Bengali plays staged at Mahatma Phule Auditorium

It was a theatrical treat for Bengali

theatre

lovers as

Ekti Natya Shondha

- An Evening of Bengali plays was recently held in the city. The theme this year was based on ‘marriage and its evolving nature with time’. Very broadly both the plays also showcased the role of women in society - past and the present.

Nandanik Santha presented Dompati – a play by Manoj Mitra, an eminent writer from

West Bengal

. This play has been a blockbuster drama for years on the stages of Kolkata. It has been enacted by many professional and amateur teams over the years. The story was about two non- related couples from different generations living in two adjacent flats in Kolkata. Amongst the two, one of them is an elderly couple, spending most of their time arguing. While the other is yet to bond post their recent marriage of a few years. “There are hardly any similarities in their lifestyle or background except the presence of a third person in both the marriages. Sri Manoj Mitra through this play is able to raise the age-old query of the role of a child in a couple’s life at different stages of their marriage,” said Nabanita Mukerjee, the organiser.

Dhishari Natyadal another group presented Shasti – written by the legendary Rabindranath Tagore, is a story that portrays the commitment of a brother towards another. “The story darts back to the distant recesses of undivided Bengal when under the cruel fangs of the atrocious Zamindari framework the land laborers were forced to work and starve,” informed Nabanita. Dukhiram and Chhidam stay in the same mud-house with their respective wives who forever quarrel with each other. One evening, Dukhiram asks for food and his wife snaps at him saying that there was no food at home. Dukhiram in a fit of rage grasps the cleaver and strikes her on the head. She instantly drops dead.

Ekti Natya Shondha was conceived in 2016 by Nandanik Sanstha and Dishari Natyadal to keep the rich Bengali theatre culture alive among theatre lovers in Pune. “The response to the programme has always been extremely encouraging and hence it is seeing the third year,” she said.