THE 39TH ISSUE of SAS NATYAPATRA: a very significant addition to the Bengali theatre library

 

THE 39^TH ISSUE of SAS NATYAPATRA: a very significant addition to the Bengali theatre library

It is a ritual sort of for the theatre folks to await eagerly the latest issue of SAS Natyapatra mainly because the finicky, scrupulous editor Satya Bhaduri flashes out fresh new plays written by well-known, little known and not-so-known playwrights, of which it is seen that some are originals, some adaptations, while some are translations. Another point of attractions has been the fare of articles that Bhaduri assigns different persons to pen. And so, what results is a very good feed for the hungry readers.

The present issue which happens to be the 39^th is strikingly noteworthy for its editorial. The editorial piece is a very worrying commentary on the present political scenario of our country which is virtually under a hegemonistic, xenophobic one-party rule that tolerates no disagreement, no opposition, and fans a fire of hatred towards sections of the society, be it religious or intellectual, that they fear would shake their flimsy foundation of ultra-nationalism. The piece gives a clear and loud call for remonstrations and protests. One may wonder why is a theatre journal has such a political editorial piece. Theatre is always a political statement and those who do theatre, and those who watch theatre, and those who write about theatre and think about theatre are all political. Yes, those who question why should a theatre journal have a meticulously written political editorial, are so to say also asking this politically, may be unknowingly. The ostrich-view of things around us only supports tacitly what is being served.

A very warm congratulations to Satya Bhaduri, indeed!

There are five original plays in this number. Amongst the playwrights Ratankumar Das, Ujjwal Chattopadhyay, Tirthankar Chanda and Sekhar Samaddar are names pretty well known while that of Sumit Dasgupta is less known, at least to me. I resist from discussing the plays and let the readers enjoy them first-hand. A translation play is included in the collection, and that would be quite interesting for the readers. The actor-lyricist-screenwriter-NSD grad Piyush Mishra’s Jab Sahar Hamara Sota Haye has ben translated by Arindam Dasgupta.

The third instalment of the serial by Siddartha Chakraborty entitled Bharat Rahasya Sandhane is the first article of the seven articles in this issue. The next one Bharatiya Natysahityer Byaktigata Pathakrom is by Hindol Bhattacharya. As the title suggests this essay gives the reader a very personal interpretation of the long theatre journey touching the milestones that described and decorated the long path. Rudradip Chakraborty’s piece about his journey around the world discovering Ratan Thiam’s theatrical philosophy as reflected in different countries. For the average theatre-loving readers like the present writer, it reveals many a thing that remained unknown till now. So is the essay by Arindam Ghosh who writes extensively about Thomas Edward Bond, the English theorist-playwright, about whose book on drama theory, I came to know while writing my Theatrer Darshak Darshaker Theatre, but did not delve into any further. Then it was after Bond’s death I got to know fleetingly about this socialist playwright. Arindam, as his quite a few previous essays have shown, has done an expansive discussion of great academic value with detailed references. Subhendu Sarkar has written about Brecht and Dario Fo, while Soumi Sen has discussed about theatre in England specifically in the present-day Globe Theatre and Barbican Centre in London. The section on articles finishes off with a not very significant write-up about my theatre reviews.

The issue has a memorial section on those who have left us last year impoverishing our theatre world. Remembrance of Vijaya Mehta is done by Siddhartha Chakraborty, of Teejan Bai by Sushanta Chattopadhyay, of Bhadra Basu by Siddhartha Sen, and of Soumen Raychoudhury by Dilip Duuta. The editor has mentioned the very recent sad demise of Pankaj Munshi in his editorial.

The cover designed by Nilabha Chattopadhyay demands special mention. He has done a collage of different brochure covers of different celebrated national and international productions that ranged from Bohurupi’s legendary Rakta Karabi, PLT’s Tiner Talowar, Namdimukh’s Paap Punya, Padatik’s Sakharam Binder, Rangakarmee’s Kashnama, Karanth’s Hindi translated production of Hayavadana, Theatre Academy Pune’s Begam Barve and (?) Ghasiram Kotwal, Chorus Repertory Theate’s When We Dead Awaken to Arayank Dacca’s (?) Raraang, and quite a few European and American productions of legendary plays like Six Characters in Search of an Author, La P…respectueuse, Antigone, Waiting for Godot, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible and others. Nilabha’s concept and designing is commendable but the lay-out needed to be spaced out a bit, so that each of the cover-pieces could be effortlessly identified.

