‘8 Minutes 46 Seconds’ : The Mathematical Calculation of Oppression : Selimpur Antar-Ranga’s Debut in the Field of Films.

I still don’t know what to write! Either I’m lazy or, I’m privileged enough to excuse my laziness by saying I’m not in good mood to write. Don’t we need proper stable mind to write about something? If yes, can we afford that right now? And that’s why it is important to talk about “8 Minutes 46 Seconds”.

I remember, just before Durga Puja, when Selimpur Antar-Ranga first announced about this production, I did save some time for this film. Then Durga Puja happened and I just kept the film somewhere else in some hidden file of my mind. Weeks back I revisited the film for mentally I was charged enough to write at least something about this extraordinary film. But I couldn’t, I failed. I wasn’t busy. I was just worried about life. This afternoon I again managed to watch this film and this time with my father. Maybe this time I was again going to subside into something like laziness or, call it self-doubt but, Baba saved my WordPress account with his words. After the film he said, “At least your generation is doing something for the society, we never had that chance.”

No! I definitely still not have done anything for the society, I’m a part of. But Antar-Ranga has tried again and again and this time “8 Minutes 46 Seconds” can lead us (at least our generation if I consider Baba’s words) to where we should start from.

Before I jump straight to my experience regarding ” 8 Minutes 46 Seconds”, I wanna thank few. For I have always been someone who believes in breaking the norms and eating desserts before main course and thanking people at the beginning of my articles. I thank Soham, my friend and family, for always keep reminding me about my passion, which is writing and of course about the existence of this account. I thank Team Antar-Ranga and other friends and seniors of mine who has tried to utilize this Covid-19 lockdown and tried their best to make something productive and fruitful during this difficult time. You people inspire me, You people give me reasons to live and write.

I hope we’re done with enough formalities! As I was talking about Seniors, I will start with them. People who are ahead of you in case of time, mainly age, are not always who you can define as your seniors. My belief says, a senior is someone who guides you, leads you and more importantly inspires you with her/his choices in life. I do look forward to few of my seniors, as the road I have chosen for now is new to me. And I believe they do guide me at times. Selimpur Antar-Ranga is a brainchild of such seniors.

The First Poster (Source : https://www.facebook.com/antarranga/)

I remember, I thought of Elif Shafak‘s “10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World” when I saw this poster for the first time. But somehow this iconic digits and time measures ‘8 Minutes 46 Seconds’ were somehow known to me. It was like I knew them but, not well enough to recognize them. And just like every other time google came to rescue from this state.

22 minutes 26 seconds, the reel time of this film takes you to a world of black and white confinement. Where you are being exposed to a conversation between two prisoners. And as an audience you are involved too. So, now you’re being exposed to a conversation between three prisoners, as it is. You’re the audience, trying to understand the situation from this side of the screen. On that side one prisoner wants to find a “soft spot”, “a sentimental weakness, vulnerable point” of prison walls, of human heart just to break free.

The Spot (Source : https://www.facebook.com/antarranga/)

The Question ( Source : https://www.facebook.com/antarranga/)

You call it coincidence, I call it new-normal. How witty it is, the moment I’m typing this words, whole country is going crazy about The Republic News Channel Reporter Arnab Goswami’s release outside Taloja Jail. Why don’t our country or, to say our country’s judiciary system doesn’t take similar action against any injustice of civil rights when it’s about you and me in the place of a public figure like renowned news anchor? “8 Minutes 46 Seconds” questions one particular question, “What if a country doesn’t have any laws?”,which repeats itself in our mind even after the film, for many days.

The judiciary system of our country has forgotten the basic general policy of The Directive Principles of State Policy, that is to separate Judiciary from the Executive. So, the one who decides the punishment (Judge) cannot communicate with the one who commits the punishment (Executive). And here, in this country, days after days we just face injustice against the innocent and marginalization of justice against crime. Civics School Textbooks are nothing but just a farce when the state itself is the criminal. Our nation is misusing laws by which it is supposed to protect Fundamental Human Rights. Toady the meaning of “Justice” has changed. It’s more about maintaining a permanent power over equal rights by oppressing the raising voice of oppressed and misguiding any crime in the court.

