REVIEW OF 2011: A VERY ACTIVE YEAR OF PROMISES
The Bengali theatre scene in the year just ended was very colourful as it saw presentations of veritable works of different groups many of which showed promises for a bright future of good theatre viewing. I for myself could see as many as thirty-six productions that ranged from rural to foreign ones. Festivals have been arranged by many groups apart from the State sponsored one by the Paschimbanga Natya Akademi that helped the Calcutta viewers to have a taste of the works that are being persuaded in places quite remote to the cultural capital as well as in other states. It is quite heartening to note that serious Bengali theatre is being cultured in other states that have a very predominantly non-Bengali way of life.
The year started with two excellent productions that were enough to indicate a rich fare to follow in the year to come. KANYADAN by Ballygunge Swapnasuchana and JOGAJOG by Paschimbanga Natya Akademi would certainly go down in the annals of Bengali theatre for their brilliance in production. After a pretty long time the Calcutta viewers had the opportunity of seeing a Vijay Tendulkar play and Bijoy Mukherjee with his Ballygunge Swapnasuchana deserves praise. The play KANYADAN written by Tendulkar in 1983 is one of his more celebrated ones and requires a good and strong acting prowess for the portrayal of the four main characters. His works had touches of melodrama that would infringe into over-doing of the roles if the actors are not kept guarded by the director. Bratya Basu’s finely tuned editing together with his very well executed directorial work has made the production worth its name. Meghnad Bhattacharya, Swatilekha Sengupta, Sohini Sengupta and Bratya himself did brilliantly in the four roles, and I would even place the production way above the one by Padatik Reperatory with Shyamanand and Chetna Jalans in the cast, that I had viewed in 1987.
The other production that ushered in a very promising year was Paschimbanga Natya Akademi’s Tagore play, JOGAJOG. The presentation excelled in almost all the departments of the production, the foremost of which that needs special mention is, no doubt, the director’s. This particular piece of Tagore has not been handled by very many theatre groups as this is one of the writings of Tagore that bears the hallmark of Tagore’s stringency of words through which he could convey the many intrigues of the human mind. So it requires a deep study of Tagore in order to portray the characters he had penned with utmost care in these plays and novels. It would not be wrong to say that Ashok Mukhopadhyay had handled the play with such ability that one would be reminded of Bohurupi productions of Shombhu Mitra. His directorial work merits a serious observation for students of theatre. Keeping truthful to the original Tagore dialogues requires great sense of acting for the actors to depict the characters and for the director to plan each scene so the visual quality of the writing is kept intact. One of the most complicated characters created by Tagore is that of Madhusudan which has a very big chance to become a typical villain if not dealt with judiciously and it has been aptly rendered by Debesh Roychoudhury in this production. Apart from others special mention should be made of Jhulan Bhattacharya as Motir Maa and, of course, of Sohini Sarkar as Kumu. Both of them have come to stay and indications of a brilliant prospect are undoubtedly spelt out.
A production that would be mentioned every time Tagore would be referred to in the theatre world is that of Kasba Arghya’s JOURNEY TO DAKGHAR RABINDRANTH THAKUR presented in the second half of the year. This production would certainly stand out as a milestone in this genre. Based on the drama Dakghar itself it is an attempt to present a play about a drama. The spiritual enlightenment that one observes in the post-Geetanjali period is theatrically manifested in the play, Dakghar, and this thought process has also contributed to his diverse creations since then. This is the thematic essence of the play by Arghya. The play narrates from the different writings of Tagore about the mindset that made him write the play. It tells about the preparations that were made for the play’s first few shows that Tagore had arranged himself and also informs the viewers about the observations of those who were fortunate to witness the stagings. Manish also brings out the thematic parallels in other Tagore works. And lastly he narrates the episode that happened in the Warsaw ghetto where Dr Janusz Korczak presented the play in Polish with the children of his orphanage. (See my blog Tagore’s Dakghar: The Play in the Ghetto, dated 27 October 2011) Thus this play by Manish Mitra has a great academic value that deeply scrutinizes the play itself. It is a great job done very efficiently by the whole cast under the very able direction of Manish. This group has proved many a time that they mean serious business. They had also presented Michael Madhusudan Dutt’s epic MEGHNAD BADH KABYA in five acts keeping the original textual form almost intact with music and different Indian dance forms. The production speaks volumes of the diligence of each member of the group and the directorial job of Manish Mitra.
