Passionate Performers

PASSIONATE PERFORMERS was originally an effort since 2009 organised by some young theatre enthusiasts of Siliguri (Darjeeling, West Bengal, India) flocked together to perform outstation call-shows of Drama and Bengali recitations in collaboration with various agencies and organisations hosting cultural shows and events outside West Bengal. It was a brainchild of Prof. Amitava Kanjilal and was supported by Sri Debarshi Kanungoe while Sri Jayanta Chatterjee, Sri Ranjit Paul (Percursionist), Smt. Sangita Paul, Smt. Monalisa Kanjilal remained as other associates. The acclaims received during the invited shows of several one act plays by the troop at stages of Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mani Nagar, Jaypur etc. prompted the forerunners to built a group with a broad basis. Later Passionate Performers appeared as a Group Theatre in Siliguri on 22nd August, 2016 on the birth date of legendary Bengali Theatre maestro Sri Sambhu Mitra. The reception meeting, jointly conveyed by Prof. Amitava Kanjilal, Sri Debarshi Kanungoe and Smt. Soma Roy Chowdhury, was held at the residence of the Chief Patron of the group Sri Sujit Raha at Prarthiba, Bidhan Road, Siliguri. Sri Kanchan Ghosh, Sri Kamalesh Roy, Dr. Sumit Banerjee, Dr. Ujjwal Roy, Sri Abhirup Ghosh, Sri Koushik Chakraborty, Sri Abhrangshu Sarkar, Sri Samrat Sarkhel, Sri Ratul Acharjee, Sri Goutam Som, Smt. Sharmistha Roy, Smt. Rini Sarkar and several others joined hands to officially launch the group's first full length dramatic production FAYZAL, written and directed by Prof. Amitava Kanjilal. Sri Naresh Periwal, a renowned businessman of the town greeted the preparatory meeting and committed to remain a well wisher of the group forever. In the course of preparation of FAYZAL, many other theatre-lovers actively joined the group to built a mass-production. Smt. Taneya Biswas, Smt. Sucharita Banik, Smt. Urmimala Dutta, Sri Abhijit Bagchi, Sri Pankaj Raha Roy, Sri Bankim Sarkar, Prof. Ajit De were some of them along with a bunch of yongsters like Sri Prantik Naskar, Sri Kallol Rudra, Sri Prasanta Roy, Sri Sumit Verma, Sri Pintu Das, Sri Sagar Roy, Sri Joy Mandal, Sri Raj Saha, Sri Arjun Sha, Sri Suraj Singh, Sri Partha Biswas, Sri Anubhab De, Sri Sankhadeep Mahato, Smt. Kabita Barman, most of whom were collegiate. Two child actors, master Amogh Kanjilal and Master Surjo Ghosh had their debut appearance in theatre in FAYZAL. The group gradually flourished to expose its impressive presence in the vicinity and was acknowledged by Siliguri Nattyamela Committee by conferring the prestigious membership of the platform to Passionate Performers on and from 5th September, 2016.

Within a very short span, Passionate Performers has owned a high reputation through its multi-faceted activities and performances. BAAK BANDHAN SAMAROHA, an international festival of Bengali Poetry and Recitation, a major stream of performing art popular amongst the Bengali speaking audience is being organised annually to accommodate elocutionists from various parts of the country and abroad. Such a venture was unique and pioneering in this part of the state to have established a strong link of cultural exchange between North-Eastern part of the country, mainland India, and of course Bangladesh.

APPEARANCE, a national festival of celebrated theatres, is another major venture of Passionate Performers. This bi-annual festival has given stage to some of the best dramatic productions by much-admired theatre groups from all over India. Renowned actors like Soumitra Chattopadhyay, Debshankar Halder, Bhagirathi Bai Kadam, Ashish Vidyarthi has showcased their extra-ordinary acting skills during the initial chapters of APPEARANCE. Noted theatre groups like Ejut, Mumbai; Seagull, Guwahati; Mukhomukhi, Kolkata etc. has joined the extravaganza of dramatic performances in APPEARANCE. Passionate Performers is committed to continue to host such event of culmination of nationally appreciated productions along with the sincere efforts of regional Group Theatres on a single platform.

