Plaban Basus’ Play: Jamila

Playwright & Director: Plaban Basu
Group: Moulali Rangashilpi, Kolkata
Language: Hindi
Duration: 2 hrs 10 mins

The Play
It becomes an obsession with young Syed, a painter, to paint the portraits of his lady love, Jamila.
By a strange quirk of fate, Jamila arrives at Syed’s hillside village as a bride of Sadiq, Syed’s elder brother. Everyone takes it for a case of love marriage, which it is not. Defeated by Jamila in a horse-cart race, Sadiq abducts and forcibly marries and brings her to the house. Jamila tries her level best to reconcile with the situation by being dutiful to all the members of her newly acquired family. But her self-respect gets wounded at every step. The responsibility of selling crops falls upon Jamila’s shoulder in a nearly market. There she meets a meek and outwardly weak person, Daniar, and discovers a strong sense of self-dignity in his character. A new chapter of life unfolds itself heralding the dawn of a new journey for Jamila.

Director’s Note
To me Jamila is not just a play, it is a journey of self-search, not just Jamila’s but of all the oppressed women out there. As a director I faced several challenges from this novel. The story is written in such a way that it has a lot of cinematic elements. So to build a play was a big challenge. Jamila, for me, is a story of redemption, liberation of love from social bondage. It is a play about a woman’s struggle to earn the freedom to express her love. Therefore to be able to work as the director of this play was truly a rewarding experience and an accomplishment.

The Director & Playwright
Plaban Basu is an actor and theatre director who is active in media as well. He is a science graduate and practices martial art. In 2004, he formed a theatre group Rangashilpi. Plaban has worked with eminent directors like Usha Ganguly, Tim Supple, Habib Tanvir, Abanti Chakraborty, Kanhaiya Lal, Biplob Bandyopadhyay, Maloy Roy and many others. Plaban has also been working with children at railway stations and streets and with people with disabilities. He has written and directed plays focused on the rights of disabled children and on various other human rights. He has also acted in several Bengali and Hindi serials and films.

The Group
Rangashilpi was established in August 2004. In the past 15 years the group has experienced a journey of Bengali & Hindi productions of theatre, either on the streets or on stage, and concerning various subject matters ranging from social issues, factual facts of history, to the fragrance of folk culture.
The group has restlessly engaged in theatre workshops with disabled women, railway workers, schools, street children and village youth. Rangashilpi has been working with various non-government organisations, to improve their mental and social condition through theatre. Rangashilpi organizes regular events like Mukho Mukhi, Musafirana and Salam Safder to sustain the cultural practice. Rangashilpi productions have been staged successfully at various prestigious festivals.

Cast & Credits
On Stage                     Sushil Kanti, Ashok Chakroborty, Bimal Chandra Dey, Partha Sarathi Basu, Shakti Chakroborty, Tarun Kumar Nath, Subanti Banerjee, Dalia Pramanick, Shraboni Bonik, Ruposree Majumdar, Kathanjali Pramanick, Suchandra Bhattacharyay, Sabaree Sen, Bishwabandhu Choudhury, Saibal Sarkhel, Writtick Basak, Madhusudan Dhar, Saikat Roy, Shanta Swarup Mukherjee, Ritabrato Naskar

Light Operator               Sashankha Mondal
Music Operator             Biswajit Biswas
Light Assistant              Brindaban Das
Make-up                        Pijush Ghosh Choudhury

Story                             Chingiz Aitmatov
Playwright
& Director                      Plaban Basu

Contacts
Director,
Moulali Rangashilpi
90B, K. G. Bose Sarani,
Kolkata- 700085
M: +91 9836368767, 9062159118, 9770642782