Are We? (Source: https://www.facebook.com/antarranga/)

It’s not easy to deal with own mind when you live in a country where criminals walk free on the street and social activists, reformers and the people who protest against crime and corruption are calculating their minutes in jail. ” Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely ” – The way corruption has taken it’s highest form in our country that it has somehow made us to normalize injustice. We have forgotten the fact that we’re still a democratic country where we select one to represent our decision. Each violation of gender, caste, race and religion is a general violation of our Human Rights as citizens.

The Alarm (Source : https://www.facebook.com/antarranga/)

This pattern of corruption is not alien only in one particular place or, country. It’s worldwide, It’s all about ” All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others “. Keeping in mind the recent political scenario, we all are very certain about the fact that Joe Biden cannot solve the problems which this world suffered during the years of Donald John Trump, for Democracy is definitely not for sale. “8 Minutes 46 Seconds” links a dotted line between similar incidents of brutality in different ways throughout the world. It takes us back to the incident of the Death of George Floyd on May 25, this year and how journalists reconstructed the reality of that incident. It takes us back to the incident of Safoora Zargar, who was sent to Tihar Jail after being charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for her role in the Northeast Delhi Riots. “8 Minutes 46 Seconds “ takes us back to the Case of Nirbhaya, to Hathras, to Singur, to the struggle of Migrant Workers during Covid-19 pandemic, to the political and social movement “Black Lives Matter”, to your own place, to your own sense of justice.

And this backward journey with ” 8 Minutes 46 Seconds “ ultimately comes to an end with the reel time on screen, where the end is just another beginning of similar kind. This short film assures us, we have reached that point of corruption, we have been engulfed by the hungry heads of power seekers for so long, that it’s close to impossible to again dream of a world where Human Rights will matter more than any self-centered means. This circle of this film is very interesting . It equates 8 minutes and 46 seconds with it’s reel time 22 minutes 26 seconds and with the real time of our present socio-political reality. This short film calculates each minute, second and millisecond of degrading state of justice against violation of Human Rights.

The lips and Freedom of Speech (Source : *https://www.facebook.com/antarranga/*)

This Calculator, “8 Minutes 46 Seconds”, is also a brilliant film if one perceives it from the perspectives of film as an art form. The camera captures only facial parts of an individual for the first 10 seconds. Its like a close shot of an eye onscreen expresses the very fact that how foolishly who citizens have forgotten to look beyond whatever yellow journalism is trying to show us. A very close shot of talking lips represents the political repression of public freedom of speech. Lens zooms in to show moving fingers, slowly unfolds the political unrest of the world. Lens captures the slow movement of fingers, making boundaries and circles on dust, resembles the futility of age-old act of raising public voice against rising political injustice. Close-ups like this introduce the modern use of “Parts for Whole” technique in the sphere of light, camera and action. It’s been really long I haven’t enjoyed such minimized easy looking but artistic use of camera.

Another extraordinary use of image-technique in this film is the use of shadows. At times the presence of any shadow recalls the essence of duality in the nature of any being – the counter plays of mind that wants to protest and the mind that wants to be just secure and safe. At times shadow is the real being, showing our shadow like existence in recent life. The importance of shadow as a character increases even in a greater degree when the entire color palate of this film is black and white. One cannot select white from black, one cannot move ahead from corruption to justice or, crime to civil rights, for “8 Minutes 46 Seconds” is that grey world of our, where we no more can differentiate between socio-political right and wrong.

With the hallmark of psychological dilemma ,”To Kill or, Not To Kill”, this film also represents the most political questions of today’s world, Who is a citizen? and, Who is not? What is a nation? and Who is a terrorist? and How long any nation will oppress innocent protests just in case they accidentally expose nation’s own terrorism?

Questions (Source : https://www.facebook.com/antarranga/)

Both the fine artists of theatre have created a gloomy world of prison in this film. This prison isn’t situated in Tihar or, Taloja. But, within the multiple layers of our mind. Occasionally their conversation turns into a soliloquy within human head, where the speaker himself is the only one who is tormented by his own words. It’s your mind talking to you, asking you for a real change, telling you ” de oppresso liber (from an oppressed being, to a being of free choices)”.

