DOLES TO THEATRE GROUPS

DOLES TO THEATRE GROUPS

         One of our foremost theatre personalities, Shri Bratya Basu who also happens to be the state Education Minister, yesterday announced from the Writers’ Building that 100 theatre groups from different districts would be doled out an amount of  ` 35,000/- each. This benefit, as announced, would be given to those groups who are under financial constraints. For such groups who are finding it difficult to meet both ends, this will be a one-time grant. Subsequently other groups would get the assistance in the following years. This project of the government surely would demand kudos from one and all. But there is a Catch 22 situation it seems to comprehend the announcement, as previous such doles to infuse financial stability to clubs had made the intention of the government for such projects suspect.

        The process of selection of the groups to be given this financial help has not been announced and, at least according to reports in the press, the state Natya Akademi seems to know nothing of this project, let alone the selection and the procedure of distribution of the money. Basu said that advertisements regarding this was released in press and those who had applied would be given this assistance. But the question that comes to one’s mind is in which press was this advertisement published? And on what basis were these applications made? Was this done based on announcements notified by the Akademi last year? There was one which asked groups to submit applications for productions that would help to project the different social and other programmes taken up by the government; and another where artistes who are financially weak were invited to apply for help.

         With the Panchayet elections in the offing people would naturally question the timing of the announcement of such a project, and more so as the beneficiary groups are all from the ‘fringe areas’, that is if spelt out means regions that fall under different Panchayets. Such questions may seem a ‘tirade’ against any ‘benevolent ‘project the government takes up. No the intention of this blogger is not to prick the air out of any such balloons that soar up to brighten up the sky above us that had gathered some gloomy clouds of despair since long.

         These State grants to groups were once in practice but the LF government had discontinued it for quite many years. The Central government has been granting quite handsome assistance to groups and this increased a few folds on the occasion of the Tagore celebrations. But not all groups are lucky to get this help.  Monthly salaries have also been initiated. Though the sum is meagre and is given to senior distinguished persons, they are certainly stamps of recognitions to personalities who have spent their entire lives for the sake of theatre.

          Let us hope this initiative of the State government would help the groups to work out productions that would enrich the Bengal theatre world.

INDRASHIS LAHIRI: A PLAYWRIGHT EXTRA ORDINEM

INDRASHIS LAHIRI: A PLAYWRIGHT EXTRA ORDINEM

[It has been more than a month that I have added anything in my Blog. I have not seen any theatres during this time as I have been occupied with some other very important personal matters that had to be attended urgently and this is taking a lot of my time. But today I came across a piece of news that has compelled me to document my thoughts about a dramatist who has contributed a great deal to the Bengali theatre in a way that can never be emulated by any other playwright. This is my tribute to Indrashis Lahiri, a brilliant dramatist of our time, who has expired after a multi-organ failure at the SSKM Hospital.]

Indrashis Lahiri was a dramatist who seemed to have that rare ability to pen dramas that did not attempt to override the intellectual threshold of the general viewers/readers in spite of dealing with very important and serious themes that identify with the urban to semi-urban middle-class to lower middle-class society.  Indrashis had been quite consistent in his writing of dramas but had become sporadic in the last few years, perhaps due to ill health. He had his own language with which he could communicate very strongly with his viewers/readers who in their turn were comfortable in reciprocating. But what made his plays successful as stage-productions was his deep sense of the theatrics and that helped the director to adapt his plays on to the stage. Two of his latest dramas were presented by two foremost groups of Kolkata. SEI SUMOULI, a very significant political drama based on the change of the political baton in West Bengal, was produced by Swapnasandhani ; and PINKI BULI, a semi-fantasy based on a story by Amar Mitra but written afresh, was produced by Sayak.   

It is sad that not many competent directors, and there are many in today’s Bengali theatre world, have tried him out. Meghnad Bhattacharya and his Sayak have had done a few of his works. He was awarded the prestigious Satyen Mitra Award for the best playwright for the year 2011 of Theatre Workshop. And I take pride in the fact that I was one of the judges for this award and have had the opportunity to honour this introvert, self-effacing giant of a playwright.

It is a sad day for Bengali theatre which has once again been impoverished after the deaths of Badal Sircar and Mohit Chatterjee.

6 February 2013

Adapted from Mahesh Dattani : SADICHHAR RANGBADAL by Bengaluru’s Smaranik

Adapted from Mahesh Dattani : SADICHHAR RANGBADAL by Bengaluru’s Smaranik

Mahesh Dattani writes plays in English and has made a distinctive style of his own in the English drama scene.  He is perhaps the only Indian playwright who has written for BBC radio apart from being the first English playwright to be awarded with Sahitya Akademi Award and that too at a very young age. He is deeply rooted to the soil that has bred his cultural being and that gives his plays a very well balanced theme touching both the worlds – Eastern and Western. He deals with very sensitive social topics that are though common, not much taken up for circumspection. 