Before ending, a word for the respected editor. It is rumoured that he is planning to retire and the present issue would be his signing-off issue. He is believed to have expressed to his near ones that it is difficult for him to acquire advertisements that actually sustain the production and other costs of publishing a journal of such high esteem. This predicament that he faces is irrefutable. But on the other hand, it is also certain that SAS theatre journal would cease to exist if Satya Bhaduri caps his pen.

Hope a way-out would save the situation. And we would be happy to get the 40^th issue of SAS NATYAPATRA.        

 

 

TINTE – SHAREH-CHHATA HOUSE FULL : Debashis Roy : an invaluable addition to the history of the Bengali stage (pub. Aajkaal Publishers Pvt Ltd, June 2026)

 

Debashis Roy of New Town Bratyajon has written a very resourceful book entitled Teen’te - Sare Chha’ta Housefull on the commercial theatre of Calcutta that had once reigned the Bangla theatre world. The book is sort of an anthology of the most productive period of the Hatibagan stage which spanned from the 50’s to the 80’s of the last century, catering the theatre buffs with varied fares of productions, that had diverse range of contents and performances. What has made the book invaluable is that Roy has very scrupulously given a social or a political backdrop behind some of the eminent productions of that time. Together with this information the readers get to know behind-the-scene stories, or the circumstances and situations that prevailed in their stagings, and also for that matter the sudden cessation of some of the popular productions. Then there are discussions on the magical lights and the settings created by the wizards of the stage. the like of which can no more be seen by the spectators of today. The author has authenticated the facts by quoting those who had actually done those magical deeds. He has also included excerpts from writings of different eminent personalities connected to the Shyambazar stage in those years as well as from various articles published in journals and newspapers of that era.

For septuagenarians like me the reading of the book is like rolling back in time to those magical days when every family diligently performed the ritual of going to the theatres as an essential part of any family function like weddings, and anniversaries; not to speak of the festive seasons. Star Theatre, Biswaroopa, Rangmahal were the main three destinations where plays with wholesome storylines would be enacted by celebrity actors of whom many were silver-screen idols. Minerva Theatre was another important haunt but it had never been a favourite one for those seeking family entertainment though it was a permanent LTG site till the late 60’s. Then there were Kashi Biswanath Mancha, Rangana, Bijon Theatre, Circarina, Pratap Memorial Hall, Tapan Theatre, Sujata Sadan, etc. But these halls catered plays that did not have that universal appeal as the ones that were featured in the three iconic commercial theatres. People would just purchase the tickets in these halls without knowing even the name of the play that was being staged. But on the other hand, people would go to the other halls to see a production that is being talked about. That was the magic of the Hatibagan theatre.

It is thus quite befitting a title for Roy’s book. Another interesting feature of the book are the pictures of the actors who had ruled the Kolkata commercial theatre stage. Photographs of the advertisements that were printed in the newspapers and a few cinema journals of those years, with their different compositions and styles of letter settings of the titles of the plays, bring back memories of a time when publicity had its own language.

And all this has made the book an authentic and invaluable addition to the history of the Bengali stage.

A CORIGENDUM

 

A CORIGENDUM

In response to my Blog on Rangalok’s CORNER PLOT, Shyamal, its creator informs me that the first production of the play was not by Rangalok but was by Roopdarsan, and it was staged around 1998-99. Roopdarsan is no more in existence, but its memory is still there, and it would have been wrong on my part not to have acknowledge them in my Blog.

So, I stand corrected, and thanks to Shyamal for correcting me.

CORNER PLOT of Rangalok: a renewed presentation of a genuine satire

 

CORNER PLOT of Rangalok: a renewed presentation of a genuine satire (staged on 5 July 2026)

 

After quite a long time it was enjoying to witness an example of an archetypal satire, that punches holes into the façade of a supposedly fool-proof and faultless societal and administrative system. And it does this with any speck of innuendo towards any political party. The stupidities, the pretenses and loads of unethical vices that are embedded in the systems themselves stand bear open as Rangalok’s latest play CORNER PLOT unfolded on the Giris Mancha stage. This very play by Loknath Bandopadhyay was staged around the beginning of this century by Rangalok under the direction of the helmsman of the group Shyamal Chakraborty, who even acted in the pivotal role. This time it is a renewed presentation of the same play but in a new package that fits well with the changed time.   