We cherish our deep connection with BASUNDHARA, the eco-socio-cultural space in near-Siliguri. The greenery is spread over acres to nourish the flora and the fauna and also meet our need for Vasantotsav, Rabindra Jayanti and World Environmental Days and Basundhara Utsav along with our daylong workshops and rehearsals, in house performances and heritage walk with stalwarts who has planted saplings that has grown to big trees by now, Late Habib Tanveer, Usha Ganguly, Ashish Vidyarthi, Late Sunil Ganguly, Late Suchitra Mitra are to name a few.

Passionate Performers believes in shared opportunities of artistry and creative endeavour. We care for humanity and environment to the core of our faith. We seek to develop a greater network of cultural activism centring the city that has been much designated as a city of commerce and business. We would not claim much in words or in gigantic terms, we would try to explore every little possibilities to utilise human resources for the betterment of the whole community and nature. Our dreams are unlimited, yet our aim is specific. We look forward to grow a Theatrescape in the vicinity that would comprise a modern theatre stage with a good auditorium, a workshop space and open air theatre ground, a guest house and with canteen facility, well equipped storage for dramatic sets and properties etc. that would facilitate the infrastructure of performing theatre in the city and would be open for other fraternal organisations for use and maintenances.

I have loved to discover my 'self' as a passionate performer since my days in school until in my youth my association with idolised cultural activism gave me an authentic direction towards the necessity of building organisation to gospel the spirit of 'art for humanity'. Since the advancement of my thinking and creative capacities has undergone several stages of schooling under influential guides and associates and my occupation provided ample boosting of my early childhood hobby of reading, I ultimately resorted to the arena of theatre although I am still very much connected to and rooted in elocution, oratory, creative writing, composing songs, designing soundtracks etc. I owe no formal training in any of these fields, however, in my youth I could achieve several state-level and national-level recognitions and acclaims in these commotions. Whatever I have accomplished is the output of the acquisition of experiences and discourses. I delve into them with spontaneity yet having the framework of critical social enquiry alert in mind.

Since almost last three decades of my avid involvement in cultural activism with special integrity to Peoples' Theatre Movement I have worked with leading Group Theatres of the city in various capacities like apprentice proxy-actor, script hand-writer, backstage help, music player, makeup artist, costume designer, actor in a leading role, assistant director, playwright, music composer, director etc. In my multi-layered association with Thoughts' Arena, Sreejansena, Karnik, Darpan Nattya Sangstha, IPTA (Uttardhwani) I have been profoundly influenced by my mentors, colleagues and comrades and of course, large number of dramatic performers who left their distinguishing mark in originality while performing on behalf of many other leading Group Theatres of Siliguri. I consider myself a bi-product of Mukta Mancha theatrical movement that initiated free of cost public shows of dramatic productions in open air stage near the railway colony where I was born and brought up. I cherish the fond memories of my boyhood when I use to spend hours after study in the evening at the rehearsal floor of Group Theatres watching with amaze actors like Late Prasanta Majumder, Late Sankar Majumder, Late Mantu Majumder, Sri Kuntal Ghosh, Sri Ananda Bhattacharya, Sri Saibal Majumder, Smt. Champa Bhattacharya, Sri Pranab Bandopadhyay, Smt. Manju Bandopadhyay, Late Montu De, Smt. Putul Chakraboty, Smt. Bhaswati Chakraborty, Smt. Dolly Kundu, Sri Malay Ghosh, Sri Goutam Chakraborty, Sri Palak Chakraborty, Late Amal Chakraborty, Sri Partha Choudhury, Sri Kalyan Dasgupta, Sri Biman Dasgupta, Sri Pravakar Chakraborty, Sri Tandav Mukherjee, Sri Bimalendu Bikash Kanjilal (my uncle), Sri Anup Sarkar (Basu) and many more, who use to rehears their role in preparation for the dramatic productions. Their unique impression in the mind of a growing young boy gave him the confidence to resolve to join the spectacular world of theatre. My union with Sri Partha Pratim Mitra (my Murari-da) for long twenty years in socio-cultural activism nourished my spirit in the most sincere terms to grow as a committed 'theatresan'. He introduced my keen interests to a relatively modern approach of theatre and we carried several experimental initiatives in the city like introducing Pathya-Nattya (theatre developed from school syllebus), open air cultural gathering in Nukkad form, celebrating the ethno-cultural roots and traditions of Bengal in Chitra Bichitra Adda, Abol Tabol Utsav, Tuntuni Mela etc. When Basundhara was founded by Sri Sujit Raha (Chhoton-da, more preferably, to me), it was a natural selection for me to join the cause and with much enthusiasm I use to train the tribal children songs and acting skills etc. who use to reside around Basundhara and use to come to the place to play with nature. I still find best of my inner-fuel from the space named, with much-love, 'Basundhara'.

