Jammu, August 26: The sixth day of Natrang’s International Talk show, live on its Facebook page, was decorated by the intellectual insight about ‘Vision of Theatre’ by Shri Santanu Bose, an eminent dramatist, presently working as Dean Academic Affairs and Associate Professor, ‘World Drama’ at National School of Drama. Giving details Padmashree Balwant Thakur, Director Natrang informed that, this talk show is receiving tremendous response and rave remarks from across the world and is being regularly followed by the top most theatre professionals of international repute. The credit of its success goes to the inspirational and enlightening interactions from the personalities who are being featured in it. This wholesome learning may prove a life changing experience for those who want to genuinely peruse theatre.
Introducing Santanu Bose, senior actor of Natrang, Neeraj Kant informed that he has worked extensively on multicultural issues in collaborative processes. He studied comparative literature at Jadavpur University, Kolkata and started his theatre career with an apprenticeship under legendary actress of Indian Theatre, Tripti Mitra. He further studied design and direction at National School of Drama, New Delhi. In1996, he was awarded Charles Wallace Fellowship and went on to study acting at Drama Studio London. After coming back, he started working as a Lecturer in art direction at Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata and later joined National School of Drama as assistant professor of World Drama. He has also taught as a visiting faculty at many prestigious universities/institutions. Bose received critical acclaim as an actor in the short film Sunder Jeebon, directed by Sandeep Chaterjee. He has done research and sections of dialogue for the Film “Name of a River” by Anup Singh and done Art Direction for the film Reaching Silence by Jahar Kanungo. He has also created over 60 theatre pieces in India, England, Australia, Germany, France and Belgium. In 2000, he founded Monirath Theatre Group, in Calcutta. The German-Indian theatre collaborations with the Goethe Institute Calcutta have been an important part in the work done by his group. Some of the notable works are Sophocles’s Antigone, Macbeth Question, Goethe’s Faust, Widowed Pimp & House of Horrors, Bertolt Brecht and Elizabeth Hauptmann’s Three penny Opera, Mahasweta Devi’s Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa, Raddi Bazaar, Kala Khatta Chuski Kholi Khokha Khopcha, Girish Karnad’s Raktkalyan, Sottor-Uttor and Roddur Wala Goli etc.
In his interaction, Bose told that presently he is doing retrospection of his works to analyse whether he always had a particular vision or it kept on changing with time. He recalled his experience of watching legendary actor ‘Shambhu Mitra’ live on stage, his acting had faith, conviction and dignity that made him decide to do theatre forever. During his formative training in theatre under ‘Tripti Mitra’ he learned many unforgettable and life changing lessons. Discipline, truth, compassion, dedication were the hallmark of his training there. Emotionally recalling his learnings from his guru, he stated that the following lines taught by her have changed his perception of looking at the world, ‘Those who tell lie, can’t do theatre’, ‘If you feed a hungry person for a day, it is much important than doing theatre for whole life’, ‘Listen to your inner voice and don’t get swayed by the feedback of audience’, ‘An actor must know how to hide his own pain’. He proudly asserted to be a part of such tradition. Honestly admitting that Theatre doesn’t need me, I need it, Bose mentioned that my training does not allow me to do instant theatre as it will embarrass you one day. Theatre requires ‘Sadhna’, which is rarely seen these days. Quoting an example of Shakespeare, where he kept on doing theatre even after facing many problems during those times, he narrated how people did meaningful theatre even after challenging obstacles, they do it because it is their call to do theatre. Regarding experimental theatre, he said that it requires more time as you are not certain about the outcome. He also advocated doing theatre in your own style which touches the local aspirations, ‘the more local you are, the more universal you become’ thus I always aspire to do plays for the audience of my country, it will automatically become relevant for the world audience. The more truthful and honest we are, the more global we become, the more we try to persuade people with our fake work, the less relevant we appear. Answering the questions of the audience, he very interestingly stated that the play primarily belongs to the actor, director gives his/her observations to make it better. Actor is the central creator of a play, a director is one who arranges things like a coordinator/contractor. Director could become an architect with his/her vision but these days most directors have limited themselves to mere contractors which is not appreciable. Those who are coordinating this mega online event include Anil Tickoo, Neeraj Kant, Suresh Kumar, Sanjeev Gupta, Vikrant Sharma, Sumeet Sharma, Aarushi Thakur Rana, Rahul Singh, Mohd. Yaseen and Gauri Thakur.