A typical ‘common man’ Joydeb suddenly gets to own a single storied vacant house in the suburb as a munificent act of a rich well-wisher. The house happens to be on a corner plot, and so his wife and his two daughters and son are all very happy. He does a few renovation works and arranges a house-warming ceremony. A priest is brought and the puja is performed in full earnestness. None of their relatives nor friends are informed nor invited. But two of Joydeb’s office colleagues get to know and arrive there to join the party. This puts Joydeb in a very embarrassing situation. But some bigger surprise was waiting for Joydeb’s family. The Prime Minister was supposed to come to that place to inaugurate a fertilizer plant that has been built nearby. The ruling party wants to welcome the PM and felicitate him. The opposition party on the other hand wants to stage a protest and show him black flags. Both the groups plan to erect their stages in the compound of the house as it has an advantage of being at the corner position of the main road through which the PM’s motorcade would be going. Joydeb had consented to both the groups for he was helpless. Then comes the PM’s security force, and according to them as the house is in a very strategic position, they would take over the house for the day. This lands Joydeb in a boiling soup. Meanwhile taking advantage of this doldrum and chaos, the boyfriend of the elder daughter comes in the garb of a terrorist to visit his sweetheart. Joydeb decides to abandon the house for the time being with his family. They are ultimately saved by the benevolent well-wisher.  

A very well spun comedy is presented brilliantly by Shyamal with all the resources needed to make the production a success. It is said that timing is utmost important in comedy acting. But this is true, I believe in those parts where speech is less and silent physical acting has more space. But in a verbose play, comedy can be effected if the actors can grasp the comic sequences through which the playwright wanted to get to the point and for which he has given his dialogues a particular structure. This results in the expressions and gestures of the actors, that eventually leads the spectators to break into feats of laughter. Sanjeeb Sarkar has simply excelled in his presentation of a totally confused Joydeb. The viewers have rarely seen such a flawless comic acting. His expressions, his delivery of lines with perfect scanning, together with immaculate timing in sequences that required him to have physical precisions. He could imbibe the joy with which he performed his role into the spectators, and that is what acting is all about. Shyamal had done this character in the earlier version. It was good to see that veteran Aparna Biswas as the wife Menoka has kept her skill intact. The well-wisher Sadananda was aptly portrayed by Shyamal Sarkar in a flamboyant colour. Abhisek Roy as the son, Shiropa Roy and Puja Dutta as the two daughters, Swaraj Dutta as the priest, and Baishakhi Kundu and Sourav Kundu as the two colleagues did their respective parts as directed. Biswajit Ghosh Majumdar as the boyfriend demands a round of applause for his performance. In sundry roles Gopal Ghosh, Sisir Ranjan Roy, Bibhas Banerjee and Swarnabha Goswami were neat in their acting, and with just a simple change in their attire and in their gaits, Shyamal could very well separate the two political groups. And that tells how intent was Shyamal to put up a commendable presentation.             

It was heartening to see Shyamal has kept the original stage design done by Ranajit Chakraborty, with Sudip Sanyal not adding any extra lights. Likewise, Swapan Bandopadhyay too kept the background score unaltered. Make-up work by Biddhatrideb Sarkar and the artwork by Nilabha Chattopadhyay deserve appreciation.

 

Since the viewing of this play on 5 July I did not see any play till date, because of some unavoidable reasons.

So, I have no other plays in hand for discussion. I hope to once again start haunting the theatre halls very soon, and would be happy to share my thoughts about them with you.

Till then I will be blogging on other topics related to this world.

So, see you soon.

Cheerio….e original stage design done by Ranajit Chakraborty, with Sudip Sanyal not adding any extra lights. Likewise, Swapan Bandopadhyay too kept the background score unaltered. Make-up work by Biddhatrideb Sarkar and the calligraphic work by Nilabha Chattopadhyay deserve appreciation.