Passionate Performers is the platform where I could collate my learning as a craftsman of theatre into series of socially committed, intellectually sound, aesthetically contemporary and objective oriented dramatic interpretation of the history of our time. Thespians who joined together to make Passionate Performers an open ended plinth for amateurs keen to contribute to theatre in professional attitudes were both veterans as well as freshers. While the veterans brought with them their experience and expertise, the freshers fetched enthusiasm and inquisitiveness. I just keep on making combinations and permutations of the players in the group and watch them inter-playing the text, celebrating the content, developing the form as I hinted, managing the pace and space and creating the production in their own way. I play a passive role to provide them the best opportunity to explore the performer within them. And thus, it becomes a passionate task for the entire group to build major productions. Passionate Performers has lived a significantly eventful life so far since its inception. Hope its marks would be permanent and promising. I and everyone else in Passionate Performers wish to fly high in flock to compose a figure, quite exceptional yet very natural, in the backdrop of the blue firmament.

Stay with us, be our wings, be the energy, we are spirited at the call of the Third Bell.

TUGHLAQ

Tughlaq is the play which brought name and fame to Karnad.It was written in 1964, in Kannand language and has been translated by Karnad in 1970. Alyque Padamsee requested Karnad to translate into English and it was staged by Theatre Group, Bombay and it was a great success. National School of Drama (NSD) got it translated into Hindi and later it was produced in Bengali and Marathi. Vijay Tendulkar has translated Tughlaq into Marathi. Passionate Performers has build the play on the basis of the Bengali translation of the script by Sri Chittaranjan Ghosh and Sri Swapan Majumder. A historical play seems to be a contradiction in terms. History requires truth to the events of the past, but art require imagination and concentration on needs of art. In other words that the writer of a historical play, must use the facts of history with discretion to suit the needs of his drama while maintaining overall truth to history. Karnad has to deviate from the facts of history, and even introduce new characters in the interest of dramatic effectiveness.

Tughlaq is based on the historical character of Muhammad Bin Tughlaq who ruled India in the 14th century and he was called the outrageous monarch. Girish Karnad projects the curious contradictions in the complex personality of Sultan who was at once a dreamer and a man of action, benevolent and cruel, devout the godless, the ideal and the real, the divine aspiration and the deft intrigue. His two close associates, Barani the scholarly historian, and Nazib the politician – seem to represent the two opposite selves of Tughlaq while Aziz the wily time server appears to represent all those who took advantage of Sultan’s visionary schemes and faded him. Historians had already said much about Tughlaq’s scholarships, religious tolerance and poetic gifts. Karnad closely follows historical sources in the presentation of these qualities. He portrays Tughlaq as a generous and charitable Sultan in the very first scene. He accepts the kazi’s judgment graciously in which he himself is held guilty of confiscating the land of a Brahmin, Vishnu Parsad. The Sultan is shown making a grant of 500 silver dinars to the Brahmin and also giving him a post in the civil service. The Sultan also invites non-Muslim scholars for discussion. He used to have discussions with Muslims, Hindus and Jain scholars. This shows the liberal attitude of Sultan in case of religion.

The shifting of the capital from Delhi to Daultabad was an important decision on the part of the Sultan. Karnad gives great importance to this incidence in giving the account of that period in the play. The incident is presented as turning point in his career and it causes great suffering to the common people. However, Tughlaq has his own logic behind the decision of shifting the capital. He explains the reasons in the very first scene and says, My Empire is large now and embraces the south and I need a capital which is at its heart. Delhi is too near the border and as you well known its peace is never free from the fear of invaders.

It is true that Karnad has introduced some other details which are not exactly supported historical accounts. The Sultan is said to have liberally given over gifts to people who came to Daultabad. But the play shows the Sultan using the force to teach the people a lesson. Karnad’s Tughlaq conveys his desire to Nazib when he says, “I want Delhi vacated immediately. Every living being in Delhi will leave for Daultabad within a fortnight. I was too soft. I can see that now.