There is a slight silver line between acting for screen and acting for stage. Screen always comes as a savior, as a medium of perceiving the other side of it as the real. Stage on the other hand is tricky, it doesn’t belong to any medium between the real and the production concerned with that reality. Acting for screen demands subtle prominent changes in body language and expression. Acting on stage demands sharp acting skill which is Time, Space and Body oriented. And I’m amazed to see how both the artists in this short film have restricted themselves from massive reactions and focused particularly on subtle sharp responses. They are masters of stage and yet their first film is free from any extra layer of forced acting. One is incomplete without another, and both are responsible for working on the best of each other. From now, I’ll definitely think twice before asking any of them, ” Ekta cigarette hobe? (Do you have any cigarette?)”.

And again with the smoke of this new production, I will return back to Selimpur Antar-Ranga. Why are they extraordinary? For they have made this short film during this lockdown without even meeting each other for a single day.

The film ends with a beautiful composition. Each lyric of this composition is perfectly capable of portraying the pleasure in protest and the pain in acceptance, without questioning the authority. I, being a mischievous audience tried to record that song, but all my attempts were fruitless!

Days back I was reading a book which will always have a remarkable impact on me. A part of that book says,

“Does a country fall into fascism the way a person falls in love? Or, more accurately, in hate?”
― Arundhati Roy,“Azadi”

We are not supposed to forget that the primary aim of Art isn’t pleasure but, protest. So, I really really hope this film will reach as many audience as possible. 8 Minutes 46 Seconds is a numerical measurement for oppression, and now it should also be our final alarm to raise voice against that oppression.

You can mail (bhattacharya.subarnika@yahoo.com) me any comment regarding this post as well as your own experience of watching this film. You can also comment in the comment section below.

Happy Reading 🙂

“Dekha”(2020): An Evening Busride With Memory: Antar-Ranga’s First Audio Play

“…smriti ra pathor hoy, ar ke na jane pathorer annya naam manush (Memory is like hard rocks, and the alternative name of those hard rocks is Human)”. – “Dekha” (The Meeting)

I won’t lie but I was afraid when I first came to know about this audio play called “Dekha”. Visting theatre is an essential part of theatre lovers like me. Experiencing the new theatrical experience is one of our best weekend plans. We have so easily normalized the concept of going outside to different places to meet the stage that I was not just sure about the experience of experiencing theatre when stage visits us home. And after experiencing the joy of utilizing technology for one of the supreme forms of art, here I am with my words once again.

The Stage! (source : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5NMLxJig4M)

“Dekha” reminds me of the plays of Harold Pinter. In some texts and even in life ( if we are privileged enough to consider Life as a Text!) memory acts as a character. In those texts, ‘Silence’ and ‘Pause’ also act enough to have a healthy hold on the plot.

Based on Sudip Bose’s short story “Goynar Golpo” this audio play explores those gaps between our illusions and reality, as well as those blank spaces between our present, which is future-oriented and our past which is a dreamland of our selective memories.

The Invitation (source : https://www.facebook.com/antarranga/)

“Dekha” (The Meeting) is a journey of two friends. One is a shadow image from our past and another is our present image in the mirror opposite to us. They are going backward, traveling together towards the innermost depth of Time.

Victor the shadow from the past, is willing to expose wounds of our time in front of our narrator, who is more or less an alternative self of each one of us. So the journey is planned, plotted, and designed by Victor himself. The very pattern of this journey is surprisingly new to the narrator. He finds himself in an awkward position, within a forgotten world of memory. He is clueless, he defends his privileges of having a present. But he is helpless for he can’t answer any question which is suddenly discovered from the pile of abandoned memories by his own past.

‘Memory’ is the protagonist of this audio play, for ‘Memory’ is the one who controls everything. From narration to characterization, ‘Memory’ is the one who is breaking and making the entire screenplay ( or sound-play as here it is). Memory as a character is feminine here. Which again brings back the essence of Pinteresque qualities. Nandita as an old phoenix rises from the cold ashes of past for one last time just before dying another similar death. Ultimately ‘Memory’ engulfs the shine of each and every everyday illusional ‘right now’ and that journey of going backward extends the time limit of this intimate audio play.

