City thespians join hands to help ailing colleague

The Bengali theatre fraternity got a shock when young actor Satish Shaw was diagnosed with oral cancer in May. While Satish is going through the rigours of treatment at a south Kolkata hospital, theatre workers across the city are coming forward to do their bit to help him.
On her part, veteran thespian Sudipa Basu will be hosting a day-long theatre festival in September and the proceeds will go to Satish’s treatment fund.In the festival, Sudipa has planned to stage three plays, Jalajyanto, Lojjateertha and Continuity — all directed by her and
penned by eminent playwright Indrashish Lahiri. Satish was last seen as Sancho Panza in Chetan’s Don — Taake Bhalo Laage. “It is an effort to collect some money for our beloved Satish and that’s why I would like to ask all theatre lovers in the city to come and watch the plays. It’s also a tribute to Indrashish. Every year, for the past four years, we have been staging his plays either on his birthday (September 9) or his death anniversary (February 5). While Jalajyanto is a play I directed last year with Howrah Jonaki, Lojjateertha and Continuity are two new productions,” Sudipa told us.
New faces on stage
Besides the cast and crew of the group Spectactors, Sudipa is also introducing a few new faces in Lojjateertha. Meghla Dasgupta, daughter of Bidipta Chakraborty and Birsa Dasgupta, and Arjaa Banerjee, the critically praised actress of Dhananjay, will be appearing on stage for the first time. Sujoy Prosad Chatterjee will also be back in proscenium theatre after four years. “Interestingly, Meghla is playing the character of Jolly that was earlier played by her aunt, Bidisha Chakraborty, when the play was first staged by Chenamukh. I am making Sujoy play a rather a dark character. It’s one of the pivotal characters of the play and such dark characters are not commonly seen on the Kolkata stage,” added Sudipa. Meghla had earlier worked in several telefilms and megaserials. “I used to think how do theatre actors remember each and every line. But now I learnt the trick. Acting is not alien to me, but acting on stage is very different from what I’d done earlier. And I am enjoying every bit of it,” the young actress told us.
Veteran theatre actor roped in
Sudipa is working with the team of Belgharia Abhimukh for the final play, Continuity. “Kaushik Chattapadhyay, director and patriarch of Santipur Sanskritik, will be acting in it. Besides, Monalisa Chatterjee too will also be featured. Moreover, I am trying to rope in Kaushik’s son, Ujan, to score the music for the play. He does a good job,” the director said.
All three plays will be staged on the same day at a south Kolkata auditorium. “I really hope it will be a success so that we can help Satish in his bad time,” Sudipa signed off.