I didn’t cast Poulomi as Neeta in ‘Meghe Dhaka Tara’ to take sweet revenge: Bratya Basu

KOLKATA: On Thursday, Bengal’s tourism minister Bratya Basu held a closed-door show of the adaptation of Ritwik Ghatak’s ‘Meghe Dhaka Tara’. The play written by Ujjawal Chattopadhyay has cast Naihati TMC MLA Partha Bhowmick in the role that was earlier essayed by Anil Chatterjee in Ghatak’s film. Partha, on his behalf admits, to have watched the Ghatak film but insists on “just following his director and no one else” when it comes to acting on stage now.That apart, there is Poulomi Basu – the minister’s talented wife – who is playing the iconic character of Neeta. Subhasish Mukherjee plays her father. Then, there is Suranjana Dasgupta and her daughter, Kathakali, who have played the roles of Neeta’s mother and sister respectively in the play. Excerpts from a conversation with the theatre personality-turned-minister after the show.
When you cast Poulomi Basu in the role of Neeta, how much of a challenge did you know you were throwing at her?
In ‘Boma’, her performance was highly appreciated. She was highlighted for her acting skill. I thought it would be nice to offer her another interesting role.
Offering her an interesting role is one issue. As a husband, casting her in the role of Neeta immediately places her in a space where she is compared with Supriya Devi who played the iconic role in the Ghatak film. Isn’t that too much of a pressure on her?
I have also cast Subhasish Mukherjee in the role that was played by Bijan Bhattacharya in the film!
But Subhasish is 58 years old with a lot of experience in theatre. Poulomi is way younger in terms of experience and exposure on stage...
I am hoping that Poulomi will be appreciated for this role. If I were to think of the other actresses who are my favourite now, I need to take the names of Reshmi, Sohini and Sejuti. I thought this character was apt for Poulomi.
Was there any tiff between you and her before you cast her in this role? Was this your way of taking sweet revenge?
(Laughs) No, not at all. In our personal life, we complement each other. We are not competitors.
What did you ask her to do before she went into rehearsals?
I asked her to watch the film and then forget about it. Had she not done that, she wouldn’t have been able to play this role at all. This is like asking me to suddenly play Tagore. What would have happened to me is what Poulomi would have gone through had she kept the Supriya Devi act in mind.
Why didn’t you keep the cult line – ‘Dada, ami banchte chai’ – in the play?
I wanted to avoid comparison.
Do you think her challenge is much more than that of Subhasish Mukherjee and even, TMC MLA Partha Bhowmick?
True, Poulomi’s is the most challenging role.
What prompted you to cast Partha Bhowmick in the role that had earlier been essayed by Anil Chatterjee in the original film?
Partha might be a politician or an MLA. There is a pre-fixed idea that a politician can’t act. Partha is very fond of theatre since childhood. He has done amateur theatre at Rahara Ramkrishna Mission. Later on, I have seen his acting in Utpal Dutt’s ‘Ferari Fauj’. I am aware of his love for theatre. That’s why I have cast him in such a difficult role where he requires to sing as well.
Why did you want to stage an adaptation of Ghatak’s ‘Meghe Dhaka Tara’?
You have to understand the USP of Naihati Bratyajan that is staging this play. The USP of this theatre group is to adapt plays from cinema. The USP of other groups are different. Howrah Bratyajan’s USP is to adapt plays from literary texts.
Do all Bratyajan groups have this format?
Some have it but not all of them.
So, what’s the next film that will make its way to stage?
Tapan Sinha’s ‘Golpo Holeo Sotti’. Naihati Bratyajan will do it.
You could have adapted this cinema in today’s context. Since you don’t shy away from talking about political issues in theatre, you could have brought in today’s refugee issues here. Why didn’t you do that?
Even if I write a play on refugees, I won’t use Ghatak’s film as a premise for that.
How has your own political background helped in staging this play?
It has quite a lot. After I joined politics, I started visiting refugee colonies a lot more. That experience helped me a lot. Changes in set design, use of some signatures (especially bringing in the Harinaam Sankirtan) and some other sounds have been incorporated because of my visits and exposure to refugee colonies.
