Dr. Paramita Dutta, from Rammohan College, Kolkata will be delivering a seminar titled "World Drama in Bengal: The Nandikar Way". 

Abstract:

Nandikar, the theatre group that was led by Ajitesh Bandyopadhyay from 1960-77, the period on which this paper focuses, was founded on 29 June 1960 as a branch of the Indian People’s Theatre Association or IPTA, an anti-fascist organisation of the Communist Party of India that played a significant role in the regeneration of the theatre and the other arts. In 1961, Nandikar broke away from the IPTA and began work as an independent entity. One of the main reasons for this rupture was its production of an adaptation by Rudraprasad Sengupta of Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author in 1961 under the banner of IPTA, in spite of the fact that Pirandello was associated with the fascist dictator Mussolini.

Although contemporary stalwarts in Bengali theatre such as Shombhu Mitra of Bohurupee and Utpal Dutt of LTG had also often adapted foreign plays into Bengali, few other theatre groups in Bengal then had relied as much on adaptations of foreign plays as Nandikar. In its first few years, Nandikar produced a wide range of plays, most of them adaptations of European and American classics, which were directed by Ajitesh Bandyopadhyay, such as Ibsen’s Ghosts as Bidehi (1960), Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard as Manjari Aamer Manjari (1964), Wesker’s Roots as Jakhan Eka (1965), Pirandello’s Henry IV as Sher Afghan (1966), Chekov’s The Wedding as Shubho Bibaho (1967), Ionesco’s The Lesson as Nilima (1968), culminating in Tin Paisar Pala (1969), his adaptation of Brecht’s Three Penny Opera.

His productions were not mere performances of translations of these plays but adaptations, however controversial, where he transplanted the original texts to situations more familiar to the Bengali audience and in the process transcreated them. At the same time, in spite of the indigenization of these plays, they retained in the spirit of production, in the acting style, in the use of form, the essence of the dramatic mode to which it originally belonged.

This paper analyses how Nandikar, especially under the helm of Ajitesh Bandyopadhyay (who broke away from the group in 1977), through the production of these adaptations of foreign plays, familiarized Bengal with the world stage and the various forms, techniques and representations of world drama such as elements of play within a play, Brecht’s alienation effect and absurdist theatre. In the process, this paper evaluates how in spite of facing strong criticisms from both nationalist and purist positions, Nandikar under Ajitesh Bandyopadhay, made a significant contribution to Bengali theatre by bringing into it and its audiences an awareness of theatrical modes and possibilities of the living traditions of world drama that opened up the creative scope of Bengali theatre to a great extent and created a stronghold for Nandikar in the very significant group theatre / ‘other’ theatre movement in Bengal that flourished post India’s independence. The paper examines that in spite of the various criticisms levelled against it, Nandikar succeeded in bringing forth a syncretistic modernity, internationalism and cosmopolitanism in Bengali theatre. 

About the Speaker:

Paramita Dutta, M Phil, Ph D, is currently working as Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Rammohan College, Kolkata. She is in lien from the West Bengal Educational Services where she worked as Assistant Professor of English at Chandernagore College from February 2009 to May 2015. She has also taught English literature at the post graduate level in Maulana Azad College, Kolkata, as a Guest Faculty from 2010-12. A student of Jadavpur University since her undergraduate years, she received her doctorate from the same on the thesis titled ‘Marriage and its Portrayal in the Drama of Early Modern England’ in 2013.

Her recent publications include ‘From Shakespeare’s King Lear to Kurosawa’s Ran: A Case of Translation of Cultures’ in Ketaki Dutta Ed. Literature in Translation (Avenel Press, 2014) and ‘The Parting Curse: A Study of Debjani and Tagore’s Voice in Bidaay Abhishaap’, in Arnab Bhattacharya and Mela Renganathan Ed. The Politics and Reception of Rabindranath Tagore’s Drama: The Bard on the Stage (Routledge, 2015). Her forthcoming publications include ‘Shakespeareana to Shakespeare Wallah: Selling or Doing Shakespeare in India’ in Shormishtha Panja and Babli Moitra Saraf edited book on Revisiting Shakespeare In Indian Literature And Culture to be published by SAGE, and a short story titled ‘The First Time’ in the anthology Emanations 5 edited by Carter Kaplan and published by International Authors (Brookline, Massachusetts). Her interests include Renaissance studies, Shakespeare and films, Bengali theatre, writing short stories and learning foreign languages. She has been a member of The Shakespeare Society of India since 2009.