Moti Lal Kemmu was born in Fateh Kadal, Srinagar, in 1933, and he started dancing at a very young age. He used to say, "Dancing came to me naturally." As a result of his love for dance, he was introduced to a stage very early on, where he first performed as a dancer and then eventually earned small acting roles. He cites Gopi Nath from Anantnag (also known as "Gopi Bache") as an inspirational figure for him during his childhood. At that time, Parsi Theatre was involved in the productions and performances of the local theatre. Kaziran drama (Folk Drama of Kashmir) beautiful traditional & cultural based genres of drama. Akanandan (Tarachand Bismil) produces the predominant performances of the Parsi Theatre.
In 1953, there was a significant movement in Kashmir called the "Cultural Congress." Even though he was very interested in painting, many of the young people in Kashmir were also interested in Dance and Drama. Therefore, after completing his undergraduate studies, Kemmu applied to Baroda University for a degree in Drama and Dance. He enrolled in Baroda University in 1957 and had the opportunity to learn Drama and Dance under the tutelage of the renowned Guru Shri Sunderlal Gangani. However, life for Kemmu at Baroda and back home was hard. He eventually left Baroda. Then, upon returning to Kashmir, Kemmu was overwhelmed with the desire to get an education. He enrolled in a Master's degree program in Hindi language at the University of Kashmir; however, Kemmu was forced to leave the University of Kashmir due to a lack of funds. "It was 1958," says Kemmu, "My job was more valuable than my education because it helped me provide for my family." As of that time, Kemmu was working in different government agencies and moving from department to department in the search of employment. He went from earning 60 rupees a month to 250 rupees a month in about a two-year period. While he was making a regular salary, he never lost his passion for Dance and Drama, and with his desire, he continued to feel incomplete. Until one day, he ultimately received a National Scholarship, and his life once again changed when he went back to Baroda School of Drama. "The National Scholarship changed my life," states Kemmu.
After studying at Baroda Drama and Dance School with the great poet Chandravadan Mehta of Gujarat, Moti Lal Kemmu returned to Kashmir, where he began exploring the traditional folk art form of Kashmiri drama known as "Band Pather". Kemmu's technique involved using "Band Pather" (folk dramas) and adapting traditional techniques through the Contemporary art of Narrative. Using a hybrid style allowed him to present the issue of present day Kashmir through a contemporary social lens. When Kemmu was first writing dramas, he wrote primarily in Hindi. He wrote his first Drama called "Darpan Antpur Ka" while at the Baroda Drama and Dance school in 1962. Kemmu's second and third dramas titled "Sandhya Beeti" and "Nangee" respectively were both completed while studying at Baroda University and were premiered and produced during this time. Once Kemmu returned to Kashmir, he began writing his first Kashmiri plays, Trinov, in 1965. Since 1968, Kemmu's play "Manzil Nike" (Toddler in the Cradle) will also be published. Up through 1975, Kemmu produced four collections Drama. These were called: "Three One Act", "Trinov", "Lal Be Drayas Lo Lare", and "Tshay" (Shadow).
In 1972, Tshay (Shadow) was possibly the first drama that made Kemmu sahib known as a playwright. The play depicts a tragic loss of human faith, as a person loses faith in everything they believe in. Kemmu also offered an insight to me about how the concept of this play arose from the closure of Jammu-Srinagar national highway: The plight of stranded passengers in Banihal during the winter. Over a period of weeks, they lost faith not only in the state government, but also in the Beacon that was unable to keep the road open. In essence, after a period of time, this lost faith translated into a lost faith in God, which meant a total loss of faith in all. Kemmu used this example and incorporated it with the historical event of the closure of Jammu-Srinagar highway and the life of King Lalitaditya, and how the life of a common man today parallels the story of King Lalitaditya. He expressed through the example of King Lalitaditya, and the way in which the King's soldiers were defining the King in such grand terms as "the mirror" while at the same time were completely without a King, by comparing the two tragedies and the lack of faith experienced by each.
Kemmu transitioned from writing dramas about history to creating them from their source material found in folk tales with his second play, "Hemaal Naegrai and Band Duhai." The issue addressed in "Band Duhai" is modern-day exposure to violence and terrorists, using a sensitive approach to a widely publicized problem today. This drama is based on a folk tale about a character called "Akanandun." In "Band Duhai," we see the plight of an everyday Kashmiri citizen as he faces difficulties caused by the current violence in Kashmir. The show begins with the audience finding out a child has been killed because of the violence currently happening in Kashmir. When the child's mother finds out he has been killed, she does not cry for him. She thinks that because in the drama, the child's father (who is portrayed as a "Jogi" in the play and has brought his son back to life as well) will also bring back her child. When Jogi explains to her what he does in the drama is just fiction, she becomes upset and faints; the mother gets up and tells the audience how people like the folk performers in Kashmir have suffered because of the ongoing violence.
Besides his contribution in writing the dramas, Kemmu Sahib's also contributed towards establishment of folk theater in Kashmir. In 1964, he, along with Late Mohmad Subhan Bhagat, founded Bhagat Theatre at Akingam and also Arnimal theatre, which now bears the name of the great poetess Arnimal and is located in the native village of Palhalan. Sh. Kemmu is considered a living legend today, with 18 published full length drama books and numerous awards, including a recently announced Padma Shree award from the Sangeet Natak Academy and many state awards and 18 published full length drama books to his credit. The dedication Sh. Kemmu has given to folk theater in Kashmir for the last 80 years is unparalleled as he continues to write and produce shows daily. One of the many contributions that Sh. Kemmu has made to preserve and promote the Kashmiri language is by writing in his own native Kashmiri language, which not only adds to the currently available literature in Kashmiri but also gives the Kashmiri public a sense of pride and respect for all other authors/writers of prose and poetry in the Kashmiri language as well. Sh. Kemmu graduated from the University of Baroda and is now in his late 70's; however, he is still very active in the folk theater of Kashmir in both its writing and producing.
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