A dramatic tribute to life and legacy of Indian poet and Satyagrahi Subhadra Kumari Chauhan

Subhadra Kumari Chauhan was an influential Indian poet and writer, best known for her Hindi-language poetry and her involvement in India's struggle for independence. While many know of her poetic creations, her contribution to the Indian freedom struggle is not known to a larger strata of society. With a motive to narrate the same, director Bharti Sharma and playwright Aasif Ali recently created a play 'Khoob Ladi Mardaani' in nautanki style at the ongoing Summer Theatre Festival at the National School of Drama.
The 2-hour play's motive was to inform the audiences and, at the same time, inspire them to contribute to the sovereignty and unity of the nation.

It has also been shown in the play that Subhadra had to face a lot of struggle in her life, even at the family level, and how men used to control them, and in those times, women did not have that much freedom. This is the reason why she was forced to keep the veil at home. And Subhadra also had to do this at the beginning of her married life. Such scenes shed light on the personality of Subhadra.
The play creatively narrates that during the freedom struggle, Congress had cheated Subhadra Kumari Chauhan in the matter of giving her an election ticket from the Jabalpur assembly seat, and when she complained about this to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, it was only due to Patel's intervention that Subhadra got the ticket, and she won the election for the Legislative Assembly of Central Province unopposed.

This scene was shown in a play staged by the National School of Drama on the life of Subhadra, which shows that the Congress under whose leadership she was jailed twice in the freedom struggle (once along with her freedom fighter husband Laxman Singh Chauhan) deleted Subhadra ji's name to give a ticket to Seth Govind Das's daughter. This information was given to Subhadra by the veteran Congressman of that time, Dwarka Prasad Mishra, who later became the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and was also a reputed poet of his time.

In the play, Dwarka Prasad Mishra tells Subhadra that the provincial committee of Congress has decided to give tickets to only one person in a family. Therefore, only one of Laxman Singh Chauhan (Subhadra's husband) and Subhadra will get the ticket. But Seth Govinddas had decided not to contest the elections and wanted to get the ticket for his daughter Ratna Kumari. Therefore, the provincial committee decided to give him the ticket. Hearing this, Subhadra and her husband were deeply shocked. He wrote a letter to Sardar Patel, and intervened and informed him through the letter that now the provincial committee has decided to give him the ticket. Subhadra Ji said that she had not participated in the freedom struggle for the election ticket, but Congress had cheated her.
Such instances seamlessly blend into the play to show how much Subhadra sacrificed while taking part in the fight for the country, and she never desired any power. But at the same time, her nobility and honesty made her a popular choice among all age groups.
In a nutshell, this play gives a message that your dedication and honesty towards your work and nation can take you places and can make you an inspiring figure time immemorial.
The director has creatively used the nautanki style of drama to narrate the story. The most soul-touching scenes of the play are when Subhadra recalls the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and when she is sent to jail with her newborn, leaving behind her two other kids at home.