Voice of a playwright
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With 11 plays to his credit, 36-year-old Bratya Basu is a force to reckon with in Bengali theatre.
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"Always, I need an opponent." - Rakesh Chatterjee, the protagonist in the play "Sateroi July".
HE DIRECTED most of the 11 plays he is credited with. At the age of 36, Bratya Basu — playwright, director and actor — has already done a good job in making Bengali theatre much more speaking and relevant. "Theatre has to work not only as a spectacle, but also cerebrally, which means through words. And it has to be packaged neatly and it should have a special energy. The actor is the main weapon in this attack," he says.
Part of Ganakrishti from Kolkata, Chatterjee aired his opinions after the successful staging of his highly political and argumentative play, `Sartorie July' (17th July) in the city. Set in post-Godhra Gujarat, the play often teeters on the edge of melodrama and makes a strong case against religious fundamentalism.
It was being staged in a marriage hall across the Musi river in what was once the State cinema and the audience are mainly the artisans and workers from various parts of Bengal working in the Old City. It is a huge cast of some 40 actors and a dozen backstage hands.
Bratya also took up filmmaking two years ago. "Myself - the director, my assistant director, my camerman, editor, hero, heroine — we were all first timers!", says he with a hearty laugh. `Raasta' (2003) portrays the underworld of Calcutta. He has just completed his second film, `Teesta' (a river and also the name of the film's heroine) with Debasree Roy in the lead. Bratya revels in describing himself in morbidly colourful terms: "I am a bastard child as far as the Bengali theatre tradition goes." And he is a middleclass person, a scared person and a person alienated from himself!
In a situation where most of the leading artistes and theatre practitioners of Bengal have allowed themselves to be co-opted by the long time ruling Left Front Government, Bratya wreaked a minor tsunami with his defiantly anti-establishment play `Winkle Twinkle' (2004) and ruffled too many feathers. The play has reinforced his reputation as the chief dissenting voice of contemporary Bengali theatre.
The range of his original themes and formal experimentation beginning with `Asaleen' (1995), considered the first post-modern Bengali play, takes away your breath. He has, however, resolutely keyed himself to contemporary sensibilities. "I believe in the truth and multi-layerality of language. There are two types of language: prose, the conscious language, and poetry, the unconscious language. In drama, they both come together creating a third language. And that's why a successful play disturbs and troubles you in an inexplicable fashion". The almost inviolable strength of this approach is apparent in `Sateori July' from its pounding, hurling background score (composed by 22-year-old Satrajit Sarkar) to the powerful speeches and well-differentiated and vigorous body language and mannerisms of its characters.
Ganakrishti, one of the leading `group theatre' (meaning seriously amateur as distinct from truly professional) troupes in Calcutta, takes great pride in Bratya. "We have a very bright and important playwright writing and directing plays for us. Though this in itself is rare, what is important is his contemporary ideas and values have already touched the audience," says Soumitra Mitra, the president of the troupe.
What would he hope to finally receive back from these artistic incursions? "Peace. The ability to survive only on the strength of myself. That is when vengeance and suffering, and jealousy and insecurity will not trouble me. But it's probably my destiny they'll trouble me till the end," he says. SUMANASPATI
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