His first full length play, Where There’s a Will written in 1986 has been translated and adapted into Bengali by the esteemed thespian-director Meghnad Bhattacharya as SADICHHAR RANGBADAL for the Bengaluru group Smaranik. Smaranik is a new group though the director, Sayandeb Bhattacharya and some other members have had exposures on the Kolkata stage earlier. No matter, the group put up a good show and proved a lot of well done home work.

The play is designated as a drawing room comedy which in the hand-out of the production also is mentioned as the ‘comedy of the last wish’. The form of the play is certainly as is designated for the play is designed in the apartment space specifically in the drawing room with bits in the bedrooms of a family. The content deals with the predicament of the family centred on a will expressing the last wishes of the head of the family. Though the theme has a pinch of murder mystery, it deals with the positions of the wife, mistress and the daughter-in-law in a patriarchal system. Whatever the description, the play is no doubt a comedy that has a strong base on the play of the dialogues. And this flavour of the Mahesh work has been kept by Meghnad in his translation with very ingenious use of the Bengali language.

The production can boast of good acting as all the members were diligent to do their bits to the best. Apart from a congested stage and faulty lighting, the other aspects of the production scored well. The dress designing needed a special mention. Lastly, it is Sayandeb who deserves applause for handling a play in its true elements.      

An Engrossing Tagore Production: Bhabna’s

BHANUDAR SANGEY

For the last two years or more there has been a spate of various productions on the Kolkata stage with Tagore in the focus. Tagore’s 150th year has prompted groups across the state to work out some presentations that would seem a fitting tribute to the Poet. And then there was a big incentive in the form of financial assistance from the central government. So we found all sorts of productions ranging from staging of his plays without any modifications to adapting his stories and letters and other writings to a credible stage version, and then there has been stage shows that break all probity by marauding, plundering and disfiguring the Poet’s creations and also his philosophy in the name of creative interpretation. However, such works luckily have not been very many and are no more seen on the Kolkata stage except one which is worst of the lot and which had a lot of fanfare at its inaugural shows. I had discussed this production in my first blog.

Recently two of the brightest Tagore works were seen in Kolkata that very strikingly shows that creative interpretation for the stage rests solely on the very good understanding of the source material together with the intellectual perspectives that had given birth to the original writings of the Poet, or for that matter any author. Interestingly both the productions are by new groups with young talents at the helm. Ushnik’s KHELA BHANGAR KHELA has been discussed in one of my earlier blogs. Here we will be discussing BHANUDAR SANGEY another very well crafted production by yet another new group, Bhabna, under the direction of Sumitro Bandopadhyay who though is quite a successful playwright in his own right has this production as his maiden directorial venture. And the hint from this presentation that the viewers have received is that he has come to stay in the realm of direction.

As a playwright Sumitro has a very simple communicating language at his command and so his plays get going easily with the viewers. In this play he has tried to juxtapose Tagore during his stay at Shillong in the 20’s of the last century, when the Poet wrote the novel Shesher Kobita and during the time when he penned the epitome of Indian modern play, Rakta Karabi with the present day life system with all its attachments and corollaries. His intrinsic study of Tagore and his works has made him take the viewers in confidence even in situations where Tagore is seen to confront the modern band music or the cell phone and the laptop or for that matter terrorism of the present brand. The viewers get a taste of the typical Santiniketan cultural ambience on one hand and on the other they confront the deleterious effects of the so-called ‘item numbers’ on the young ones. With the very well designed run of the play one confronts Nandini of Rakta Karabi, Labanya of Shesher Kobita as well as Ranu and Indira, the latter though in a different image. 

Sumitro’s creative designing has given the play a particular engrossing visual treat with many a well crafted theatrical moments. But the performance could have been better if Soumik-Piyali’s stage planning had been more imaginative. The construction on the stage had to be compromised as the new Academy stage has many things wanting. However, things could have been better thought of. Music score by Koustuv Sen Barat and choreography by Sangeeta Ghosh were praiseworthy. But all the young members of the group did their roles – and everyone did a number of characters – with full confidence. And that tells a lot about the competence of the director to build up the teamwork.  The veteran thespian Ashok Mukherjee as the Poet was in his usual mettle.

This was one production that the viewers at the end had a feel-good mood – and that is a rare exception these days.     

