Sundaram, the foundation day of which coincides with the Independence Day of India, premiered its latest, Lahore 1947 (picture, top), on August 15 at the Academy of Fine Arts. Given the ongoing debates over identity, immigration, and resettlement, and their wider ramifications across communal lines, this production could not have arrived at a better time.
Based almost entirely on Asghar Wajahat’s brilliant Partition play, Jis Lahore Nai Dekhya O Jamyai Nai (roughly translated from Punjabi as ‘experiencing Lahore is so fundamental to a fulfilling life that not seeing it is akin to not truly living or being born’), which Habib Tanvir had adapted so colourfully in 1989, Lahore 1947 takes a close look at the humane aspects of the Punjab Partition that Bengal has mostly overlooked till date. Lahore, like Calcutta, has become a metaphor for displacement — forced or voluntary — a burning issue that plagues the world as a whole. Biplab Bandyopadhyay, the guest director, works on Arindam Dasgupta’s lucid Bengali translation and gives this Sundaram production an international edge and captures the multi-lingual, multi-cultural space that Lahore had been as well as advocates for an India which is essentially a land of diversity — lived and living.
While the imposing haveli that belonged to the Hindu family hogs the centre stage, Bandyopadhyay keeps the front stage flexible — switching among the refugee resettlement office with its empathetic staff, the roadside tea stall where debates take place, and the neighbourhood mosque where a compassionate maulvi keeps the radicals under check. Soumen Chakraborty illuminates the night scenes with low-intensity operations and Abhijit Acharya chooses the right period pieces, much to the relief of the audience. Bandyopadhyay uses video projections on a white screen, held manually by two actors downstage, of the latest UNHCR reports, film clippings of Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s The Gardener, and even of those implicating major MNCs for funding genocides in the Gaza Strip. The organic melding of the projected images and the compositions unfolding onstage create a visual aesthetics never been attempted on the Calcutta stage previously.
Among the actors, Soma Chakraborty holds her ground as the matriarch with a benevolent presence. Subrata Chowdhury, playing the head of the family from Lucknow who is seeking resettlement in Lahore, crafts the curves inherent in his role. Rajat Ganguly is dependable as a maulvi and Masud Akhtar, speaking Bengali and Urdu with equal felicity, brings an air of authenticity to his portrayal, leaving a lasting impact.
Calcutta’s camaraderie with Mahesh Elkunchwar’s plays finds a new expression in Onnyokichhu’s fresh adaptation of Sonata. Edited and directed by Sangita Sarkar, a fresh graduate from the National School of Drama, the production, titled Moonlight (picture, bottom), dissects the loneliness of independent women living in a modern Indian city. Sarkar shows a lot of promise with this 85-minute-long debut. She designs a cosy drawing room shared by the three characters representing women from different regions of India, all opting for different careers till mid-life brings in a whole range of complications. Soume Ghosh playing a docile teacher who breaks free towards the end, Sreelata Sen portraying a bubbly banker whose confessions form the backbone of the crisis, and Arpita Paul essaying the role of a spirited journalist at the crossroads of her career complement one another brilliantly, pulling off the crucial combat scenes with surprising maturity. Beethoven’s legendary musical piece gives the production its name and Sadhan Parui’s measured lighting scheme facilitates the moments that the actors created on stage.