The First Blue ( source : https://www.facebook.com/antarranga/)

The intimate journey of each one of us with our memory is an eternal one. But the journey of team Antar-Ranga is somewhat eternally memorable. “Dekha” (The Meeting) is an extraordinary production which team Antar-Ranga has made without meeting with each other even for a day! I’m amazed after experiencing the way they have used the power of sound and silence. The editing is so amazing that subtle sounds themselves work as an integral part while interweaving the polts and incidents during the entire course of the play. The sound itself provides this audio play with a dreamy quality. An essence of perceiving reality from the comfort zone of memory but also with the uneasiness of unwanted past.

When past haunts our present, or, memory disturbs our regular thought procedure, it also affects the pattern of our daily lifestyle. The new pattern is alien to us and we are no more the person we used to be.With this audio play we can trace back the origin of our delusional ‘right now’ to our fragmentary memory.

‘Dekha” (The Meeting) ends with few words which directly involve the wide range of audience with this audio play.

“…ar manusher khali mone hote thake manush hoyar boro dukkha tar cheye smriti hoye gele valo hoto (we living beings only find our living experience of existence difficult and so, we always feel like maybe it would be better if we were nothing but only memories).”

Along with the synthesis of life with memory “Dekha” (The Meeting) also presents a reflection of the present socio-economic situation worldwide. For me, “Dekha” (The Meeting) was a different sort of memorable experience of listening to the theatre. But as a theatre lover, especially as someone who admires Team Antar-Ranga’s productions, I still look forward to those Sundays when the stage will be again busy at its own place and the members of the Team Antar-Ranga will be busier around the stage.

As far as the rules and rituals are concerned I’ll end this blog with few of my favorite lines from one of my favorite texts-

“Memory is the seamstress, and a capricious one at that. Memory runs her needle in and out, up and down, hither and thither. We know not what comes next, or what follows after…” – Virginia Woolf, “Orlando”

You can mail me your feedback or comments regarding this post at bhattacharya.subarnika@yahoo.com

Happy Reading 🙂

Radhabiroho: A Three Dimensional World of Feminine Psyche of Love: A Rubik’s Cube

Do we write? I don’t think. It’s like words visit us when they wish. And these days, together we’re having a tough time. They hardly visit me and I write nothing new.

It’s been six long hours and I’m still trying to type something about Radhabiroho. Still!

What should be the very first line? ‘A Film of Friends?’ ‘My Friends and their Film?’ Umm… ‘Filmy Friends?’ Or, ‘A Friendly Film?’

I’m tired! I’m gonna write whatever is within my mind right now. Previously I was thinking of writing in Bengali then, a few hours back I changed my mind. I don’t want to write about Radhabiroho as someone who is emotionally attached to the cast and crew. But, as one who is an outsider, an individual with personal experience.

Just like any other well made composition of cultural and social artifacts, Radhabiroho is also having its own kind of difficult days regarding its post-production. Nobody knows when it’s gonna make its way to cinema halls. Not even Reetam (the director of Radhabiroho). I came to know about Radhabiroho a year back when we were all busy, preparing for our final university exam. My first reaction was strange and obvious. I was like,”How risky it is to think about making a film just before the months of final!”. No doubt why I have always been that anxious not-so-good Hermione around my friends. But now, after watching Radhabiroho after an entire year, I understand how and why some risks matter more than everything else around us. Congratulations Team Radhabiroho, Congratulations Reetam.

During those early days of making, my friends used to rush towards the set of Radhabiroho after university. I have seen Reetam struggling with his baby steps during those early days. I have seen Writt saying ‘yes’ to any sort of responsibility regarding the making of this film. I have seen Soham experimenting with his frames and angles for the sake of this film. I have experienced how worried Rajlekha and Anika used to be regarding their parts as actress and playback singer in this film. And most importantly during those early days, we all learned from Professor Siddhartha Biswas, the act of going beyond for the accuracy in whatever one is involved with at that very moment. I have seen Sir using all his little to nothing off-hours only for the sake of accuracy in the making of this film.

