On the Occasion of NABC2010
Kallol of NJ presents
“EKTI GNAYE THAKI”
(We Live in a Village)
A Play by Sudipta Bhawmik
Cast: Abhijit Neogy, Sankar Ghoshal, Lilabati Majumdar, Indranil Mukherjee, Aparajita Das, Raja Roy, Debiprosad Palit
Music: Samya Goswami
Lights: Subhodev Das, Chandan Sen
Synopsis: “Ekti Gnaye Thaki” is the story of Ranjana and her brother, Rajat, reuniting after fourteen years. Rajat immigrates to the US with his family after Ranjana sponsors their green cards. The reunion is marked by its usual excitement followed by nostalgia for their hometown Gobindapur they both left behind. Rajat becomes a critical link for Ranjana to relive her past, while Ranjana helps him come to terms with his decision to abandon his familiar world in Gobindapur. Ranjana is also ill and Rajat’s presence offers a long-awaited emollient. As the brother and the sister often slip into the past, the rest of the characters are excited at the prospects of their future in the US, especially Rajat’s son, Rajib. Life gradually settles down and a quotidian harmony evolves. Yet from the beginning, the play occasionally and quite subliminally alludes to an underlying subplot that threatens the apparent calm between the two families. Eventually, through a set of related incidents, the undisclosed piece – a rather disconcerting one – is revealed. The disclosure tears apart the growing assurance of the families’ suburban life, and more importantly, sets in motion a drift into the past that interrogates those relationships that were deemed normal. Though this interrogation
fractures a happy picture, however, it is through this fracture, we areinvited to revisit something more important – the attachment betweenhuman beings. The play above all, irrespective of its specificities of time and place, is a commentary on what it means to be a human being in relation to those we hold dear in our lives.
Hall A – Banga Mancha, Atlantic City Convention Center
6.00pm, Saturday, July 10, 2010
I wrote the play “Musical Chair” couple of years ago for a local magazine. That time I had no intention of staging the play, rather it was written more as a piece to be read rather than acted. The theatrical format did consider the staging related logistics, but the play demanded a lot from the actors and the director. Keka Sircar took up the challenge and we decided to stage the play along with “Ekti Gnaye Thaki”. A women director can bring to a play a perspective that is unique and for a play like “Musical Chair” it is almost essential. Since all the speaking characters in this play are women, the actors too can present the material in a form that we are not accustomed to in a male dominated stage. The way the play gets interpreted and presented by the women actors can never be achieved from a male perspective.