In the wake of Special Intensive Revision 2026, the Matua question is, once again, hitting the headlines. Will the Matuas retain their names in the electoral rolls? Will they get citizenship rights? With no answer available at this point, Gobardanga Naksha, operating 10 kilometres away from the Matua bastion at Thakurnagar, stages a monodrama that voices the concerns of the Matua working class. Titled Beauty Phool Masi, this production highlights the simmering tension running through the districts along the India-Bangladesh border at this moment.
Scripted by Dipanwita Banik Das and based on real-life interactions with women flower-sellers plying the Bangaon-Sealdah local train, Beauty Phool Masi was staged on December 22, the second day of Gobardanda Naksha’s 13th national theatre festival, Rang Yatra. At the centre of this piece is Beauty, a middle-aged flower-seller from Thakurnagar, who takes a train journey to Calcutta every day, experiences the social inequality drawn along caste lines as she negotiates with a failed marriage and her relationship with an adopted daughter who aspires to climb the social ladder.
Purportedly aimed at the upper castes in the audience, this 40-minute-long solo act by Bhumisuta Das attempts to unsettle the status quo ingrained in our minds. Presented as a stand-up comedy show meant to entertain the audience, the production demolishes all the parameters of such entertainment and talks tough for the people living on the margins. Bhumisuta looks straight into our eyes, asks the Brahmins and the Kayasthas in the audience to raise their hands, goes on to assert the Namasudra community’s claim on the land we inhabit. She refers to the history of migration in the Indian subcontinent over centuries, underlining the subaltern perspective. The play ends with a reference to the Calcutta Scavengers’ Strike of 1928 and hints at similar concerted efforts unless their rights are acknowledged.
Bhumisuta’s command over the performance space at Gobardanga Sanskriti Kendra and her directorial skills in setting up an immersive space reached a mature ground with Yes, staged a few years ago. She scales new heights with Beauty Phool Masi and looks poised for more.