
caused the death of 18 innocent villagers and yet has won
meritorious recognition. The powers-that-be, who should have
punished him turn out to be spineless accomplices. If they
expose the Doctor they stand to get exposed. There comes the
rub. The vicious circle is sickening.
Social worker Sukumari
is the typical personification of the pseudo social worker
today. But then, the point is, she did this very role decades
ago and yet it is a true to life depiction today also! Laugh,
laugh, till you choke, twenty years after, too!
Ambi Rajagopal,
as the Junior Doctor Raghu, turns a sincere portrayal when he
gets penitent later. Otherwise, he is more an enjoyable
comedian, a pity! Soosai is convincing in his confusion on the
existence of God. He dies in confusion too, what a relief!
Cho
lays bare, without compunction, the inadequacies of the medical
profession, the woeful lack of character in the professional
practioners. His barbed jibes at the characterless professionals
pierce our hearts, no doubt, but harmlessly. Our system has
become totally inured to all these timeless evils. Therein lies
the true evil. Cho’s
plays may come and may go, but the evil flows on forever. The
physician in us has to heal himself first, then only society can
be cured. Who is to bell the cat?
R. Srinivasan
Ph: 24355576
r_seema30@hotmail.com
Published on 12th
June 2004
More
Articles
|