LAGAN CHAND by Thealight: a good theatre staged in a good way

 LAGAN CHAND by Thealight: a good theatre staged in a good way (staged on 20 June 2026)

 

On the conclusion of their year-long silver jubilee celebrations Thealight staged their latest play LAGAN CHAND, written by Atanu Sarkar based on a storyline by Prasanta Ghosh at Giris Mancha. Under the able guidance of Atanu, they prefer to stage their stage productions solely for theatre’s sake. They treat theatre as a typical form of art, rather than a didactic tool to teach the masses. The present work, too, is an example of what Shombhu Mitra wanted ‘to stage a good theatre in a good way’.

Lagan is a raddiwala who goes about in his bicycle buying old newspapers and selling them to the scrap dealer, and somehow work out a living for him and his pregnant wife in a shanty. A person advises him to start buying and selling rejected articles instead of old newspapers, as in this trade the profit is more. Lagan starts afresh and in the first shot buys and sells an old harmonium, that fetches him a good profit. Next, he buys an old teakwood bed. But in the meantime, his wife meets with an accident and the child is aborted. To look after his wife Lagan has to stop going out in his trade, thus he faces a crisis. After his wife recuperates he once again goes out with his cycle to buy rejected articles. He meets an old gentleman who has a liking for him. From him he learns that he would be selling off his house as he has disinherited his son who has settled abroad, and would like Lagan and his wife to shift from their shanty and live in the house. He tells he wants to write-off the property to Lagan, in exchange Lagan has to provide space for him to stay in the house. Lagan tells the gentleman that as he deals in rejected articles and things he would agree to the gentleman’s proposal if he is given the rejected paternal love that he used to give to his son.

The sentimentality of the story would certainly attract the viewers. The play has a few loose ends that did not allow it to be fully baked. The section of the person on whose advice he had diversified his business seemed superfluous. So were the bazar scenes and the hospital sequence. Or, for that matter the off-stage situation that was designed with a kid was totally redundant. The concern of the director to provide every member of the group with something to do on the stage, was felt. On the other hand of course, there are a number vey well crafted scenes that Atanu had provided for the spectators. Especially the scenes of Lagan and his wife, or the dream-like sequence of the gentleman imagining his grand daughter in his house. Viewers would have liked to see these sequences a little more elaborated. Atanu should be credited for not having given any patronage to melodrama in his script.

Making the famous ‘Ei duniaye bhai sobi hoye, sobi hoye – Sob sattiy, sob sattiy’, the thematic refrain, Atanu has given his play a surrealistic touch. Such golden oldies have been used by the playmaker, that transports the audience to the pre-mall times of old Kolkata. He has kept his stage abstract, perhaps keeping to the theme of the drama. Adrish Kumar Roy has done the stage, his work with the poster is commendable. Soumen Chakraborty’s lights were good but here too, we find the design fails to avoid smoke. Background score is designed by the playmaker and has been implemented by Samson Mathur Chakraborty.

Apart from Shampa Das Sarkar in the role of the wife and Shanku Kumar Das’s Lagan, no one else could impress in their works. Shampa has once again exhibited her talent with her expressions and gestures though having a very limited stage-time. Shanku had to bear a lot of weight as Lagan, and skillfully he could express the different moods of the character. Others especially Soutindrakrishna Deb as the gentleman, and Sukumar Das as the person who advised Lagan to diversify, were mechanical in their dialogues and expressions. Little Alankrita Sarkar was easy, fluent and had no inhibition in her work.

 

Rangalok’s CORNER PLOT will be my next play for discussion.

 

SHESH MATHATA KATA PARHAR AAGE (transl: Before the last decapitation) of Chaturtha Matra

 

 

I would like to apologise at the beginning of this Blog for having missed to translate the title of Paramik’s play. The title of the play is ROOPANTAR, the translation of the name would be like ‘Transformation’ or ‘Metamorphosis’. Personally, I prefer ‘Transformation’.   

 

SHESH MATHATA KATA PARHAR AAGE (transl: Before the last decapitation) of Chaturtha Matra presented on 14 June 2026

 

Kaberi Basu and Santanu Bandopadhyay presented Chaturtha Matra’s latest production SHESH MATHATA KATA PARHAR AAGE, not at their usual site at Achira in Bolpur’s Phuldanga, but at a newly developed space in the house of the legendary thespian and playmaker Asit Mukhopadhyay at Monoharpukur in Kolkata. The daughters of the great theatre personality have developed his erstwhile 2^nd floor bedroom into an intimate space or a studio space and have named it Asit Mukhopadhyay Cultural Centre. Chaturtha Matra has planned to present performances and other theatre related events at AMCC twice every month.