In many other respects, Karnad uses history very effectively. He affects alteration of the facts to suit his artistic design. He refers to numerous problems faced by the Sultan both natural and manmade. It is just to highlight the idea that Tughlaq was losing his grip over the thing. The various problems like lawlessness, corruption, rebellions and draught etc. are highlighted for the same purpose. The dramatist aims to present a particular picture before the reader eyes to suit his dramatic design. Karnad has portrayed Nazib as an important character who exercises great influence on the character of Sultan. He is later murdered through the intrigue of his stepmother. In history, he is not a very important figure. Karnad has given him much importance just for the dramatic purpose. The episode of Aziz and Azam has also been included with the purpose of creating humour. It is also to exhibit the failure of Tughlaq’s administration. The two comic characters also suggest the rampant corruption in Sultan’s kingdom.

It can be observed that Karnad has made great use of history. But he is guided by a particular artistic and ‘Tughlaq’ is a play revolving around a historical character rather than particular history. Passionate Performers produces Tughlaq with sixty five players performing as a contingent to reflect the contemporary realities of politics inscribed in the play.

AGNISHUDDHI

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, a postcolonial theorist, calls herself a practical Marxist feminist deconstructionist. She discourages and dismantles western centers and challenges there over history and prejudice. She considers postmodernism as politically contradictory and ambivalent. In the text 'Can the Subaltern Speak' she tries to overthrow the binary opposition between subject and object, self and other, Occident and Orient, center and marginal and the majority and minority. She introduces the question of gender and sexual difference in the work. Subaltern according to Spivak is those who belong to the third world countries. It is impossible for them to speak up as they are divided by gender, class, caste, region, religion and other narratives. These divisions do not allow them to stand up in unity.

Agnishuddhi, scripted on the themes of 'Can the Subaltern Speak?' pose certain social questions in the verses of the dominated subalterns of ages. In the light of a narrative framed in the background of anti-colonial freedom struggle in India, the drama seeks to question the inferior and acquiescent position of a women even in the capacity of a revolutionary, who in spite of her highest sacrifice for the cause of the nation remains tormented by the treatments of patriarchy. She was asked to end her life after killing a British oppressor on the days of her menstrual period to keep proof of her virginity. To share her affront emerges the characters from mythology, history and of contemporary time and unite their common experiences through generations.

The drama then raise the pertinent issue of right to speak, right to self-determination for every individual including the subalterns. The characters resolves to voice their story in their own terms instead of mourning in isolation and rediscover themselves as the oppressed minorities and untold functionaries who actually and factually turned the wheel of the history but no mention was attributed to their contributions as the history recollects only the heroes. The subalterns, then, in the course of this drama, wish to conglomerate and elevate as a significant unit from the folds of history and hope to echo each other's agony and triumph. Agnishuddhi, is a claim of reconstruction of history in a more just way to accommodate the story of those who never levitated to 'power'.

FAYZAL

In six decades of our independence the theatre activists throughout the nation has worked sincerely to grow up with the strong tradition of protest theatre in the context of several socio-political and economic-cultural crisis. Theatre, then, no doubt, left deep impact in both the intellectual and common senses to sensitise those issues of public concern. But, surprising enough, there has been least little sensitization of the Kashmir issue in the theatrical arenas of mainland India. The silence loomed large, although the agony of the common Kashmiri people passed through several phases of acceleration. The alienation of the native mass could have been profitable to political business, but why the theatre activism suspended itself from bringing out the ploy of power in Kashmir?

FAYZAL is a full length theatrical representation of changing scenarios in Kashmir after the death of Burhan Wani, the commander of Hizbul Muzahiddin killed in the gun fight with Indian Army. The theatre has gone to scrutinise the inner-momentum of Delhi-Srinagar adjustments in the background of emergence of neo-saffronism in national power, role of mainstream corporate media and the Army. The politics of 'divide and rule' to segregate 'good Kashmiri' as Shah Fayzal, the young IPS officer, working hard to stabilize the state-assisted education system in J&K and 'bad Kashmiri' like the new-age-militants who has fantasised insurgency has created adverse impact in the minds of the Kashmiri people grouped in three major groups of opinion i.e. pro-Indian, pro-Pakistan and pro-Autonomy, although such grouping is over-simplified. The drama emphasised to connect a bridge between JNU episode, killing of Burhan Wani episode, politics and propaganda of Media-neo-saffronism nexus thereafter, Sah Fayzal episode, Government's denial to talk with Huriyat Conference, incidents of separatist voice of Ladakh and Jammu division before the Parliamentary Delegation etc. The theatre concludes with a message that, enough is enough ! Let the civil society think, speak, exchange dialogues now to resolve and the government must remain committed to any settlement agreed upon through such initiative. Lots of hide and seek has been played over the valley, lets everything come to an open ended discussion.

