CELEBRATING EMOTIONS is the password to the 10th edition of Odeon theatre festival in Kolkata. Having sprouted in 2000, the most popular theatre fest on the city’s cultural calendar has, over the years, expanded in length, width and depth.

The curtain is all set to rise on the Vodafone Odeon’s decade-old stage saga that begins on November 27 and will continue till December 5. Delighting the theatre lovers will be Kuch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai (Hindi) by Feroz Abbas Khan, featuring Anupam Kher, and Tina Johnson’s Out of Bounds, featuring Rajesh Gopie. Besides, seven prominent city-based theatre group productions have been roped in. True to its tradition, Odeon this year has brought on board an eclectic ensemble of English, Bengali and Hindi plays, staged across Kolkata. Apart from the contemporary plays, the festival will exhibit five specially selected plays from the widely celebrated texts of Rabindranath Tagore to commemorate his ongoing 150th birth anniversary.
This year, the Odeon gong will be struck with the first act of Anupam Kher’s Kuch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai, directed and designed by Feroz Abbas Khan (of Gandhi, My Father fame). The play is an autobiography of the actor adapted for stage for the first time. The play features the Saaransh actor recounting his life, his prolonged stretches of struggles, his bouts of joys and bursts of tears. It is an enlightening piece that reveres life and reaches out to all with utmost honesty and unsullied candour.
The second Mumbai production is Tina Johnson’s Out of Bounds, which is set in South Africa in the backdrop of apartheid. Written and scripted by the critically acclaimed Durban-based playwright, actor and producer Rajesh Gopie, this issue-based social play narrates the story of Lal, an Indian boy. Out of Bounds is not merely an enactment about the Indians settled in South Africa, but is also about every single individual who has questioned himself, about his origin: Who is he and where does he belong to?
Subsequently, there are two Bandage productions directed by popular actor-anchor Mir A. Ali which includes a multilingual and an English play. The last five plays of the festive oeuvre on Tagore’s works encompass Mayar Khela, Chandalika, Arup Ratan, Gora and Raja. Conversing about his involvement in the project, Sujoy Prosad Chatterjee, creative director, says: “I’m supervising the regional fare of plays and also collaborating with Mir in one of his plays.” In his discussion, he mentions that the famous funny man Mir has directed two ventures such as Sabse Bara Nautanki Baaz, which will be staged on November 29 at Kund City Centre and a complete English production, This is not Theatre. Ali first shot to national fame as a talented stand-up comedian artiste following his participation in The Great Indian Laughter Challenge. Gifted with his madcap antics, Mir also trebles up as an RJ, an efficient emcee and an equally competent newscaster. “This Is Not Theatre is a spoof on the age-old performing art of theatre. It’s a satirical comedy with a twist. I play the role of a theatre personality who is being interviewed in a chat show, where Mir dons a presenter’s character who to make matters more humorously complicated, speaks with an affected Bengali accent,” says Chatterjee. The show hits the Tolly Club, come November 30 for public viewing.
On December 1, Tagore’s immortal dance-drama Mayar Khela will be performed in a colourful spectacle by Bhawanipur Baikali Association. “This is going to be an unconventional attempt in an operatic format in Bengali,” says noted Rabindrasangeet exponent Pramita Mullick, who’s spearheading the musical venture. The matriarch of the reputed Rangakarmee troupe, Usha Ganguli’s rendition of yet another well-known Tagorean play, Chandalika will be showcased in Hindi at the Vidyamandir on December 2. To usher in the 150th year of the Nobel laureate, an array of his bejewelled creations will be scripted in three different languages ranging from Hindi, English as well as Bengali. For instance, the philosophical play Arup Ratan will be staged in English by the talented team of Jadavpur University Department of English on December 3.
Steered by eminent playwright and theatre director Dr Ananda Lal, the production Arup Ratan offers a salutation to the bard and ushers in his 150th birth anniversary. “It is a spiritual allegory. I teach English plays as an academic course to my students,” says Lal, also a professor of English literature at the well-esteemed Jadavpur University. “I was already very keen to take up this Tagorean subject and stage it for some occasion. In the meantime, Odeon just fell in my kitty and I thought why not perform it here on this platform. I don’t pre-plan the concept note of my plays. It’s a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. I just pick up the pen whenever writing happens to me. So, I really don’t know about my future production but this particular play will continue to be staged till May, next year, wherever we are invited to showcase it,” he confirms. Further elaborating his thoughts on the drama, Lal shares that it is more challenging to envisage a play in its philosophical context. “And I feel that this was the toughest project that I have helmed in my 30-year-long career and experience put together. Given the complex nature of the play’s theme, its long winding speeches, a large-scale musical canvas, manoeuvring an ensemble cast of characters and intertwining lengthy dialogue-infested scenes — well, mounting up this production was indeed a heavy-duty taxing job,” says Lal. “While the original text comprised a bulk of 23 songs, we have tapered down to 20 of them, discarding only three ditties from the rest,” he says. Besides an ample scope for live music with lyrical odes dominating the mood, a string of choreographed dance items has been woven into this colourful production.
Holding the reins of Chandalika — another oft-staged Tagorean text — veteran thespian Usha Ganguli says: “The play is endowed with meaningful messages of peace, humanity, women’s emancipation and blatant protests against class distinction, exploitation, racial oppression and political subjugation.”