Apart from these three productions another outstanding production deserves accolades and that is PINKI BULI by Sayak. Meghnad Bhattacharya has done wonders in this production where he transcends the viewers to a world of pure bliss and joy. A play that has the ability to impart a sense of fulfilment to those who have come to witness a performance on the stage needs unbridled praise as such experiences are rare. Swatilekha Sengupta’s music score has ably helped in this venture. Bhaswati Chakraborty and Rimi Saha in the two roles of teenage girls have brought with them a great promise for a bright future. Meghnad himself plays in a surreal role with an amazing make-up by Panchanan Manna. Another production that attracted the viewers’ admiration was BISMILLA presented by Green Room Theatre, a group from New Delhi. The group can very well boast of a very rich collection of actors who are deft in both delivering of dialogues as well as in physical acting. Shinjini Banerjee’s role of the protagonist had much load to carry which she did marvellously. Many of the players showed their acumen in songs and dances, and Debu Bhattacharya’s music certainly played an important role in the production. Anjan Kanjilal’s directorial work proved his mastery over the subject. Viewers in Calcutta would certainly love to be a witness to the promise this group from New Delhi has posed for the future.
Talking of groups from other states one is reminded of a number of such groups that had come with their fares in the 28th National Theatre Festival of Nandikar held in December. I saw two such productions. One of them was a production, ADAL BADAL, of Delhi’s NSD TIE. Co. This Theatre in Education programme of the National School of Drama is doing invaluable service in grooming young theatre workers. K.G. Krishnamurty on behalf of the company presented one of Swedish author Göran Tunström’s fairy-tales that dealt with the simple theme of a mother’s love and care. The other production that I feel fortunate enough to see was STREER PATRA PRESENTED by Seema Biswas from Mumbai. It is an adaptation for the stage in Hindi of one of Tagore’s unique short stories in a letter format written by the protagonist Mrinal after having abandoning her marital life in protest against the exploitations and atrocities meted out to the women folks in a Bengali upper-middle class family. With a very innovative stage setting Seema does the play alone bringing out the different characters of the story individually and thereby putting into motion the story of Mrinal’s life. It is, perhaps, one of the best solo-acting I have seen. Enad, a group from Bangaluru, came down to Calcutta to present their latest play, SIMANTINI, based on Somerset Maugham’s The Constant Wife in a festival organised by Sayak. Bengali adaptation done by Meghnad Bhattacharya the play has been directed by his son, Sayandeb.
Then there were a couple of foreign productions that attended Nandikar’s NTF. This is, perhaps, for the first time that the Calcutta viewers witnessed a work from Israel. Mica Dvir presented FIN-LAND, a play in English created and performed by her and another actor, and is about the experience of a person recollecting the past and in the process trying to control time as well as space. Though it had no indications of the country of its origin, it did indicate the present trend in the thinking process of the theatre world of that country. The other foreign production was that of Bangladesh. Aaranyak of Dhaka presented RARAANG, an excellently presented drama depicting an uprising by a Santhal sect of the northern region of Bangladesh. Written and directed by Mamunur Rashid it is a vast production having songs and choreography playing vital roles. Every actor of the huge cast is well versed with his or her role. No doubt this production has been in the top echelon of the theatre scene in that country for quite a few years. Another group from Bangladesh, Theatre Art Unit from Dhaka had come down to present AMINA SUNDARI, in a festival organised by Nandipat dedicated to women theatre directors. Based on one of the innumerable folklores of about three hundred years old the play has been designed basically in a stylised choreographed format. Rokeya Rafique Baby has been imaginative in the use of the songs and in the planning of costumes. It had been a revealing experience for the Calcutta viewers. Speaking of the folk form, BILASIBALA, of Gobordanga Naksha comes to the mind. Ashis Das used the almost extinct form of Astak, a chorus form performed by eight artistes in the play giving it a typical rustic ambience. It is a very well tuned production, no doubt.
As this year happened to be the closing year of the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Tagore there were a number of Tagore based productions of which JOGAJOG of Paschimbanga Natya Akademi has been mentioned earlier. Another of Tagore’s novels, GORA, has been staged not very successfully by Abhas under the direction of Sekhar Samaddar and with Debsankar Halder overdoing in the title role. Sekhar also dramatised and directed Kalapi Natyamancha’s production of NASTANEER, one of Tagore’s short stories that seemed an unsuccessful stage adaptation of Ray’s Charulata. Shohan presented MANBHANJAN, another of Tagore’s short stories dramatised by Ujwal Chattopadhyay and ably directed by Anish Ghosh. Kristi Sansad presented ROBITHAKUR O PUSHPAMALA, an adaptation by Sangramjit Sengupta, who also directs the play, of yet another Tagore short story, Muktir Upaye. Another work deserves mention and it is Rangakarmee’s CHANDALIKA. This is the first time Usha Ganguli took up Tagore in thirty five years that her group has been doing serious plays in Hindi. A translation by Usha of the dramatization of the dance-drama by Debashis Mazumdar has songs and dances as an important component of the production. Interestingly, Tagore songs other than those of the original dance-drama have been used giving the play its own identification.