Passionate Performers that has created hue in the media and debate in the audience by posing certain unusual and uncomfortable questions like 'Do we have dual stands on Nationalism while focusing upon the cross-currents of issues in J&K ?' . Some intolerants even went beyond the limits to personally attack the author on the allegation of being 'anti-nationalist' and 'anti-Indian'. However, the show is on.

There are places that we that we pass En Route...

For each of us, there is a list of places we can say we have visited .... these are places that maybe scenic, historically important or simply a place a friend has recommended... while going towards such places, we have passed many a town, city and Kasba...

Places we have seen in passing from our vehicle... Places with names we check, to make sure we are taking the right route.... Remembered as a footnote in the travel description as a place that you pass, en route... But interestingly these humble places are never in the list of must visits...... One such place for me was Siliguri...

Siliguri, typically had been the town one passed when going from Bagdogra airport to Kalingpong or Darjeeling. I remembered it also as the place, where we brought the stump of a tea Bush which now is a table in our home in Mumbai... So Siliguri existed as a bustling town, which was En Route....

Till we were invited to perform our play, ‘Dayashankar Ki Diary’ In Siliguri.

So for the first time,. I did not pass Siliguri... I went there.. And discovered an interesting set of people, living their passion.. full of life, laughter, and a zeal to do something beyond their daily functions.

A few hours after landing and reaching the Atithi lodge in the heart of the bustling town,the immaculately maintained Deen bandhu auditorium was the venue for the performance of Tughlaq... And what a performance it was..

The 1.5 year old group ,"Passionate performers", lead by Professor Amitabh Kanjilal,
Stunned each in the audience with the quality of performance, design, and the flawlessly rehearsed ensemble production.

Siliguri... Ah! Siliguri, it had begun to remind me that far beyond the famous and well known, there are layers of rich life, which waits to call on us...

Be it a deli named ‘Icchebari’ run by CBSE board, school principal or the ‘Basundhara ’... A garden space dedicated by a professional lawyer, who came out of his legal practice to sensitize people about the arts, poetry, theatre, flora and fauna, typical of that place and football. Here, I felt privelged to plant a mango sapling where once the theatre doyen Mr. Habib Tanveer (with whom I started my hike in the plays) had his piece of the sapling in the crescent of the land.

This trip was bringing in many colours to the life of this Avid Miner . A 630 am 16c morning, introduced me to the humble Netaji Cabin, which was much like the Boshonto cabin and Radhu babu of Kolkata... Toast with morich (pepper) and cheeni (sugar) with Bengali mamlet and some kadak chai...

An interesting Chaa- er baarrri (not shop) named, ‘Moutat’-... a Darjeeling tea bar boutique, run by tea aficionados.. for people to stop by and have breakfast or lunch... Accompanied by a unique set of teas... What a wow was the wine version!! . This is also a space where youth Jam and sing along over tea and not alcohol... Nazarul and poetry was in the air... All happening not in a metro.. But a town which was "Just En Route.."

The jaunt through Siliguri, brought in a lot of joy, laughter and togetherness as we headed towards ‘Shebok’. We stood by the bridge, to take photographs. The lens not only captured the beauty of the place but the generosity of our hosts .. This trip was heading beyond a purposeful exchange... But was turning out to be a free flowing exchange... That evening post the show of our play... On the terrace of the restaurant at Shebok... Around a bonfire there were ghost tales and , recitation of poetry and humming of songs long into the dark mystical night...

Even if the river bed was dry, we imagined the ‘kul-kul’ of the stream which connected all of us into an unique bond of bondhutto... Ekjute lead by Nadira ji and Passionate Performer's did a jugalbandi of ‘chhora, abbriti.’...

Each place we visit, we leave a part of us behind.... And also we carry back with us, a part of that place.

Siliguri allowed me to actually notice the value and the gold which lies En Route... the khazana in life that we easily overlook, Just because we are interested in reaching somewhere else, which seems to be the destination, we have set out for...

In search of diamonds we miss out on the life enriching magical nuggets.

The uniqueness and magic rippled for each of us in Siliguri ... The Ekjute theatre group from Mumbai had its heart filled.. Each of us discovered the unique in the not so famous.

Thank you Siliguri... you gifted us enchantment that we would otherwise have missed, En Route...

Alshukran Zindagi.