Dhomi Kitha Kitha Dhomi: Everything is true, but where is it?

Razaq cannot get Shoorpanakha out of his mind. Her story suffocates, disturbs and excites him. The thought of her keeps him up at night. Her name stumbles out of his lips and causes rifts between him and his wife, Fathima. Finally, Razaq decides to set the stage for Ravanan’s beloved sister.

Set in a contemporary fictional island-village, Dhomi Kitha Kitha Dhomi follows Razaq, a young Muslim man, who is moved to tell the story of Shoorpanakha. He dreams of staging a play and finds his actors in the marketplace: Raavanan, his friend and Raman, a passerby. Delighted at finding an actor to play Raman, an excited crowd cheers “Rama, Rama, Rama” to the quintessential and unmistakable tune of a Mappila song, a style born in North Malabar and informed by the early Arabi-Malayalam script. Razaq finally finds the irrepressible Shoorpanakha through a twist of fate.

As the play progresses, the town, led by Fathima’s brother, is enraged, and is quick to ostracise Razaq and Fathima for their supposed veneration of a Hindu epic. It's clear, however, that the actors are rather moved by the characters' stories, their aches and their circumstances in life. Fathima, played by Divya Babu Raj, sees that her life bears a glaring resemblance to Shoorpanakha’s, and undergoes an incredible arc over the course of the play.

The stage is riddled with seemingly benign characters. A woman who chops meat on the side strikes the rhythm for Razaq’s dance. Young boys sit by the side cracking peanuts during a Theyyam performance. Girls heave their hair side to side, as though possessed by the Theyyam. However, life in this fictional village happens to mirror life in the epic. The audience, through Razaq, constantly switches between the epic and modern Kerala.

The incredibly elaborate set (Aliyar Ali on set design), music (Naru Parai Isai and Alisha Shajahan on sound design) and characters come together in what is ultimately a production that throws up more questions than answers, begging us to contemplate the volatile ideologies that mark our times. The unsettling refrain that opens the play, “Everything is true, but where is it?” is revealing of this.

Dhoomi Kitha Kitha Dhoomi is one of the most dynamic, pensive and, at the same time, humorous plays I have seen in recent years. Directed by O.T Shajahan, the play features stunning performances by a passionate and extraordinary cast and crew, with Dr Arif Kandoth (Razaq) and Divya Babu Raj (Fathima/Shoorpanakha) playing lead roles.

Catch the unmissable Dhomi Kitha Kitha Dhomi live on Friday, 20th March 2026, 6 PM, at the Shri Ram Centre Auditorium!