Nata-ranga’s JADIDONG: a commendable production

Nata-ranga is a group that has been seriously pursuing the art of theatre since long and their earnestness is reflected by their selection and staging of plays that do not merely tell the mundane stories of our daily life but have always tried to dissect out the complexities and controversies that often crop up as we move on in our lives. Sometimes we feel uncomfortable to even discuss the matters and prefer to sweep them off under the carpet. Interestingly Nata-ranga focuses on such problems and makes the viewers aware of the different ailments that spreads in our society untended. Unhappy marital life is one such agenda that we prefer to sleep upon lest the society blames incompatibility on one’s part. Their latest production JADIDONG is a dissertation on this trait of incompatibility and maladjustment that shatters an otherwise ‘good’ married life.

The present play which is written in a typical satirical form by Sohan Bandopadhyay tells the story of a couple who represents the multitude of ‘broken homes’ that we encounter in today’s world. Here the man and the woman are both well placed in their professional lives and have no strings attached. This has led both of them to have their ‘Shylock’s share’ in the building up of the home. So we find everything divided and bifurcated and that includes from the morning newspaper to every drop of the water that is supplied for the daily chores. The playwright has shown how silly things come up as points of contentions and the persons however civilised and sophisticated never yield in to give the other his or her rightful space.  Such a couple gets hold of a person from the court compounds to get their divorce procedures complete.  But this man is blatant enough to tell the truth about him being a fraudster who takes on the garb of a professional like a lawyer or an astrologer to exhort money from people in distress. But in dealing with this person the couple is subjected repeatedly to situations that point out the follies they are up to and their lack of accommodating the other’s views which in turn would have given positive results.

It would be interesting to note that the name of the play, JADIDONG, is a very important word in the Vedic wedlock mantra that puts conditions on both the groom and the bride. Sohan has deftly brought in this very vital aspect in his content.

The design of the production by Sohan has proved once again the very intense thinking process that always goes behind his every presentation. In the present work there is spectacularity and the form has a comical characteristic that has the very big chance of wandering into a light hearted clownish form. But the acting in the three roles and especially the work of Debshankar Halder as the third individual, who takes in the maximum load, prevents from that ordeal to take shape on the stage. Stage and lighting designs, music support and dress designing contribute equally to this laudable production.   

MORE OF TAGORE

MORE OF TAGORE

One finds quite a number of productions on Tagore being staged lately and all related to the sesquicentennial celebration which is being stretched to a two-year happening, it seems. Though the anniversary had passed off quite sometimes back the doles offered by the central government have come in late and thus the groups had to have some preparation time. This late crop of productions that hit the Kolkata stage is a mixed bag of fares that range from plays written by Tagore to adaptations and presentations based on his writings.    

Bratyajan in their festival themselves presented Tagore’s comedy CHIROKUMAR SABHA under the direction of one of the most distinguished directors of today’s Bengali theatre, Debesh Chattopadhyay. His last work DEBI SARPOMASTA had enthralled the audience due solely to his excellent directorial competence. But sadly one finds not an iota of a director’s presence not to speak of any suggestion of his work in this production which happens to be the fourth of this group and the first not under the tutelage of Bratya Basu. Why was the script done by Tagore himself not followed was difficult to comprehend. It was pathetic to watch the members of the group in different roles simply at loss on the stage not knowing what to do except blurting out the lines. The presentation failed miserably and the viewers missed the Tagorean touch that gives this comedy its time-defying popularity. 

Adrija Dasgupta and Senjuti Bagchi have prepared a script for Uhinee’s BEJE OTHEY PANCHAME SWAR that mainly tries to focus on the socialistic thoughts of the poet. In doing so the script is full of long excerpts from his different essays and letters with a few songs and poems, and bits of dramas inserted here and there. And so the script takes up the look of a seminar lecture rather than a stage presentation. Choosing from Tagore’s repertoire needs a lot of extensive study and it becomes rather frivolous if portions of his writings are taken at random depending on a few references or phrases that match up to the theme in mind. The bits of the plays that are presented are more as illustrations of the ‘lectures’ rather than as examples of the dramatic creations. The dialogues are delivered as if in one shot with no pretence of acting with the actors rambling off their lines in faulty intonations and pronunciations. Adrija who had proved her directorial acumen in a number of productions of the group failed in the basic planning in the present production. The stage design initially went well with the run of the play but later the stage with its piled up props was a distraction for the viewers. But lighting design, if there was any, was the biggest culprit.

Gobordanga Naksha’s GHARE BAIRE is one of the better fares that the viewers were able to enjoy among these late sesquicentennial celebrations. Arindam Sengupta’s adaptation of the novel did not attempt to override the original and so for the uninitiated viewer it was pure Tagore though abridged.  Ashis Das, who has created a niche for himself in the Bengali theatre world, has reached another high mark in his career in this production. This is one novel of Tagore that not many have attempted to stage. Ashis with his sheer grit and a very dedicated group situated far away from the city has taken up this challenge that many a well-placed Kolkata group has not attempted. And the brightest point is that there is not an iota of Satyajit influence in the entire production. The characters have been very well presented with the right emphasis to each. The roles have been performed keeping true to the script. Sanchayan Ghosh’s stage though well designed was not fully utilized. Badal Das’s lights and Swapan Banerjee’s music support were just adequate. Panchanan Manna’s make-up and Debashis Dutta’s dress were perfectly done.

