Probir Guha’s TITAS EKTI NODIR NAAM

image_pdfimage_print

Playwright & Director: Probir Guha

Group: Alternative Living Theatre, Kolkata

Language: Bengali

Duration: 2 hr 10 mins

The Play

On the centenary year of Adwaita Mullaburman, we decided to prepare a play based on his momentous novel, Titas Ekti Nadir Naam. The play talks about fishermen societies residing on the banks of Titas in Bangladesh. The play talks about Titas’s change throughout years and its effect on the socio-economic structure of societies around. The love and loss of the main characters is the central attraction of this play. The play enters into climax when the fishermen society finds out that Titas is drying up. What will the fishermen do now? How will they survive? How does it really feel to lose the only means of life? How does it feels to lose a river?

Director’s Note

The plan of making Titas Ekti Nadir Naam was there since my college days. The novel had a great influence on me, and I always wanted to express those elements with my language, my way of understanding. The first attempt at this play was in Tripura some years ago. Then in 2015, I directed this play but due to some unexpected situation we could not work with the play anymore, but the urge stayed. In 2017 I remade, rearranged, and rejuvenated the play in my style under the banner of my theatre group Alternative Living Theatre. Hope my attempt at this classic piece will be acceptable to the audience.

The Director & Playwright

Born on 5th May, 1947, acclaimed playwright and director Probir Guha embarked on his career as a street theatre activist after graduation from Calcutta University. Initially he began working in Kolkata but soon becoming disillusioned with elitism, he established his own company, the Living Theatre, in 1977 at Khardaha. In 1991, Living Theatre was renamed as Alternative Living Theatre. From then till now he has been working as a writer-director of this group of rural-urban thought. He has worked with many renowned directors of theatre and dance worldwide. He is also a lecturer and teacher at several theatre schools and universities. Guha has been a common name among Alternative Theatre activists. He has received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for his excellence, along with other felicitations and awards for his contribution in alternative theatre practice.

The Group

Living Theatre was formed by Mr. Probir Guha in 1977 at Khardaha, a suburb in West Bengal. Later in 1990 it was renamed and re-registered as Alternative Living Theatre. It was formed with an earnest resolution to break the clichéd rules of theatre. It was determined that it would not merely entertain people, but will work towards waking them, as it believes that not just entertainment but theatre can also be the voice of the grass-root people. It dealt with difficulties of marginal people so instead of heading for the city it started penetrating into the interior of the villages and has performed in a small class room for ten years. Hence it has discarded monotonous grammatical acting and has experimented and evolved a new aesthetics of theatre where physicality is the language. Later on, it built its residential workshop and rehearsal space named Akhara at Madhyamgram, where theatre lovers from all over the world come to learn.

Cast & Credits

On Stage: Aftar Ali, Bikash Bose, Arkajyoti Ganguly, Avijit Biswas, Dhiman Bhattacharya, Pritam Chakraborty, Debobrata Banerjee, Raja Biswas, Santanu Sarkar, Chirantan Chakraborty, Sujoy Chakraborty, Anasua Das, Mousumi Sengupta, Anushka Sen, Ria Das, Ankita Ghosh, Abheepsha Ghosh, Sylvia Sharma Bhattacharya, Swagata Sen

Live Musicians: Subhadeep Guha, Chakrapani Dev, Madhuparna Debnath, Sushruta Goswami

