Chandan Bose and Sagar Dasgupta: Last men miming

Ranchi, Jan. 8: In the din of visual media, mime has lost its voice.

There was a time when mime was the most powerful tool in the hands of the voiceless against oppression. During the French Revolution when citizens were prohibited from voicing their concerns, rebel dramatists came up with mime to register protest. The dramatists wanted to develop a link language to mobilise public opinion.

“Mime is an art of portraying a character, mood, an idea through expressions. It is a dumb show, which is more articulate than plays. Mime, which was a flourishing art in the capital a decade ago, is dying,” said Sagar Das Gupta, a mime artist who works at Allahabad National Bank. “There were several prominent mime artists who performed at various plays organised by institutions in the capital as a part of cultural evenings. But due to various reasons, people drifted away from this art form,” said Sagar, who has been a mime artist since 1964. Ramayam, the only mime institute in Bihar and Jharkhand that has been training people in the dying art form.

“The art of minutely watching others and then copying them with the same gestures, was the guru-mantra that Jogesh Dutta, a renowned mime artist gave me during one of our meetings. This has not only made me grow as an artist but has also helped me understand things better,” added Sagar.

Considering mirror to be his best friend, Sagar says that it is the only thing which can help control one’s facial expressions.

“A time comes when one can have so much control on one’s expressions that one can see his/her expressions through the eyes of others.”

Chandan Bose, another mime artist and the owner of Chandan Instrumental Store, mastered the mime art with hard word. “I was inspired by Jogesh Dutta, a renowned mime artist from Calcutta, who is known all over the country.

He also runs a mime academy in Calcutta where he trains students in mimicry,” said Bose.