The play of Loona makes Shiv Kumar Batalvi a contemporary poet. The book Loona was published in 1965, which helped Shiv to touch a new peak of success. He was awarded the Sahitya Academy Award for this book, and till date he is known to be the youngest recipient of this award. He was 28 years old when he received the award. Loona embraced the changes taking place in modern Punjabi literature.
The Tale of Loona was actually known as the Folk Tale of Bhagat Pooran. Loona had sexual and emotional desires which were often tagged as ‘lust’. Raja (King) Salwaan was an old king of Sialkot. He was married to queen Ichhra and they had a son named Pooran. Accepting the suggestions of his astrologers, the king sent his son Pooran away from him for first 12 years of his life, as he can’t see his face during that period. In between this time, king Salvaan married another young lady named Loona. Loona was a beautiful girl from a small middle class family living in a village. After his isolation period when Pooran returned to the Palace of Sialkot, Loona and Pooran met for the first time. Both Loona and Pooran were of the same age. Loona was very disappointed with her father’s decision of the marriage of King Salvaan and Loona. Loona was a girl with emotional and sexual desires whereas King Salvaan was an old lustful man.
When Loona first met Pooran, she was romantically attracted to Pooran. Loona tried to formulate an intimate sexual relationship with Pooran, which he denied. Pooran believed that being the step-son of Loona, he could not enter into such a relationship with her. Loona did not like the rejection and complained to King Salvaan that Poorna attempted to seduce her. Getting angry on Pooran, the king ordered his men to cut off his arms and legs and throw him into a well. Later a Guru with a spiritual power found him in the well, and he decided to take care of Pooran. The Guru named him as Bhagat Pooran.
Before Shiv Kumar’s angle to Loona, people always watched the story from Pooran’s side and called Loona an evil step-mother. In his version of Loona, Shiv talked about the emotional and sexual desires of Loona and the restrictions that were imposed on her at a very young age. Shiv took the story a step further. He focused on removing the evil tag associated with the name of Loona and at the same time presented her love for Pooran as an actual serious feeling of love. Shiv believed that Loona did not approach Pooran for his sexual needs, she was emotionally attracted to Pooran and was in love with him.
The Shiv Kumar Batalvi’s version of Loona has power to speak her feelings, which was not given much importance before this version came into existence. Shiv tried to bring the fact that King Salvaan has power to rule Sialkot, he has power over his wife Ichhra, but he can not force Loona to love her. Through these words Shiv presented Loona’s point of view:
My father did me wrong
He married me to a wilted flower
Ichhra his first wife enjoyed his youth
I am of Pooran’s age.. This world is not scandalized
But if Luna desires Puran
Why is she considered worthless by society?
Rather than Pooran, Shiv Kumar portrayed his mother Ichhra as the actual victim. Ichhra is the ideal Indian woman who is living a suffocated and helpless life. The mission of Ichhra’s life is obliging the male of her life and dropping her desires. Shiv speaks on Ichhra’s behalf:
Woman is another name
For blind faith
Woman is always born into injustice
Woman is the name of a feeling
Like that of pain embedded within a wound
Shiv Kumar Batalvi spoke about the story and reasons to write this tale, “I have sympathized with the plight of the suffering women by blowing on [the flames of] her wounds to reduce her pain or perhaps increase it. But I have blown these puffs of sympathy from within those folds of my heart in where the female inside me sleeps, where the man inside me sleeps. Salvaan still exists in today’s world and even today Loona is not understood as being innocent. The only changes that occurred are in names and dates.”
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