Editor: Bijit Sinha
Publisher: Half Baked Beans
Which is the
most memorable Jataka Tale that you have read?
Jataka Tales is a collection of 4 one-act plays based on the Jataka Tales and
each of them reimagines a Bodhisatta, a person yet to become a Buddha. The first
story is titled The Bodhisatta and the Master Mariner which tells us the
story of a partially blind son of a master mariner who competes for the same
title as his father. The second story is titled The Bodhisatta and the
Garuda King and is the story of a weakling king, who is tasked to save his
kingdom. In Bodhisatta and the Prince Samvara we experience the journey
of a prince who is thought to be the prophesied child of the empire but turns
out to be a disappointment. However, mysterious events unfold with the
appearance of a stranger. The last play in the book is titled The Bodhisatta
and the Principal Blacksmith where we journey through the life of a
blacksmith who has been touted as the curse to his family, and has to travel to
the village of blacksmiths to uncover a 20-year-old secret behind his bloodline.
The selection of
the plays is an interesting one as each of them is quite different from the
rest, yet they maintain a common thread that binds them together. There is a
moment of reckoning for each of the protagonist as they find their destiny, or
in some case it finds them. The screenplays have been drafted in an amazing
manner and since these are essentially one-act plays, they can be a good
inspiration for people to take these up and probably dramatize them in person.
The fact that there are young children who have played a huge part in the
drafting of these plays is an additional bonus of reading the book. Taking this
opportunity to appreciate all the young authors of the book-Reina Sagar, Asmee
Dewan, Jayaditya Gupta, Liubov Gorejko, Pragnya Gupta, Shaarav Jhamb, Anika
Malhotra, Syona Brar, Lalit Kohli, Jonathan Munluo and Lavanya Sharma. These young
minds have come up with something quite interesting and I am sure I am going to
see a lot more of these guys in the coming years. The dramatization is simple,
yet retains the true essence of the story, one that keeps it fresh in a reader’s
mind and helps them recall it time and again.
Overall, a good
read that scores a 3.88/5 for me.
Grab the book here.
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