As part of that programme, they performed this play based on a mini-story by Mojaffor Hossain of Bangladesh. Typical to their genre of theatre, this too is designed in an arrangement far from the conventional theatrical form. Since the last 8 to 9 years, Chaturtha Matra has been regularly practising their type of theatre on the 1^st and the 3^rd Saturdays of every month at Achira. If any of my readers are interested to know about their type of work, they can refer to my Blog of 19 October 2024 where I in discussing about their journal, Theare Journal had talked briefly about their kind of work.   

Mojaffor Hossain’s story is based on a surrealistic Polish puppet animation film, Danny Boy made by Marek Skrobeki in 2010. The fable like story goes like this. One morning a person gets up from his bed and finds everyone in and around, including the young and the old, the blind beggar, roadside salesmen, car drivers, the bank-robber, the street dogs - each and every one of them headless. They have all been decapitated. He finds the whole town in total chaos, and in a hellish disorganised state. He sees people bumping into others, cars colliding and trampling people and such countless deranged situations all around. He finds a helpless headless woman standing in the centre of the road. He brings some flowers to her and moves her aside. Rampant cases of rape, murder and barbarous cruelty make the place the Devil’s paradise. Even the personal world of a person does not remain personal anymore. He comes to understand that everything happening there is the handiwork of the authority in power. As the members of the population are all head-less there is thus no protest, no uproar, no howling, no screams of frightening terror. He seeks legal help, but there too, he finds law decapitated. At the end he too, has his head guillotined.              

Kaberi & Santanu do not care to entertain their viewers with lollipop contents. Instead force them to perceive the morbid conditions they are living in. The contents they choose have strong comments on the system as in this work. Mojaffor Hossain’s symbolic story is a wake-up call for the spectators to fight a totalitarian system that is looming overhead. Their genre is more akin to anti-theatricality. They used the room, the adjoining passage and the balcony, as is their style of mobile space. Four to five co-actors represent the decapitated people of the town by wrapping their heads in plastic sheets. Their physical acting warrants a round of applause. Especially the work of Subhamita Majumdar as a headless pedestrian repeatedly bumping into an obstacle and falling down, needs to be mentioned. The others were Monideepa Goswami and Biplab Gayen. Kaberi was one of them too. At the end she with her silent mime expressed loudly the predicament facing the general mass. A seasoned actor like her could have presented such a gripping moment. Choreographic dance movement in this section by Rupali needs to be appreciated. 

Ropes and transparent plastic packets strewn all around the floor representing the torn out visceral parts of the people is a very telling application of simple prop items. The projection of the original Strobecki film on the background wall and the overhead ceiling was so very distorted that viewing the performance in front was greatly hampered. Was this a deliberate act by Santanu? Who knows.  

 

The next play to be discussed would be LAGAN CHAND by Thealight staged on 20 June 2026

 

          

                      

 

 

          

                       

 

ABU HOSSAIN of Nandiranga: a gem of a work that cajoles one to see it once more

 

ABU HOSSAIN of Nandiranga: a gem of a work that cajoles one to see it once more (staged on 10 June 2026)

Typical musical comedies are the rarest of the rare genre of all the productions in today’s Bengali theatre. Whenever one speaks of this particular category of theatre the first name that comes to one’s mind are those of Girish Chandra’s ABU HOSSAIN and Kshiroprasad’s ALIBABA, both based from the Arabian Nights. One such scarce modern-day representative of the genre penned by Badal Sircar, as a sort of a modern-day adaptation or as he himself said, ‘distortion’ of Giris Chandra’s hilarious musical play.

Witnessing Nandiranga’s superb production of the same, a few thoughts fleeted by. I remember seeing Shatabdi’s production in the early 70’s which was perhaps the last proscenium work by Sircar. But though that memory has faded, what still remains is the scintillating performance of Pankaj Munshi, one of the most decent theatrical personalities, who left us a few days back. And of course I recollect the pleasant exuberance that excited me for long. With these sweet memories I even today, remember the resentment that filled me during those final years of my school, when all the blockbuster Bengali & Hindi films had to flood the cinema halls of Calcutta. Naturally, it was surely not possible to see most of the films, but the songs thereof, had no barriers to filter in via the radio, and the Puja pandals. Such were the tunes and the lyrics that they stayed with us day in and day out, and as a logical fall-out studies hampered. I can vouch that those of us who appeared for the finals of school in the end of the 60’s and in the beginning of the 70’s could have peaked their careers if such distractions were not there. Certainly, if those songs had not been composed, we would have done …. God knows what!