Raja Bhattacharya’s Blank Verse wanted to project the multifarious problems that are gnawing the society today through his play THE GREAT NEW LIFE which is primarily aimed as a tribute to Tagore. But in doing so the viewers are led to a milieu of incidents that seem to lose the bearings, and in the process Tagore gets a backseat. But the commendable part of the production is the perfect synchronised acting of the members and a very well executed dress designing, stage, lighting and music planning.

Beadon Street Subham has been working with children and teen-agers since the last twenty five years. As a tribute to the poet they produced two plays. The first one being the poet’s own DAKGHAR and the second one is Subhashis Gangopadhya’s JAKAN DAKGHAR AACHHYE AMAL NEI, a play based on ‘Dakghar’. Under the able direction of Pankaj Munshi the young boys and girls seemed to love doing their allotted roles in the first play and that exactly what the Poet had tried to say all along in his different works. The basic spirit of the play was very well portrayed. The stage planning was though a bit cliché ridden. In the second play Subhashis had brought about a social angle that is very much evident in the present times. He proposes that instead of Amal if Sudha was to grow up in Madhab Datta’s household, she would have to be confined in the room because of the various social stigma that imprison the girl child in our society. Subhashis had kept to Tagore’s play as far as establishing the spirit of the play that we mentioned earlier. It was no need to make Sudha bed-ridden due to a fire in the flower garden. However, such a Tagore based play had not been witnessed in the Tagore celebrations that had just passed off.

 

KHELA BHANGAR KHELA : Ushnik’s unique tribute to Tagore

KHELA BHANGAR KHELA : Ushnik’s unique tribute to Tagore

        The name of the production happens to be a line from one of Tagore songs,   ‘‘ Aaj khela bhangar khela khelbi aaye ’’ where the Poet beckons the world to join him in the celebrations of the Spring time by breaking away from the shackles of the mundane and defying the rage of the Nor’-wester. This theme has nothing to do with the Ushnik production under the baton of the playwright-director Ishita Mukherjee. But the similarity lies somewhere else. The concept of the production has something in common to the Poet’s call to break away from the known path. Ishita views some of the Tagore characters in their changed sexual image. Though the gender of the characters has been mutated in the presentation, the purpose of their being remains unchanged. And that is where she forces the viewers to try to understand the deeper aspects of the Tagorean philosophy.

          Ishita has picked up twelve characters from six Tagore pieces. In each of the instance except one, the viewers confront the characters in the opposite gender to the one Tagore had portrayed them in his works. So we find a young girl instead of Amal and a female singing minstrel instead of Thakurda in ‘Dakghar’. The viewers find that the thirst for the unknown remains the same no matter whether it is a young boy or a young girl, and the dream-merchant can also be of any sex. So are the basic characteristics like love, possessiveness, jealousy, etc., expressed regardless of the gender.  When Labanya becomes an iconoclastic young man in ‘Shesher Kabita’ and Ela in ‘Chaar Adhyae’ recites out ‘Prohor sheser aloye ranga…’ or for instance, Atin speaks out the departing lines like ‘‘Aamar chaitanyer shesh muhortyo tumi-I nao’’ and Sandip of ‘ Ghare Baire’ is a woman who does not hide her ambitious image that is seen amongst many a woman political leaders that we come across very often, or Raghupati in ‘Bisarjan’ is represented by a woman Kali-worshiper who cannot hide her love and care for Jaisingha, the basic human traits are presented no matter what the gender is. Then Ishita as a contrast presents Bipradas and Kumu of ‘Jogajog’ in their original genders and thus proving her point of view strongly. But at the end the tone is disturbed when the young girl as Amal asks a very poignant question which betrays the basics of Tagore’s views of life. Excepting this portion of the script the content has been well dissertated.

       As for the production it can be said to be flawless. There were established actors as well as young talents and everyone did their parts commendably.  In spite of the hassles of presenting a play that the groups are facing after the so-called renovation of the Academy stage Ushnik did a well-done job. With limited props Somnath Dutta’s stage design together with Joy Sen’s lighting plans did help the play especially when bits of different pieces had to be presented in succession. Music by Abul Chakraborty, too, helped in the run of the play. But the most striking feature of the production has been the designing of the dresses of the different characters. Dress designing had been done keeping the context in mind and such meticulous observance is rarely seen in the productions even of celebrated groups.  

Lastly, it should be mentioned that the financial support from the central government has certainly been well utilised.