From jhal muri to Bengali cotton saris to tablas, Mahesh Dattani made most of his trip to Calcutta on Tuesday and Wednesday. ?I love coming back to Calcutta,? said the award-winning playwright-turned-film-maker. ?It is the only city in the country which has something left of its original identity. Even Bangalore is no longer what it was.?

Dattani was in the city to be a part of a panel discussion on Indian theatre at the British Council on Wednesday evening that also saw the formal launch of Ananda Lal?s The Oxford Companion to Indian Theatre. Apart from Dattani, the panel included Manipuri theatre stalwart Lokendra Arambam, Bengali theatre veteran Devajit Bandyopadhyay, Anjum Katyal of Seagull and Lal himself.

Bandyopadhyay, speaking on the evolution of Bangla theatre, traced the history ? right from Nabanna to Dushman No 1. He stressed on the impact of the turbulence of post-Independence Bengal on theatre. He also spoke at length about the West?s inspiring forces on the plots, themes and ideas used on the Bengali stage.

Speaking on the difficulties plaguing the publishing of theatre, Katyal said that more than asking oneself whether this book on theatre will sell or not, a publisher should question: Is it needed? ?It should be looked upon as an educational venture more than a money-making proposition,? she said, before pointing out that for theatre to bloom at the fullest in print, a standard text has to make way for a performance text.

Arambam, who chose to speak on alternative drama, said the birth of creative arts like theatre in his region was more out of a struggle to claim a place in history. ?It is about what we were and what we wanted to become. It was voiced through theatre, which was mainstream, yet radically departed.?

Dattani put things into perspective, focusing on Indian theatre in English. ?There has to be a new term introduced called Indian-English. Only if we can come to terms with the language first, would we be able to use it to showcase our culture, which in turn is the mirror of society. If an alien language like Urdu can be used in films and ghazals, what?s stopping English from being explored fully? The language cannot be a containment for us all our lives. We have to come out of this,? he concluded.