What kind of sound are you talking about?
Let’s take the use of the sound of train in the background. Then, raindrops falling. The sound of water trickling down. I feel, these help in bringing out a signature sound that one identifies with colony life.
Refugee issues have always plagued Bengal. While Bengali cinema to some extent has explored this subject, Bengali theatre hasn’t done as much. This play does offer a slice of the refugee life that Bengal used to see once upon a time…
As long as borders are there, we will have the refugee crisis. True, the way refugee crisis came to be highlighted in the works of Manto or other authors in Punjab was not done in Bengal.
Theatre too has done it…
It was done in ‘Notun Yehudi’.
You mean, the play where Sabitri Chatterjee had acted?
Yes. Then there was Tulsi Lahiri’s ‘Chhera Taar’.
Perhaps, you can even mention ‘Gotroheen’…
‘Gotroheen’ was more to do with immigrant problems. One reason for not having as many plays on this subject is because the refugee issue was never a reality in my life. My father was a refugee. I would hear his tales. But when we grow up, most of that came to me in form of stories. Instead of dwelling on why I haven’t done such work, it will be nice to focus on the fact that I finally did one such play.
Do you think it will set a trend?
I will be happy if this play can trigger more other works on the refugee crisis. I think, we always need to go back to the past to understand the present and the future. If this trend picks up, I will welcome it.
Srijit Mukherji’s ‘Rajkahini’ addressed the Partition issue. Being such a successful playwright, don’t you feel like addressing this issue in one of your plays?
I have been writing a play on Partition. It is called ‘Hridipash‘ (From Sophocles’s Oedipus). I intend to stage it after the polls.
Have you spoken to the Ghatak family when you decided to direct this play?
Yes, I have. I made it clear that I don’t want to use his screenplay. I just used the basic framework. The rest has been penned by Ujjawal Chattopadhyay. It is a tribute to Ghatak.
Your use of audio-visual in this film is also interesting since you have shot some portions of the play on film and are showing it in the backdrop. In addition, you have used one footage from the film…
Yes, I used the footage of the iconic song ‘Je rate mor duarguli’. This was a difficult attempt. We had to first shoot some scenes from the play, use a footage from the original and then amalgamate all that in a play. My aim was to present it in a palatable format and not have everything jumbled up. I am thankful to God that it didn’t end up being a cacophony.
Since you are adapting from a film, was it very important for you to have such an audio-visual tool?
This time around, I used it. Maybe, I won’t do it for ‘Golpo Holeo Sotti’. It wasn’t there in’Mumbai Nights’ or ‘Ke’.
You shot the footage in black and white too!
The footage has been shot by the Debarati Gupta. She is the director of ‘Kalkijug’.
Did Ghatak influence her while shooting those footage of the film?
No. Ujjawal Chattopadhyay’s text influenced us. Yes, we did see the close-ups used in the original film. I had wanted ‘hundred lens’ to be used for this. The only similarity that I wanted was in terms of use of close-ups. That was the only signature of Ghatak that we used. Before starting work, I had given Debarati a shoot storyboard. We shot for it for two days in Naihati. One was in the marketplace. Another shot was by the river. The third was at the district hospital.
Music was very important in the Ghatak film. Ustad Bahadur Khan’s music from the film is so famous. How did you work on the music for this play?
Dishari Chakraborty did the music. We did it the same way that we had worked in ‘Mumbai Nights’ and ‘Boma’.
You have deliberately kept artificial flowers and created a slightly tacky set design to create a world of fantasy. Somewhere, that doesn’t inspire a willing suspension of disbelief the way other fantasies do…
We have done that very consciously. We have the first show on January 2. It’s too late for us to change. May be, it hasn’t worked in your case but this just might work for others.
Are you trying to set up the University Institute Hall as a new venue for theatre?
Yes. This is the first play that will be staged here. We are staging it on January 2, 9, 16 and 23 and hoping for a great response.