SWAPNASANDHANI’s Thana Theke Aaschhi

SWAPNASANDHANI’s Thana Theke Aaschhi

Almost fifty years back a distinguished Tollywood director Hiren Nag did a unique job in his film Thana Theke Aaschhi, an adaptation by Ajit Ganguly of J B Priestley’s An Inspector Calls, by portraying the ever glamorous Uttam Kumar in a most unattractive role of a surrealist police inspector. The film was a hit and till date it has a large viewership whenever it comes up on the screen though another film of the same name has recently been produced with all the massalla of today’s entertainment. In the end-70’s director Shyamal Sen staged the same Ganguly adaptation with Ajitesh Bandopadhyay and Tripti Mitra, the two of the most sought after names of the Bengali theatre of those times in two pivotal roles. It would be worthwhile to note that Bengali theatre during that point of time reached a turning point with a couple of productions, one of which was Soumitra Chatterjee’s Naam Jibon with himself and Liliy Chakraborty in the lead, and the other one being this Shyamal Sen’s  Thana Theke Aaschhi.   As if to carry on the legacy Kaushik Sen and his Swapnasandhani presented the same drama after about twenty five years against the present socio-political scenario.

The Inspector Teenkori Haldar who has no real existence turns up at the house of a big business tycoon who is all ready to get a nominated Rajya Sabha seat with the blessings of the ruling echelons, to investigate a case of suicide of a young woman. Gradually the well protected devious past of each member of the household gets exposed. Kanchan Mullick does a sterling job in the role of the Inspector Teenkori Haldar. It would not be a hyped comment if one declares him a far better fit in the role than the great screen hero. As I have commented in a review article that comparing the two one finds Kanchan’s portrayal has de-glamousised the Teenkori Haldar image and yet has glorified the character far enough. 

The storyline is known to most of the viewers, courtesy the Uttam Kumar starrer, yet the viewers seem to happily accompany Teenkori in his investigating job of ascertaining the reasons that led to the suicide of the girl, and in the process unravel the unscrupulous lives of the so-called privileged.  Kaushik’s dexterous presentation does the magic and in the end the viewers get their worth of money. The present socio-political and economic situation has been deftly referred to thus giving the production its relevance in the present scenario. Sanchayan Ghosh’s stage contributed a lot to the success of the production as was Joy Sen’s lights.

[Due to very personal reasons there has been a far too large absence of fresh blogs on the recent productions on the Kolkata stage and the backlog will earnestly be dealt with.]