I feel no shame in admitting that I was that audience of Radhabiroho, who was more excited during the days of shooting than the real cast and crew. Naturally, after it was all done and made, I started disturbing Reetam asking for the date of Radhabiroho’s first public appearance. But, it’s very unfortunate that Radhabiroho is still struggling with its post-production uncertainties. Weeks back when I met Reetam, my very first words were, “Text me the link otherwise I’ll steal that from any of you”. Reetam is so kind that he texted me the link without using any extra word.

It was the preview version for the cast and crew. I decided that I’ll enjoy this film during my five hours long journey from Hometown to Kolkata. Radhabiroho, a film of 25 minutes, I watched three times in a row during that journey. So, here are all three dimensions of this beautiful film-

The Left that is Yellow

The film starts with senior actor Barun Chanda saying “smoking causes cancer”. In his voice, even that particular compulsory episode sounds like a poem. The very first scene of the film captures the cityscape of Kolkata from an avian view. Then slowly it goes down, gets smaller, more specific and momentary. The storyteller is very confident here, he knows his film conveys a specific story of a particular family. The very first words of the film are interesting, they say, “Kagoj…! Kagoj Bejbe…Kagoj? (News Paper…! Any News Paper for trading… Any News Paper?)”. What films do basically? they sell various news. Family news, City news, Daily news. Radhabiroho is perfectly structured on essential news of human existence, which is visible from the very first scene of the film.

The plot is strong, organized and structured in a systematic way. The story revolves around Shree, Keshab and their family. This family is an old fashioned one, with new generations and their individual taste of life. Shree and Keshab both have secrets to hide and promises to forget. The senior-most couple of the family has decided to understand, to avoid and to move on with their current situation. Even in that small span of 25 minutes, Radhabiroho presents an interesting subplot. Which is beautifully beaded within the main plot and open to all for further interpretations.

In between, It’s All Red

Shree and Keshab share a complicated relationship where more than Keshab, Shree suffers all consequences of their situation. Here comes the title of the film, Radhabiroho. Shree is another name of ‘Radha’, the beloved of Lord Krishna in Hindu mythology. If modern minds ever want to terminate the relationship between Lord Krishna and Radha, then it would be simply an extramarital affair. But we count their love as one which is universal, which has logic beyond reasons.

What both Radha and Shree want from Lord Krishna and Keshab ( which is again an alternative for Lord Krishna) is similar. And just to examine that ‘What’, Radhbiroho performs an autopsy of feminine psyche of love. How strange is a female heart which holds an enormous amount of inexplicable love? Shree doesn’t want Keshab to involve with her present situation, doesn’t want Keshab to appear in front of her for another next-time but, on the other hand, she is weak, she can’t deny her own self and disapprove her love.

How many times our mythological Radha planned to get rid of the love she holds within but, she couldn’t. The greatest of all passions a female performs in deep love is sacrificing that love for the sake of situation, for the sake of that love in particular. But, did Radha ultimately succeed in that act of sacrificing own feelings and emotions? Or, she returned back to her love without worrying about consequences? And what about that love? The male counterpart, did he even understand or, get any idea of all complications within the female mind? Radhabiroho tries to search for answers against all these questions on screen and ultimately understands the female psyche of love as one of those multicolored multilayered Rubic’s Cubes, whose scattered colors are all so different that it’s impossible to place them into an order and proper shape.

Shree is an archetype of Radha, an archetype of the elements which are common in nature and degree for every feminine concept of love. Radhabiroho explores the feminine mind as a swinging pendulum, swinging between the codes and concerns of morality and pangs and belongings of love.

Radhabiroho is a story of love beyond all socially constructed structures of love. The more we try to define ‘love’ by confining ‘love’ within a box of relations, the more we distanced ourselves from real love. Maybe the love of Lord Krishna and Radha is universal just because their love is more of a love which is based on pangs of waiting for the moments of togetherness, than a love which has already experienced an actual moment of being united with the beloved.

Recently I read a poem by Sarojini Naidu, Song of Radha the Milkmaid and identified strange similarities between this poem and Reetam’s film. Both Radhabiroho and Song of Radha the Milkmaid identify Radha’s love for Lord Krishna as one which is more prominent as the worship of love than just as physical attraction or, random admiration. Both works identify the position of Radha in the structure of the conventional love relationship between man and woman, also identify the socially accepted easy binary of the subject of worship and the worshipper within that conventional frame. Undoubtedly, Radhabiroho’s set is a place somewhere near the river Jamuna.