Art & Set Designer: Arpita Burman

Costume Designer: Arpita Burman

Light Designer: Sadhan Parui

Light Execution: Samar Parui

Music Designer: Subhadeep Guha

Choreography: Sanchaita Basu

Production Controller: Shilpi Sarkar

Novelist: Adwita Mullabarman

Script & Direction: Probir Guha

Manohar Khushalani

Manohar Khushalani

Prof. Manohar Khushalani is a former Visiting Faculty at Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi. The courses he taught were: Animation & Graphics, Non-Linear Editing for Film and Radio and Theatre Appreciation.  He has won a total of nine Excellence in Teaching awards for all the courses he has taught at IIITD Earlier he retired from Government of India as Director Environment Management, Central Water Commission and held many senior positions in the Government Based on a Belief that Culture and Environment are the two keys to global sustainability , Manohar Khushalani has launched two portals: A Portal on Environment and Water called One Vorld at url: www.onevorld.org and two Ezines on Culture called Stage Buzz at url: www.stagebuzz.in He has taught extensively in varied subjects such as Dam Safety, Instrumentation, CAD, IT, Animation, Theatre, Newspaper Editing. He has conducted Courses on Environment Management, Water Shed Development, Team Building and Personality Development. He was an Expert Member of Prasar Bharti’s Committee for Grading & Short listing Films for Telecast on all channels of Doordarshan.  He is a Radio Anchor for All India Radio and has moderated several programs for the Rajdhani Channel He is a well-known Theatre Actor/Director and Critic, has been involved in theatre since 1977. He has worked as an actor in over 50 plays with almost every leading director/Actor in the Country including Badal Sircar, Feisal Alkazi, Amal Allana, M.K. Raina, Anuradha Kapoor, Maya Rao, Manohar Singh, Prasanna, Rati Bartholomew and Sushmita Mukherji. He has been active in the social sector as a street theatre activist. As a member of Workshop Theatre, Theatre Union and Prayog, Khushalani has participated in street plays taking up major social issues such as dowry, bride burning, Sati, banned medicinal drugs and communalism. Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Can’t Pay Won’t Pay, both directed by him, received rave notices from critics and audiences alike. Other plays directed by him include Badal Sircar’s, Sagina Mahato and Boris Vian’s Empire Builders for Ruchika Theatre Group. Khushalani has also acted in a few films such as Sudhir Mishra's Hazaron Khwaishen Aisi , Shoojit Sircar’s Madras Café and Pradeep Krishan's Annie Gives Those Ones. He is an Animator & Graphics Designer and has directed a number of documentaries. He also held a number of Honorary positions and was President of North India Films Association, He was the Chairman of  Jury for UGC CEC Educational Films Competition and has been on their Preview Committee since last many years. He was on the preview committee of Door Darshan Channel 3, was a visiting Professor at National School of Drama, New Delhi, and Film & Television Institute of India, Pune, AJKMCRR, Jamia Milia Islamia and Professor in Media at FICT, Delhi  He has judged a large number of Drama Competitions and conducted a number of Theatre / Management Games Workshops with Institutions such as AIIMS, NTPC, CWPRS, NWA, Karve Nari Prakshishan Sansthan, FICT, IIT, MAMC, Gargi College, KNC, Tagore International School and Vivekananda School. He is a Theatre Critic for IIC Diary, has also been a Columnist with Midday and Pioneer Daily and wrote Column's Called Culture Cocktail and Footlights Respectively. He was also the Guest Editor for an issue on Folk Theatre of ICCR Journal Horizons. He has written for Times of Indian, Hindustan Times, Blitz, Hard News, Hindu Business Line, Theatre India & Art Times. He has designed dams and hydraulic structures for the Government. He is a programmer and has developed Engineering design software in Fortran. He is a co-author of Irrigation Practice & Design (Vol 1 to5 - 1500 pages) published by Oxford & IBH and sponsored by National Book Trust. He has been a Director, Environment and Sociology, at the National Water Academy, Khadakwasla and Director, Environment Management Directorate, Central Water Commission and Member Secretary, National Environmental Monitoring Committee for River Valley Projects. He was also Director of Instrumentation Directorate in the Dam Safety Organisation. He was Chief General Manager and Head of Water Resources at Scott Wilson and is an accredited consultant with numerous other organizations He is a Delhi Public School, BITS Pilani, IIT Delhi and FTI Pune Alumini. He was also the President of BITS Pilani Alumni Association, Pune.

You may also like...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *