"BODI WALA TARA"an woman-centric, a bold feminist Punjabi play is a major milestone in contemporary Punjabi theatre. It is redolent with the scent of the Malwa region and reverberates with Punjabi folk rhythms rangingfrom Giddha to Siyapa. Imaginatively scripted by a well known Bollywood actor, Rana Jang Bahadur, This play revolves around the helpless and harrowing life of Kanti who is said to have seen the in-auspicious comet (Bodi wala Tara) Kanti is a weak vulnerable village woman married to an impotent man. Her Unspeakable anguish and mental torture in the apathetic rural milieu becomes her destiny. Burning with a desire to get rid of the stigma and shame of barrenness and to fulfil her dream of motherhood, She beseeches and begs her husband for touch of love but is cruelly spurned.
She catches hold of her husband's brother who is vigorous an virile. She overwhelms him, her famine charms, a warm embrace which dissolves all resistance. This gives her a new lease oflife and assures her ofthejoy of motherhood but the hounds offate still chase her. Her husband and his brother begin to quarrel over the partition of the land. It ends in the murder of one of them. This play is a powerful indictment of society that reduces the status and dignity of women and treats them as mere child bearing machines. It is a potent pleafor recognizing women's right.