The Right, where it’s all Green

The film ends with a scene where the camera zooms out and captures that exact cityscape of the very first scene, again from a bird’s eye angle. This signifies the completion of a momentary story that the storyteller wanted to share onscreen. It’s like Radhabiroho wanted to share a part of this city life, so it took its audience within its own world of the reel, it’s done and the audience is again in their own positions from where they all started, the world of the real. Radhabiroho is not a story of you and me. Radhabiroho is different, Radhabiroho is new. But, we all will definitely find a part of us within this film.

No doubt for beginners, Radhabiroho was an exceptional challenge. But on the other hand, Team Radhabiroho is equally talented. I can’t even imagine how powerful an actress Rajlekha is. Not even for a single second, I misrecognized ‘Shree’ for Rajlekha. The young actor who plays ‘Ananda’ is equally talented. All senior artists including Barun Chanda, Dr. Dipanwita Hzari and Professor Siddhartha Biswas, all are amazing on screen.

Radhabiroho offers beautiful songs in Reetam’s and Anika’s voice. I have experienced Anika on stage more than once. But, Anika the playback singer is an entirely different entity than Anika, a friend of mine who sings beautifully on stage. Anika’s voice dissolves, revolves and ensures that the pattern of this story will repeat itself without any marked end.

I don’t think I am eligible enough to say or, write anything about Reetam. Reetam is the captain of this ship as well as the one-man army of this field. Radhabiroho has already earned a huge heavy list full of prestigious awards including –

Special Festival Mention in Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival (New Delhi)
Special Jury Mention in Kolkata Short International Film Festival
Best Music Score and Second Best film in Ranaghat Art Festival
Official Selection in Kolkata Short Film Festival (Nandan and Chitrabani collaboration)
Official Selection in “Rituparno Ghosh Memorial Film Festival“

But, Reetam is so humble and grounded that from the past two weeks he kept reminding me about my promise. After watching Radhabiroho I promised him that I’ll write something about my experience of watching Radhabiroho. Do I need to say anything more about Reetam?

Radhabiroho is new. Radhabiroho takes cinema for art instead of an old process of creating onscreen narratives for two exact hours. I still don’t know when Radhabiroho will make its first public appearance. We all are still waiting to experience Radhabiroho on the big screen. Till then if any of you can’t wait, you can either request Reetam or steal that link from my phone!

I will conclude this post on Radhabiroho with few lines from one of my favourite lyrics.

I thank Soham who captured all the frames I used here except those screenshots.

Let me know your take on this post in the comment section below. You can also mail me any suggestion regarding this post at bhattacharya.subarnika@yahoo.com

Happy Reading 🙂

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To Win Or To Let The Opposite Win : Antar-Ranga : Herow Rajar Kalandar

My first experience of Antar-Ranga’s ‘Herow Rajar Kalandar’ was on 10th March this year. Unexpectedly Antar-Ranga is wrapping up their year with ‘Herow Rajar Kalandar’ and so am I.

“What’s your power Kalandar?”

Antar-Ranga is fundamentally a Kolkata-based theatre group of handful talented theatre enthusiasts. They perform mainly for the sake of reconstructing the idea and art of performing in various intimate theatrical spaces. Their performance doesn’t believe in having a wall or gap in-between stage and audience. Their performance doesn’t believe in using plots, characters and dialogues which are only stage oriented. Characters interact freely with audience during the course of their performance. Also, audience as a whole is an integral part of any performance by team ‘Antar-Ranga’. Audience is more of a character of their performance than any of the performers on stage. Antar-Ranga with their each performance simply proves the fact to an amazing extent that Intimate Theatre is “Momentary” yet, “Timeless”.

Raja (The King) and audience during the last performance of ‘Herow Rajar Kalandar’

“Tell me something new, Kalandar”

On 22nd December it was Antar-Ranga’s 14th performance of ‘Herow Rajar Kalandar’ and my second experience of that play. The venue was Boi-Chitra Art Gallary (College Street, Coffee House, 2nd Floor).