One of the more significant productions of last year was Swapnasandhani’s SEI SUMOULI written by Indrashis Lahiri. With a strongly political content this play has appealed to the viewers for its very well crafted stage application done by Kaushik Sen. The political transition in the state is depicted through a story that is itself a commentary of the state of affairs in the state. Rajatava Dutta and Debdoot Ghosh play out the main two characters but the former deserves a little more of the accolades as he has to carry much more work-load. All the other characters however small were very well executed. Ashok Pramanik’s lights helped Sanchayan Ghosh’s stage design which did help the play to develop on the stage. Of the plays with typical political contents two productions come to the mind. Ha Ja Ba Ra La of dramatist Chandan Sen presented one of his latest works, SAHID SIKHAR. The play focussed on grabbing of land by the government associated with atrocities in Odisha for the multinational Posco. It was strange that the play instead of talking about the similar affairs in West Bengal preferred to move on to the neighbouring state. But what was significant was that the play dealt a heavy blow on the party who had put all its protests and revolutionary attitudes to the back seat and has taken up the garb of the ruling class. Total Theatre’s BISWASGHATAK is a play by Santanu Bandopadhyay which in trying to portray a very independent view of the political change of guard in the state commits to being a bit too overzealous and creates unnecessary controversies by slandering against few people who are part of the present set-up for reasons not much of significance. It is a production better to forget.
Two other significant jobs well done last year were Nat-Ranga’s BEOKUF EK CHAND and Ensemble’s LAAL BAKSHO. Sohan Bandopadhyay and his Nat-Ranga has been in their previous productions have been projecting hard realities that the society prefers to avoid discussing for their hard-hitting truths. Earlier this year they had presented another play, AAMI WEDS AAMI, which though is an adaptation of Charlie Fish’s The Man Who Married Himself, is a story of a person who failing to find an ideal match weds himself but finds it difficult to reconcile when his urge to procreate comes and this has, in fact, been reported quite a number of times in the media. Nat-Ranga’s BEOKUF EK CHAND does not go for hard-hitting realities and instead takes the viewers on a fantasy based on a very simple love story. The production can boast of a very well executed presentation all complete with music and imaginative stage settings and lights. Kudos is due to the playwright director Sohan Bandopadhyay. Sohag Sen’s Ensemble presented LAAL BAKSHO which is a collection of five playlets each featuring a red box or a packet or a bag around which terror develops amongst simple folks. This play portrays the very fragile fabric of the society as a result of terrorism that has spread its ugly head all around.
Kathakriti’s MUKHAR RATRI brought Ashapurna Devi on the Bengali stage after a long time as Bratyajan brought the two literatures Bibhutibhusan Bandopadhyay and Saradindu Bandopahyay in the two plays, CANVASER and BYOMKESH, respectively. But Bratyajan failed to keep up to the standard it had created for it with Ruddhasangeet though Poulomi Bose’s acting in BYOMKESH attracted the attention of the viewers. In this connection mention should be made of Ohik who presented this year’s festival with literature as the theme. They themselves presented TEEN NUMBER BENCH on the story with the same name by Sirsendu Mukhopadhyay and TEEN EKKE TEEN, a collection of three short stories by Banaphool, Shibram and Premchand. Theatre Workshop under the direction of Kamal Manna presented another of Sirsendu Mukhopadhyay’s stories, GOENDA POABARO, a children’s story.
Sanstab and Natyaranga presented two plays on very important social problems. While the former presented, MONOSCHOKHHU, a play by Ujjwal Chattopadhyay and directed by Dwijen Bandopadhyay dealt with the mental stress an urbanite faces due to the different social tensions. The production would be remembered for an exquisite characterisation of a psychologically stressed psychoanalyst by the director himself. In Natyaranga’s SWAPNO PARAS the playwright Snehashis Bhattacharya deals with the solitude that the urban man finds himself in. Murari Roychoudhury’s music is a department very well handled.
On the whole it was quite a good show last year and so it is natural that it leads one to believe certainly in the bright future Bengali theatre promises to cater in the year 2012.
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