ANANDI of Abhaash vs BOSTOMI of Tagore

ANANDI of Abhaash vs BOSTOMI of Tagore

It would take the world yet another 45 years to start a movement for the emancipation of women. And there was Rabindranath, way back in 1914, penning seven short stories and a novel to present some of his famous woman characters who would bring a sea change in our outlook on the society and the related gender discrimination. Bengali literature till then had not expressed such bold and intrepid narrations of the experiences of women who strived to break the shackles of male-dominance-oriented social taboos. Damini from Chaturanga, the novel, Haimanti from the short story of the same name, Anandi from the short story, Bostomi, Mrinal of Streer Patra, and Kalyani from Aparichito are a few of his immortal creations. Pundits say that each of these characters is shaped on women whom he had seen from very near.

But such has always been true for any creator though it would be interesting to note that the creator himself reveals in the case of the character of Anandi in his short story, Bostomi, the familiarity of the character with someone he had met long time back. In one of his letters many years later, in 1931, he writes that this character of the Bostomi is in many ways true. He says that this woman used to visit him often and used to narrate stories to him. This particular Vaisnavite lady who had renounced her family and comfort, and lived by seeking charity singing praises to Chaitanya Mahapravu was named Sarbakhepi. According to the descriptions by Sachindranath Adhikary, a consort of the poet during his Silaidaha days this elderly woman would visit the poet in his Kuthibari everyday of his stay and would partake of the leftovers of his meal as prasaad. She also would bring garlands of white Gandharaaj flowers for the poet and would refer to him as ‘Gour’. These particulars are found to have been incorporated by the poet in his story.

Abhaash presented this story of Rabindranath as a part of its ‘Robir Chhayaye Natak Mela 2012’ organised to commemorate the conclusion to the 150^th birth anniversary of the poet. The play has been written by Sekhar Samaddar and has been named as Anandi. Sekhar has proved his proficiency as an original playwright in many of his plays as well as a very sensible and apt adaptor of Tagore pieces as evidenced in the Purba Paschim production of Chaturanga. But in this particular production he chose to drift away from the original and stuffed in loads of substances of his own imagination as well as from Tagore pieces remotely connected to the storyline or for that matter the theme. This has resulted in a play that tells the story of a writer who never ever fits into the image of the story-teller of the original story and who is undoubtedly the poet himself; and of a woman who also is alien to the Anandi that Tagore had conceived in his story. And so what the viewer finds is the writer purported to be the poet involved in a scandalous relationship with a woman having a not too strong morality. So for the uninitiated viewer it is a far cry from the basic philosophy that Tagore had depicted in his story and the character of Anandi gets a naughty impish touch instead of the bold emancipated woman of Tagore.

But as a production it is praiseworthy and Sekhar has once again has proved his acumen as a director. It is interesting to note that I have been following his works since 1988 when I used to do review articles for The Telegraph and have found him maturing into one of the important dramatist-director of the present time. Every single member of the group had acted out their designated roles commendably. The stage planning was creditably done by the director himself but the faulty handling of the lights could not deliver the desired effects. Music by Swapan Bandopadhyay played an important role admirably.

Nonetheless the production is certainly an important event in the theatre scene of Kolkata.