Bangla Opera, a relatively new theatre group based in Naihati, has come up with Katha Chhilo Hnete Jabo Chhayapath, written and directed by the talented Bhaskar Mukherjee. At the very outset, praise goes out to the group for making available such resources (human, logistical and infrastructural) that allow a writer-director to conceive a play without having to censor imagination. And Mukherjee, who has in the past exhibited his proficiency in constructing scenographically-rich plays, goes all out in Chhayapath to mount what may be called an audio-visual extravaganza. Mukherjee has designed the soundscape himself, expertly blending recorded sound with hauntingly evocative live music, while Suvankar De has come up with a lavish lighting scheme that uses plentiful sources and varieties of light to create strikingly gorgeous illumination. A huge set, designed skilfully by Soumyajit Das, is the architectural centerpiece that supports an abundance of spatial configurations without which the play would have become woodenly static.
Chhayapath definitely belongs to the category of director-driven, meticulously-designed plays (much in vogue in Bengali theatre these days) in which the creative agency of actors stands stringently restricted; actors are required to execute the directorial brief scrupulously, in the manner of synchronised parts of a large clockwork mechanism. To their credit, the majority of the actors (Debjani Singha, Partha Bandyopadhyay, Sayantan Moitra, Rick Deb, Shrimoyi Roy and Bhaskar Muherjee himself) etch out their characters convincingly.
The text does have issues: the narrative of the Bengali-speaking character in quest for ancient astronomical manuscripts remains grossly undercooked, some sex scenes are cringe-inducing and the attempt to link the play to contemporary concerns is ham-handed. Such shortfalls notwithstanding, Chhayapath packs enough punch to stimulate interest and Partha Bhowmick, parliamentarian and theatre enthusiast, credited as ‘entrepreneur’ for the play, must be satisfied with what the team has achieved.
