.jpg)
.jpg)
Your group Swapnasandhani, which came into being on May 29, 1992, is turning 25. Tell us about the birth and the initial years of the group...
I was actively involved in Left politics from 1987, the year I wrote my ISC exams, till the Nandigram killings in 2007. So, a political ideology was obviously there when I set up the group in 1992. But the first play I chose, Manoj Mitra’s Aankhipallab, was apolitical. So were the three subsequent ones — Jadubansha in 1993, Khonj in 1994 and Tiktiki in 1995. That was the time when we were trying to assess ourselves.
Of the initial plays, Tiktiki helped us gain a strong foothold. It marked Soumitra Chatterjee’s debut in group theatre. It established me as an actor and Swapnasandhani as a name to reckon with.
Post-Tiktiki, we had an important discussion in the group — now what? Soumitrababu’s presence was a blessing but were we to keep using him as a crowd-puller?
We decided to move on and in 1996 staged Ramaprasad Banik’s Marjaniyo. It depicted conflicts within a theatre group, which also reflected conflicts within a political party. In 1997, we did Prothom Partha by Buddhadeb Basu. And with it we started on a new journey, which is still on. So, though our group was born in 1992, it took off only in 1997….
What type of plays do you choose?
Theatre is a unique art form in that it is temporary. Even if you videograph a production, you will miss the theatre. And if theatre is temporary, it has to tell the story of the time it lives in. It has to be anti-establishment. Whatever form you choose, tragedy or comedy, if you tell the story of your time, you are bound to offend the people in power. Since 1997, Swapnasandhani has been consistently trying to capture the contemporary time.
Your current plays are so political, yet the ones you did in the first few years of Swapnasandhani steered clear of politics.
Yes and I tell you why. As followers or practitioners of Left politics, we were confused. I saw what my father (Shyamal Sen) and his friends had to go through during the Congress rule, the oppression they had to suffer during the Emergency. In 1977, a friendly government (Left Front) came to power. Like many others, I was led to believe that the government was progressive and there was no further need to protest. That might have played a role in our veering towards so-called safe plays like Aankhipallab or Jadubansha.
Tell us how your family got involved in the group...
I have to start with my father, who is no more. He had actively encouraged me to set up Swapnasandhani. He was a magnificent actor-director but hardly got any official recognition. He had never entered our rehearsal room. He would sit on a recliner on the verandah of our house and listen to our rehearsal. In the evening he would discuss the finer points with me. Another person who has nurtured me a lot is Soumitra Chatterjee, the founder president of Swapnasandhani.
My mother (Chitra Sen) has been an integral part of the group since 1992. She has acted in many of our plays, starting from Aankhipallab. My wife Reshmi is a founder-member but she started acting only in 2000. Her debut was in Bratya Basu’s Mukhomukhi Bosibar. Now she is one of the most important actors of my group. Without her I could not have launched many of our significant productions.
My son Riddhi acted for the first time in 2002, when he was four years old, in a play called Prachya. The next year he acted in Dushman No. 1... As a child artist, he played significant roles in Bhalo Rakkhosher Galpo, Bonkubabur Bondhu and Dakghar.
At one point Swapnasandhani used to stage plays at a fixed venue — Sujata Sadan. Why did you do that and did your group benefit from it?
The decision came out of a necessity to preserve a minority art form like theatre and a determination not to compete with a majority or mainstream art form like film. To compete with films, theatre groups tend to spend more and more on advertisement, which drains their resources. We hired Sujata Sadan in Hazra in 2005, which had merely 400 seats. We persuaded the owner to install ACs and started performing there every Saturday. At the same time, we curtailed our spending on advertisement.
At Sujata Sadan, we staged some of our significant productions such as Darjiparar Marjinara, Malyaban and Dakghar. Swapnasandhani got national recognition during that phase. The who’s who of the cultural world watched our plays at Sujata Sadan, including Ratan Thiyam, Kanhailal, Soumitra Chatterjee, Mrinal Sen and Sankha Ghosh. We staged Bhalo Rakkhosher Galpo and invited schools to send in their kids. Making Sujata Sadan our nucleus, we strove to create community theatre. And that community helped us thrive. The arrangement continued till 2009.
What are your future plans?
My immediate plan is to start health insurance for my group members and step down as director and actor, though I will always be there as an organiser. I think 25 years is too long a period in a creative person’s life. If you don’t stop, you may repeat yourself.
Is this plan final?
It’s my wish. I have to discuss it with my group members.
If you step down, who will fill your shoes?
We may have to invite outsiders to direct our plays. Our group is yet to produce a director, though it has produced many good actors.... It will be good if an outsider comes in because she or he will bring in a fresh outlook.
Talking about outsiders, several star actors who are not members of your group have acted in your productions, such as Arpita Chatterjee, Roopa Ganguly and Debolina Dutta. Doesn’t their participation stunt the growth of core members of the group?
I want to humbly state that the outsiders who have acted in our productions wanted to work with us. While casting them — and I cast them because they looked the part — I ensured that the growth of my group members was not impeded…. Outsiders’ participation is the exception, not the rule.
RIDDHI ON THE 4 PLAYS LINED UP NEXT WEEK
May 29: Nirbhaya (based on Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage): Written in response to Hitler’s invasion of Poland, the play depicts the tragic futility of the bourgeois class trying to profit from war. Why Mother Courage now? Isn’t there enough internal strife?
May 30: Ashwathama (written by Manoj Mitra): It is relevant in the context of terror attacks happening all around us. After the Kurukshetra war, Ashwathama had by mistake beheaded the five sons of the Pandavas. He was a victim of conspiracy and what he did can be considered the original act of terror.
May 31: Antigone (Sophocles): A Greek tragedy centring around Creon, an autocrat, and Antigone, a spirited rebel. Creons seem to be the political flavour of the season. People are rooting for democracy but craving for someone with absolute power.
June 1: Drohkaal (based on Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People): A doctor named Satyabati Sen is pitted against her politician brother who wants her to suppress the news before an election that the water in his locality is contaminated with arsenic. Like Ibsen’s original, the adaptation exposes the superstition and mediocrity of contemporary life and the debasement of humanity — not just in the political field.
All plays to be staged at Gyan Manch, 6pm onwards
KOUSHIK PICKS 5 SWAPNASANDHANI PRODUCTIONS
♦ Prothom Partha: It was a poetic play. The Bengali theatre audience had for long not seen any poetic play. The other reason why I chose it was Buddhadeb Basu’s interpretation of Karna.
♦ Tara Teen Bon, based on Chekov’s Three Sisters: It is a complex psychological exploration and a difficult play to stage.
♦ Malyaban, based on Jibanananda Das’s novel: It has a dark theme and delves deep into a character’s psychology.
♦ Macbeth: In Macbeth, I tried to predict how the political realities were going to change. At the end of the play I showed Macduff seated on the throne, flanked by two secret killers who had sworn their allegiance to him. Many had taken umbrage at the portrayal.
♦ Sei Sumouli: Two related incidents were at the back of my mind when I chose this play — the defeat of the Left Front in the 2011 Assembly polls and the fight between the CPM’s central and state leaders on what caused the defeat.