Team Antar-Ranga always experiments with actions and ideas during the rehearsal session of any new performance of any of their plays. They add subtle changes regarding dialogues and body language. You just can’t sit relaxed just because you have prior experience of what is going to happen on stage, prior experience of how the plot is going to unfold itself. Team Antar-Ranga have already sprinkled new changes over the old plot, new changes which are intense and related to ongoing socio-political events around. So, it’s a new play once again, a brand new experience all together.

First time when I experienced this play, I returned with silence. Silence which had a lot to address, a lot to response, a lot to realize. This time it was somewhat different, somewhat like a sense of formation. I returned with words, few words.

“You can eat during the performance of our story”

So, ‘What is ‘Herow Rajar Kalandar?’, ‘Who is a Kalandar?’,’Who is a Kalandar outside that theatrical space?’ ‘Kalandar of our own time?’ ‘Why is he choosing someone who is currently at the edge of being defeated ?’ ‘ Who is that Raja (The King) then?’ ‘why is he going to be defeated soon?’ ‘Is he someone like you and Me?’ ‘What sort of relation Kalandar and Raja(The King) both share? ‘- ‘Herow Rajar Kalandar’ resolves all the questions for the audience, with the audience.

Face to Face
Kalandar (left) and Raja(right)

“From nowhere to everywhere”

Kalandar is strange, straight forward, an entity beyond Time and Space. He has visited many palaces, experienced a lot but, still waiting to experience a place which prioritizes individual dreams over collective benefit. He is a dreamer. He dreams of new days of hope and love beyond violence and selfish actions of individuals to achieve any sort of personal motive. Kalandar simply sings and recites for personal happiness and thinks of Rabindranath Tagore as the only true King around.

“You want me to be the king, Kalandar?”

Who is the Raja (The King) then? The king of this city. Is he someone like you and me? Does he possess some extraordinary qualities?

This Raja ( The King) is more of a figure like Eliot’s Prufrock or, Joyce’s Dedalus. He is vulnerable, he is insecure. For him, life is all about work places and office time. He is the self proclaimed sole ruler of his own means and concerns.

“Kalandar, don’t I have anything left for myself anymore?”

The plot revolves around Kalandar mistaking a common folk to be the king of this city and that folk ultimately taking the advantage of being so for a day. Everything related to this common city folk is new to Kalandar, everything related to Kalandar is weird and strange to this common folk, who is apparently enjoying all facilities of being Raja (The King) for a day.

From the very beginning the words of Kalandar seem to be risking each of our daily familiar practices, questioning whatever is wrong with us, with this society. From our useless obsession with selfies and show-offs to our very political decisions of being apolitical during any moment of crisis in our city, Kalandar’s words question all of them. Finally all actions of the plot strike to a point, where it is all about a question answer session in-between Kalandar and Raja(The King) and apparently nothing else.

Kalandar is trying and Raja (The King) is a pro!

This session reminds audience of Italo Calvino’s “Invisible Cities” and the dialogues between Khan and Marco Polo. Reminds audience of Nirendranath Chakraborty’s famous line “Raja tor kapor kothay? (King, where is your Royal Garment?)”. The questions from the mouth of Kalandar seem to be questions straight out of the mouth of our very own city, which are often unheard, intentionally ignored and avoided. What if my city stands still and asks me about it’s memories (history), about it’s unnumbered deaths, about it’s signs, desires, dreams and cultures, about the city within it and the one which is visible but illusionary… I will stand helpless, I will stand alone. So is our Raja (The King) on stage.

As the session proceeds with more questions in number and less to no more answers, it’s become easier for audience to place themselves within the action, within that theatrical space. Raja (The King) slowly turns into a mirror like figure. It’s all easy now, no more an illusionary mirage. Raja (The King) and Kalandar – The Self and the consciously repressed Other of that same self.

The unknown repressed self of our very own perfectly known (apparently) existence has various dimensions. These dimensions help us to risk our everything for new challenges, help us to gather new courage to live differently up to our dreams. If one can look within, search for answers and work on these dimensions only then there are chances of getting correct answers against all questions of Kalandar. Until and unless we do so, we are all alone, helpless and directly or indirectly defeated by the greater impact of various circumstances around.

