Years ahead of his time
The mass often fails to access in the mind of a creative personality, therefore labelling their works as gibberish, nonsense, pseudointellectual and so on. But it is not in the nature of these people to please the crowd, and hence they carry on expressing their thoughts in their own intellectual style without realising how ahead of time their works are.
Similar case is of ‘Awdyo Sesh Rajani' (The Last Night), a play recently performed at Sri Ram Centre during the 12th META (Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards) Festival – 2017. Amiya Chakraborty is one of the most successful theatre personalities of Kolkata for his play ‘The Prostitute'. He is a playwright, director, and lead actor. He had different ideologies towards theatre, working on the likes of ‘Death of a Salesman' and ‘The Blue Horse', both of which flopped despite the quality. Amiya had been happily married to Mala, a teacher, who let him focus on his work, supporting him financially. One day Mala comes across one of Amiya's unfinished scripts, ‘The Prostitute', and insists he finish it. She predicts success for the play. Amiya agrees, and asks Rajani, a leading actress, to play the role of the prostitute, Lata.
‘The Prostitute', like the other plays, has parallels to Amiya's and Rajani's lives. As the play involved several intimate scenes between Prasad (Amiya) and Lata (Rajani) it contributes to the success of the play, and also initiates a passionate relationship between the duo.
Amiya's fortune changes as ‘The Prostitute' becomes a massive hit giving him a financial gain and a strong fan base. However, out of jealousy, critics and rival theatre groups do not approve of the script on the ground that it clashes with the culture. After some time, he decides to work on a new play, 'The Empress' which eventually brings one back to the initial part of the play from where the story kicked off.
Some moments of cabaret song-dance add an extra amount of energy to the well written script by Ujjwal Chattopadhyay based on an original story by Shyamal Gangopadhyay. The use of a tram in the set, immediately takes an audience to Kolkata. While the equipment is used as s tram, it is also used by the actors to symbolise Amya's staircase to home and his green-room.
The performance of the actors onstage has been undoubtedly great with equally complimenting music and lights. No wonder the lead actors (male and female) and the supporting actress has been nominated for the 12th META this year. Bratya Basu's direction sees some moments of well balanced humour and tragedy as Amya's story is told through flashbacks when he talks to his theatre critic friend recalling how his life had changed over the years. Due to this continuous non-linear treatment the audience can experience a time warp in Amya's disrupted life.