And Badal-babu used the chartbuster tunes in his play, and that did the trick. He wrote the play in the jatra-pala form. There are numerous songs in the play, while Ghose had used light classical tunes, Sircar has used the tunes of the then popular film songs and folk songs, thus making the play a unique parody, of sorts.

Nandiranga under the able direction of Titas Thakur has kept the tunes of those ever-green songs. And for this viewer it was once again a revisit to the past excitement. Take for instance many a song, 18 to 19 I suppose like ‘Chunri samal gori’ or ‘Dil ko dekho chehera na dekho’ or ‘Aapko pahele bhi kanhi dekha haye’ or ‘Peyar hua haye jabse’, or else ‘Aami kon pathe je choli’, or ‘Pagla garaod kothaye aachhe’ or ‘Aami je jalsa ghare’ or ‘Aami shree shree bhajahori manna’ just caused a euphoria hard to describe.

It was wonderful to see how about fifteen artistes enliven the stage for two and a half hours. And each and every moment of these hours was saturated in music. The smooth change of scenes, and keeping up a speedy rhythm all through speak volumes about Thakur’s play-making skills. These days it has become almost customary to have the players stamping and stomping the stage, as an attempt in the exhibition of ‘performance’. Though in this process ‘acting’ takes a back seat. But for a refreshing change the viewer gets to see good acting even in sundry characters, like those of butties, courtiers, guards, pedestrians, apart from dancers, companions and singers. Hence to keep up the spirit of the script, each actor has to do 7 to 8 roles. And here only one could feel the total dedication and earnestness of every actor to give their best. Shubhankar Bhattacharya as the old Badshah, with a bold voice throw, immaculate diction, and the ability to sing songs need to be applauded, at the very beginning. During the change of scenes, the director makes him sing a couple of lines of the main song on which the parody has been created, on the forestage while shifting and other jobs are undertaken in the back. Arup Mukhopadhyay’s Ujir was better performed than that of the Hakim. Suman Sinha Roy had little to do as Haroon, but was as relaxed as he usually is in his other performances. Shipra Pal as the Begum was also as easy as she typically is. Lipi Saha as Abu’s mother and Mou Roychoudhury as Roshena did their individual roles perfectly. Binoy Dalui, Anirban Deb, Raju Das, Indra Mali and Sukanta Shil did their parts well as the five madmen.                 

It was a real exposé for me to watch one of young acting talents of the Bengali stage Saptarshi Bhowmik, whose quite a few works I have had the opportunity to see. His Abu simply floored the viewers watching in awe the energy level he could attain. He transformed the acting space of the Academy of Fine Arts’ stage into the courtyard of his own house, as if. With his body language and gestures he presented the character in its perfect colour and tone. His diction and vocal modulation could bring the words of Sircar unambiguously to the spectators. The director could be seen to be particular regarding delivery of lines in regard to all characters. The cues and scanning have been done neatly for all the characters of the play.

Another vital sector of this production is the music department which was beautifully handled by Subhajit Das. In the tradition of Sircar form, the musicians are stationed on the stage performing as accompanists to the songs sung by the actors, or doing the background score. On the harmonium was the veteran Subir Sanyal, and accompanying him was Soudeep Chakraborty in the percussions, Neelargha Dutta on the banjo and Srinath Mukherjee in the drums. Vocal support was given by Ritambhara Ghosh. Lights were done by Sadhan Pari, but there were quite a number of slips in his job! Bilu Dutta’s stage was a neat job. The dance compositions and choreography need a round of claps.      

As is the common trait in today’s theatre shows, there were a handful of spectators present to see this non-celebrity presentation of Nandiranga. It is unfortunate. No, I did not express this sympathy for the present situation of the Bengali stage, but for those who did not (care to) see such a gem of a work.

 

I will come back next with SESH MATHATA KATA PARAR AAGE of Chaturtha Matra staged on 14 June 2026.