The Plays

SANTAAP | March 3, 2012, 5 pm, Sri Ram Centre

Nominated for: Best Play, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Male), Best Choreographer,  Best Ensemble,

Produced by: Rangasram

Directed by: Sandip Bhattacharya

Language: Bengali

Duration: 2hr 10min

   

How do the slum dwellers of Titli Basti live their outcast life? Crooked look of hatred of the main stream society often pierce them cruelly. Though born in the regular human society, they are prohibited to be reared by that. A defect by birth seizes them from their mother’s lap and deports them away from the life of love, sympathy and compassion forever. How does their improvised society look like? The components of the society are none but some non-relative, cursed and rootless people who are neither male nor female. Not in the Titli Basti only, they are everywhere, omnipresent but unwanted. The play is a saga of the life of the Hermaphrodites; it’s a hearty tale of human life, untold.

Director’s Note
Santaap – a novelette by Manab Chakraborty shook my interior at its first reading, eight years ago. Do we ever consider the plight of these hermaphrodites? Did we ever attempt to learn their within? Are they alike nature? A whirlwind of different questions torments my mind. Do we really consider them as human being? They are but handicapped. Then why did not our beloved Government let the doors of facility to them? Why they are outcast? It is not our question only – but their’s too. This incredible drama by Koushik Chattopadhyay makes us face a crude reality. I never intend to change the society , but this play is an attempt only to bring some correction in our outlook and to accept them as part of our society.

 

Nominees

Sandip Bhattacharya Best Director
Working as a independent Designer and Director, Sandip Bhattacharya had the opportunity of producing such prestigious productions like Cherry Orchard, Hamlet, Muktadhara, Happy Prince, Bhog, Tin ki Talwar, Sankrantir Modol, Shikar Sandhane, Monideepa, Mobarak an adaptation of Macbeth by Shakespeare, Lohar Daam, Chasmayer Phool, an adaptation of Mid Summer Nights Dream by Shakespeare, and many more. He has also contributed in design productions for many eminent theatre personalities. He has acted in many plays and achieved best director award for the play Monideepa. Also visited Japan as Trainee Designer and also visited Sri Lanka as a technical Instructor.

Deb Kumar Best Choreographer
Deb Kumar Paul’s expertise lies in mime and body movement. He was awarded the National Scholarship & Fellowship for Mime by Govt. of India as well as the Charles Wallace Scholarship from the U.K. He has performed in U.K., South Korea, UAE, Iraq, Jordon, and Bangladesh. Presently He is the Artistic Director of EMBODY, a mime performing group in Calcutta, teaching in Arial Movement and Body Movement in Padatik Dance Center, Calcutta, since 2004 working as a guest performer and collaborator  in Menaka Thakkar Dance Company, Canada. Since last six years he has been empanelled artiste of Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Govt. of India.

Partha Banerjee Best Choreographer
After graduating from National School of Drama, New Delhi in 1988, Partha Banerjee visited France for further study on Mime and Movement. Apart from acting, he is a very good in Mime and Movement artist. He has directed many plays like Urubhangam, Sindhu Nader Prahari, Marry Farrer, Ganesh Mahima and took part as a choreographer in many plays.

 

Cast and Credit

On Stage
Murli: Sandip Bhattacharya
Jena: Rajesh Saha
Kanaiya: Aniruddha Bhattacharya
Binti: Surojit Debnath
Kamu: Koushik Majumder 
Fulutbabu: Rabindranath Dey, 
Raghu:  Sagar Roy 
The Man:  Pradip Mondal
Wife:  Arpita Ghosh 
The Brahmin:  Gokul Mondal 
Dai:  Ratna Bhattacharya
Golap:  Debashis Sanyal
Dulduli:  Rahul Dev Ghosh
Lakhai:  Subhas Das 
Chhuku: Amit Bhagat
Little Jena:  Pinki Das
Doctor:  Amalendu Chawdhuri
Patient:  Kashinath Joarder 
Mother of little Jena:  Arpita Ghosh
Father of Little Jena:  Gokul Mondal
Drunkards (1 & 2):  Pradip Mondol,  Kashinath Joarder
Games Teacher: Gokul Mondal 
The Students:  Indrajit Mondal, Bikash Harijan, , Subhas Das
Hawkers & Buyers at the fair – Indrajit Mondal, Arnab Bhattacharya, Gokul Mondal, Debasish Sanyal, Pradip Mondal, Subhas Pal

 

Off Stage
Story: Manab Chakraborty
Script – Koushik Chattopadhyaya
Set – Dipankar Paul 
Light – Shyamprasad Bandopadhyaya
Make Up – Ujjwal Kr. Roy 
Mupped – Sudip Gupta
Music Execution – Toton Karmakar
Costume –  Surojit Debnath
Properties -  Surojit Debnath, Gokul Mondal
Choreography – Partha Banerjee, Deb Kumar Paul 
Projection – Subrata Ghosh             
Music, Design & Direction – Sandip Bhattacharya