“I want your eyes to dream once more”

Raja(The King) is the Hamlet of our own age. He is the Haider of this city at this very moment. After all questions of Kalandar finally the king is clueless, tormented and afraid. Afraid to face his own self. Audience is equally afraid and helpless. They have ultimately recognized all the similarities with the king. Just like the king, each morning we wake up, we follow the same pattern without any objection. We have forgotten to think beyond, to dream beyond whatever is visible only on the surface. We are satisfied only with the apparent goodness of our workplace and office-time. We mistake this pattern as what we ourselves think as ‘life’. But reality is different, this pattern actually is just a minimal part of city life as a whole.

The interchangeable nature of both the characters (Kalandar and The King) on stage is very interesting. Both the characters construct, deconstruct and finally reconstruct their characters throughout the entire time span of the play. As the plot proceeds, the layers of characters slowly slide one by one. After the shift of one or two slides audience (as in theatrical sense of audience) identify the hidden Kalandar within The King who still dreams of days which will offer him a chance to fulfill his wishes and The King within the Kalandar who still speaks of hope, speaks of bringing the beauty out of all mess around.

If you let the Kalandar within yourself win…

At a point both Raja (The King) and Kalandar struggle for their individual existence. Struggle for their respective silences. They are confused, they don’t know which silence should win over the other; the silence of Raja(The King) which is helpless or, the silence of Kalandar which is screaming inside. Audience is equally helpless at this moment and the characters keep over-pouring the theatrical space with sharp silence.

This struggle is not only a visible one on stage between two characters. This struggle is inward struggle between ‘what it is’ and ‘what it should be’ within each individual of this city. Kalandar and Raja(The King) both are two opposite sides of a same coin, two forces within an individual. If not yin and yang or, black and white, they together exists as grey where yin and yang both meet each other. From a theatrical perspective one can look at the theatrical space of this play as one universal human body.

“Kalandar, take me to the country without any war”

‘Herow Rajar Kalandar’ works as Reality Check for it’s audience on stage. Hangover of this play keeps reminding the audience about how meaningless and futile any self centered existence could be and also about the Kalandar of new hope within an individual even after the show, outside the theatrical space.

“Kalandar, play one more song please”

This play is incomplete without the original songs during the entire course of performance. The song “Icche-gari Icche-gari, Anicchetai Shon (In spite of all your valid wishes,listen to the one which you have forgotten to utter as a wish)” works amazing on stage. When words and silence both fail, both are futile as tools of communication on stage, music enters to rescue and beautifully bridges each gap between the spectators and the performers.

“When is your next show Kalandar?”

I decided only before two days of the show that I will go and capture stage life. The second one was my primary motive. But the experience of this show resulted in something entirely different. I clicked, I captured and I experienced. First time the experience was more of an experience which can only be experienced from the other side of the theatrical space, from audience’s space. This time it was difficult for me. Each word was becoming heavy on me, each silence on stage was suffocating, a sense of a different sort of inward ending was engulfing me. I was definitely not at ease. I was somewhat in between the audience and the stage. Somewhat in a position where either I had to accept one for the sake of the other or, to reject the other for the sake of the self.

Am I waiting for the next show of ‘Herow Rajar Kalandar’? Of course I am. One can simply experience each performance of this play as re-reading or new reading of an old text.

Here are some of my personal favourite frames-

“Which place for now, Kalandar?”

I will conclude this blog with one of my favourite posters of this play previously designed by team Antar-Ranga and with few lines from one of my favourite Bengali poems.

“আমায় যদি হঠাৎ কোনো ছলে/ কেউ ক’রে দেয় আজকে রাতের রাজা, (If I get the chance of becoming the king of this city for one whole night by any magical superpower) করি গোটাকয়েক আইন জারি/ দু’এক জনায় খুব কষে দিই সাজা। (I will introduce new rules and laws just to punish few) মেঘগুলোকে করি হুকুম সব/ ছুটি তোদের, আজকে মহোৎসব।” (Then I will command over clouds and grant them grand festival of eternal holiday) -Premendra Mitra

And that amazing poster they used during the promotion of their previous show

Let me know your take on this post in the comment section below. You can also mail me any suggestion regarding this post at bhattacharya.subarnika@yahoo.com

Happy Reading 🙂