Kolkata: Even though the duration of the two solo act plays staged by Ganrapota Saptak Natya Sanstha at its 3rd phase of the 25th theatre festival held recently at Tripti Mitra Natyagriha of Paschimbanga Natya Academy in Kolkata were 15 minutes each, they had a huge impact on the audience.
The plays were ‘Krishna’ and ‘Dhomya’, written by Sabyasachi Deb and Swapan Ranjan Halder respectively and directed by Pronay Biswas.
Nabanita Mondal and Tanmoy Maji were excellent in portraying their respective characters of Droupadi (Droupadi’s another name is Krishna) and Naparajit Mukherjee. While Mondal’s Krishna narrated the humiliations she experienced when she was being disrobed by Dusshasana in front of the court of Hastinapur, Maji’s Naparajit showed how COVID-19 affected all and sundry.
It is worth mentioning that Mondal underwent two months rigorous training of Bharatnatyam to infuse life to her character.
The other four plays staged at the festival were ‘Hanyaman’ by Ranaghat Srijak, Nadia and playwright by Tirthankar Chanda and directed by Nirupam Bhattacharya. Bagnan Sapath, a Howrah based theatre group presented ‘Baikunthar Khata’, written by Rabindranath Tagore and directed by Shantanu Ghosh.
A Hooghly based theatre group, Haripal Anna Bhuban staged ‘Khola Janala’, written by Shatabdi Kole and directed by Neelaratna Samanta. The fourth play was ‘Kadwa Sach’, staged by Abhinav Theatre, one of the premier theatre groups in Assam. While the play was written by Kushal Deka, Dayal Krishna Nath directed it.
Two theater personalities from West Bengal and Assam inaugurated the 3rd phase of the drama festival of Ganrapota Saptak Natya Sanstha. They were Murari Mukhopadhyay (Dakshineshwar Komal Gandhar) and Dayal Krishna Nath (Abhinav Theatre, Laximpur, Assam). The festival started at 12.00 noon and concluded at 7.30pm.
The partners of Natyamela were Ranaghat Srijak (Nadia), Bagnan Shapath (Howrah), Haripal Anna Bhuban (Hooghly) and Abhinav Theater (Laximpur, Assam).
The 3rd phase of the 25th Anniversary Drama Festival was financially supported by Pashchimbanga Natya Academy.
Photo courtesy: Ganrapota Saptak Natya Sanstha
